BENA — The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Bena Homeless Shelter on Monday, Sept. 15.
The shelter will have 54 beds for families and two for individuals. The current Lyman "Dede" Losh Transitional Home was remodeled this year to increase family capacity, but the 26-bed facility is almost always full.
“We’re kind of squeezed in. Space is very limited," said Kenneth Thompson, the band’s homeless services program manager. “And if we are full, we have to kind of eat in shifts, you know? ‘Cause our dining room isn’t big enough to accommodate 30 people at once.”
The new facility will also include classroom space, a children's playroom and a dedicated visitation space.
"A lot of the folks that we serve, even basic life skills, they're lacking," Thompson said, sharing examples like cooking, cleaning and financial literacy. "And so we were able to provide a space and a new facility to teach them about that."
He said it's rare for the Bena shelter to get individuals looking for overnight emergency shelter; Lyman Losh is primarily a family shelter.
The waiting list for tribal housing is long, said Michael Reyes, Leech Lake Housing Board secretary and a community planner for the band.
"A lot of people don't think they're homeless because they live with family. A lot of that's culturally, we take our family in," Reyes said. "But then when stuff happens or families lose a home or whatever, there has to be a place for them to go."
A $3.8 million grant from the Minnesota Office of Economic Opportunity will cover 90% of the project costs.
The grant was highly competitive. Reyes said the shelter was one of a handful of projects selected from hundreds of applicants.
Monday’s ceremony wasn’t the first on the project site. The band’s spiritual adviser blessed the ground last year before the site clearing.
Reyes estimates the shelter will open next August.
"After everything is done, the building is built and everything, they'll do one more ceremony," he said, "where they'll come back in and they’ll bless inside the building, they'll bless the grounds again, and then they’ll give the building an Anishinaabe name.”
