Minneapolis' Skyway Senior Center faces funding drought

Five days a week, 79-year-old Eve Carlin takes the bus from her St. Louis Park apartment to downtown Minneapolis, winds through a skyway maze of shops and office workers and finds her way to the spot she's come to think of as a second home.

The Skyway Senior Center, a quiet corner of the skyway that's open to anybody over 50, welcomes her with coffee, cookies and conversation. Each day, she's one of about 75 people who take advantage of the center's open-door policy — a diverse group that ranges from downtown condo dwellers to low-income and even chronically homeless seniors.

But if the center doesn't find a new source of funding — and quick — Carlin and the rest of the facility's visitors could soon have to go elsewhere. During its 15-year history, the center's finances had been overseen by the city of Minneapolis, but all of its funds came through private organizations: Target, UCare, and Augustana Care, among others. At the moment, however, the center has found itself without a financial backer, leaving the center scrambling to keep the doors open.

Though the center receives some smaller donations through the Friends of the Skyway Senior Center, a nonprofit group founded to support it, there is currently has no long-term funding agreement with another organization. A recent $10,000 donation from the Hennepin County Medical Center will pay the bills through the end of 2016. But after that, the future is uncertain.

"We're looking under every rock to see how we can sustain the center," said Patty Bowler, the director of policy and community programs with the Minneapolis Health Department.

The center, which runs on a budget of about $186,000 per year, takes up a relatively small space. There's a larger main room, where visitors can gather around tables to read the newspaper or chat over coffee, a few stocked bookshelves, and computers and phones that are open for public use.

A smaller room just off the check-in desk is a multipurpose area. On a recent Thursday, it was used for a Zumba exercise class — with Bobby Darin's "Splish Splash" blaring on the stereo — before the furniture was quickly rearranged for a board meeting.

Despite the small staff and space, the facility provides a full slate of services, from yoga classes to Friday night movie offerings to lectures on politics and current events. On the first Tuesday of every month, there's cake and a party for anyone celebrating a birthday. All offerings are open to seniors of all backgrounds, and all that's asked is that they sign in at the front desk.

Sarah Goodnough, the center's director, said it attracts a wide range of visitors, but is particularly vital to those with small incomes and limited social outlets. Of those visitors who share their demographic information with the shelter, nearly 56 percent live on incomes of less than $15,000 per year.

"We have homeless folks, we have people who are in shelters, but we also have apartment dwellers in the downtown area, and wealthier condo dwellers," she said. "It's really economically and culturally diverse, and there's not a lot of places like that."

In her years at the center, Goodnough said she's had a front-row seat for lessons and heartfelt conversations about poverty, race and loneliness. She's heard more than a few visitors talk about how they've gone years without seeing their children.

Carlin, who was wearing a red T-shirt emblazoned with sparkly bold letters reading: "HAPPY," said she grew up in New York City but came to the Twin Cities looking for a safer place to live. Retired after years working as a secretary, she now comes to the center looking for a place to connect.

"It's a beautiful place to come to enjoy others who are around your age," he said. "It's a peaceful, quiet and familiar place to help you with your needs in your daily life."

Still, the funding dilemma puts the city in a tough spot. Council Member Lisa Goodman, who formerly served on the center's board, said it was always clear that the facility would not be an operation run with public money. She said the city shouldn't be in the business funding nonprofit groups, unless there is a dedicated pot of money — and an open application process that would allow any organization to have a shot at a piece of it.

"I don't know that I want to pick winners and losers," she said. "There are many organizations that serve seniors admirably."