Brooks: Homeless and elderly a horrible mix, with signs it's increasing in Minnesota

It was a bitterly cold night in Minneapolis. Thomas Norman Jr. and his wife, Yolanda, sat in a park across from Target Field, trying to catch a few hours of sleep.

This wasn't how they expected to spend their golden years.

They had a home once, until they lost their apartment and everything inside to a flood. They'd had jobs, until age and ill health caught up to them. Thomas, 61, had once worked as a security guard. Now he was the one store security trailed through the store, eyes on the bag he carried that held everything he owned.

"After a couple of nights in the park — we're not young — I was in pain," he said. "I can laugh about it now, but back then, it seemed like the days never end."

The nights were cold. The days were long and sometimes they were so hungry, "we tried to fill up on water," he said. Thomas was suffering from kidney disease, COPD and arthritis. Yolanda, 55, was nearly blind after eye surgery.

"You never, in a million years, think something like that is going to happen to you."

They had joined the fastest-growing homeless population in Minnesota — our elders.

Thomas can smile when he tells his story because he's home now, in a St. Paul apartment they moved into just in time for Yolanda to cook Christmas dinner in their kitchen for their new neighbors.

They found help and housing through the Homeless Elders Program at Catholic Charities Twin Cities — thanks to the Minnesota lawmakers who increased the program's funding two years ago.

"I'll tell you something," Thomas said. "Catholic Charities saved my life. They really did."

Those were hard, painful months. He saw the unkind looks people gave them on the streets. He heard the names they called him.

He's sharing his story now, because the homeless elder program that helped him is up for debate at the Legislature. He wants lawmakers to know how much that funding has meant to his family.

"I'm telling you, I feel like I won the lottery," he said. "To be able to take a shower again when you want? To be able to sleep? The first two days, I don't think we came out of the apartment."

This is a budget year at the Legislature. Lawmakers are hammering out the details of the estimated $66 billion it will take to keep the state running for the next two years.

Catholic Charities is hoping there's room in that budget for the state to continue $1.5 million in extra support for its Homeless Elders Program.

Every three years or so, Wilder Research attempts to count every unhoused person in the state in the span of a single day. The last Minnesota Homeless Study found an encouraging decrease in homelessness. There were fewer homeless children and parents. There were fewer homeless youths.

There was only one age group that saw an increase in homelessness: Minnesotans 55 and older.

It was breakfast time at the Catholic Charities Dorothy Day Place campus in St. Paul. The line of people waiting to eat stretched out the door.

"We see people coming in in walkers and wheelchairs, that is not uncommon," said Melea Blanchard, manager of Catholic Charities' Homeless Elders Program, which serves people ages 60 and older. "And it's just hard to see them have to spend time in emergency shelter at all, much less waiting months and months for an opportunity."

That wait for help has shortened considerably — from three months to closer to three weeks — with the help of the extra funding from the state. The funds the program received in 2023 allowed it to double its staff to nine, which helped double the number of seniors who found housing.

Blanchard and her team have found homes for nearly 300 seniors over the past two years. They helped people off the streets who had cancer and dementia. They helped people off the streets who had doctorates. They helped people who had no one else to turn to in the world. The oldest person to turn to the program was 92.

"I think this situation can happen to anyone," said Blanchard, whose case workers help with everything from Social Security paperwork to emergency health care. "We have all kinds of people from all walks of life come through our doors. There's no one reason … and it's not through any fault of their own. It's more common than you would realize."

Last year, the program housed 70% of the seniors waiting for help.

Minnesota may be facing a budget deficit in the near future. But as lawmakers weigh what we can and cannot afford, case workers at Catholic Charities hope they find room in their hearts and budgets for the oldest and frailest among us.

"We had one gentleman who was living in his vehicle with his dog. Such a sweet guy," Blanchard said. "Within a few months, we got him moved into a subsidized senior apartment. The very next month, he needed heart surgery. He had been putting that off. ... [Now] he's doing so well."

This can be hard, heartbreaking work. "It makes it all worth it," Blanchard said, "to see those successes."