Thank you for visiting the Minneapolis/Hennepin County Project Homeless Connect web site. Project Homeless Connect, based on a nationally implemented model, is designed as a one-stop shop of services for people experiencing homelessness.

On April 28th 2008, Minneapolis and Hennepin County’s Office to End Homelessness hosted its fifth Project Homeless Connect at the Minneapolis convention center. This was by far the largest and best organized event to date, serving over 2800 individuals with the help of over 1300 volunteers and 350 service providers. Project Homeless Connect turned 145,000 square feet at the Minneapolis Convention Center into a one-stop service delivery center, with services ranging from ID services, to haircuts, to dental care, to on-site individualized housing referrals. Each guest was partnered with a volunteer to identify what specific service need that person needed, and then the partners were encouraged to explore the variety of services available, meet with service providers, eat lunch, and share the day with each other. Volunteers and guests both reported having a great day, being made better by the partnership of each other. Below is a brief list of some of our accomplishments at Minneapolis’ Project Homeless Connect 5:

• 2888 individuals served by more than 1300 volunteers
• 523 singles and 167 families received individualized housing triage, and more than 150 housing applications were completed
• Over 425 received employment information and applications, or were enrolled in employment programs
• 148 enrolled or received information on Adult Basic Education or GED testing
• 295 people received legal services, including civil, criminal, family and housing cases
• 239 received assistance on setting up benefits
• 42 veterans received vet specific services
• 126 youth received information on case management and programming
• 719 pairs of shoes were given out (nearly $19,000 worth)
• Over 350 people received free State IDs and Birth certificates
• Over 500 people received a free haircut
• 67 signed up for library cards
• 103 set up free Voicemail accounts
• 341 people received dental assessments, 136 x-rays were taken, and 24 received free dentures
• 164 received primary medical care
• 340 received reading glasses, 60 received prescription glasses
• 85 people received chiropractic services, 40 received chair massages

Guests at Project Homeless Connect #2
share a smile after winning a
new bike in the lottery.
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