Hotels to Housing — November 15, 2023

This fall Clare Housing has started helping people living with HIV and experiencing homelessness transition off the streets quickly thanks to funding from Hennepin County and the hard work of Clare Housing’s Intake Coordinator Amber Poppe. With the help of our collaborative partners at the Indigenous People’s Task Force and Healthcare for the Homeless, clients have successfully moved into hotels temporarily before permanent supportive housing.

As a part of this project, Amber has been doing outreach to build relationships with people residing in encampments in Minneapolis. But “just because I met someone at an encampment doesn’t mean they have their diagnosis blinking over their head,” she says. This is where our partners come in. Amber works with Healthcare for the Homeless and the Indigenous People’s Task Force to help identify people who would be a good fit for Clare Housing and get additional resources for them.

B., the first person Amber moved to a hotel, had experienced homelessness throughout his life. When they first met to do an intake, he was very reserved and quiet, showing very little emotion. But as soon as Amber took him to check into the hotel, he began to light up.

Although Clare Housing is paying for the hotel rooms, they are checked out in the clients’ names and are their responsibility. “Giving them ownership is really cool to see. To be able to offer something that’s truly for you,” Amber says. She describes the emotional experience of seeing a complete 360 in B.’s personality after moving into his hotel room.

Indigenous People’s Task Force (IPTF) has been an important, responsive partner throughout this program. IPTF is dedicated to lifting up the wellness of the Native American community, with culturally based resources rooted in Indigenous ways of knowing and healing available to all persons.

The health disparities that Indigenous people experience in relation to HIV is highly apparent in the statistics with new HIV diagnoses happening at a rate more than twice as high as whites. This is why the HIV programs IPTF offers are so important, which include needle exchange, rapid testing, and PrEP alongside case management. Amber has worked closely with a medical case manager at IPTF who’s referred several people to her that have now moved into hotels. “They’re very mindful of everyone’s roots and that’s extremely important, they don’t judge a book by its cover. They give everybody a chance and believe everyone deserves it.”

The experience of moving J. into her hotel room was particularly poignant for Amber. A new mom with a newborn baby, J. was referred to Clare Housing through IPTF. As a mom herself, Amber felt a sense of connection in seeing J. embrace her new responsibility of making choices for both herself and her child. J. expressed a complex mix of emotions–overwhelmed, anxious, and happy as she moved in. Amber helped watch the baby while J. moved boxes into the room and saw J. smiling because “she knew that I was there not to judge her,” and that she would be able to take her time and be supported in her choices.

Amber has now helped 5 adults living with HIV move into hotels and 2 of those individuals have now transitioned into permanent supportive housing. The other 3 have arranged to transition into other programs. Working in this low-barrier framework has allowed Amber to move people living with HIV into housing much more smoothly than through the traditional Coordinated Entry system. When asked how long clients can stay in a hotel while she works on setting them up with permanent housing, Amber stressed the importance of financial resources, because “the only thing that would end this is lack of funds.”