So whatever happened with the City of Minneapolis and its “Gap Funds” for housing insecure families?

Recall: There was a big to-do about it in late March/Early April.

Well, I’ll tell you what’s happened, so far and how it’s compared to St. Paul’s “Bridge Fund”

THREAD 1/12

First a brief refresher:
-Mpls and St. Paul both put together packages to support families and businesses hurt by COVID

-St. Paul created a fund for families for $1000 if they lived in the city and had a child 18 or under

Mpls…well, check the graphic from @EdAlliesMN
(2/12)

St. Paul:
-AMI 40% or less, family with one minor in St. Paul
~5200 eligible families applied
-Funds to support 1230 families ($1000 each)
-Included robust fundraising option (which you can still donate to, btw)

https://www.givemn.org/story/Kk597g 

https://www.startribune.com/more-st-paul-families-businesses-will-get-bridge-fund-grants/569865212/
(3/12)

Mpls:
~6500 eligible families applied
-74% qualified for EHA (4,810)
-26% qualified for SHSS (1,690)
-Funds available for 1500 families
-Fundraising available, sorta (more on that later)
(4/12)
http://minneapolismn.gov/Coronavirus/gap-funding

Remember though that EHA had $2 million and SHSS had $1 million.

That matters here because 1,690 families are able to split the SHSS funds and 4,810 families split EHA funds.

WARNING, 5th GRADE MATH COMING YOUR WAY!
(5/12)

EHA:

$2 million / 4,810 = $415.80

SHSS:

$1 million / 1,690 = $591.71

BUT, that's not how MPLS is handing out the money, they are going to help 1500 families randomly selected btwn the two programs.

Now which program would be more advantageous to be part of? Hmmm...
(6/12)

MPLS doesn't have a ton of info about how many families in each program will get $ and unlike St. Paul, they aren't giving out flat amounts, but rather giving money based on the housing bill by the lottery winning families.

There are pros and cons to that approach.
(7/12)

We know:
-EHA = $2 million
-SHSS = $1 million
-1,500 families total will be helped

*So let's make a reasonable assumption*

EHA = 1,000 families helped
SHSS = 500 families helped
(8/12)

With those assumptions

EHA

1000/4810 ~ 21% of eligible families will be picked

SHSS

500/1690 ~ 30% of elibilge families will be picked

What if all families in need had an equal chance of being selected?
(9/12)

Community advocates in Minneapolis wanted ONE program to support families regardless of school. Here's what that would have looked like:

$3 million/6500 = $461

1500/6500 ~ 23% of families would be picked
(10/12)

Worse odds for the smaller SHSS group, but fairer odds for EHA.

The unknowns (that ideally a local reporter would look into once funds are passed out):

-How many families at 30% AMI and lower were given funds?
-How many SHSS families at 30-50% AMI were given funds?
-What was the average amount given to families in both programs?
(11/12)

Last thing, regarding MPLS and fundraising:

-There's a link to tell the city you are interested in donating to its gap funds
-On April 20th I got the attached response from the city
-A month later, there's been NO follow up about donating
-So...?
(12/12)

Anyway, this thread is dedicated to @will__marshall

Maybe in another month we'll have more complete data so we can make some conclusions on which approach was better...