A housing buddy system

Call it the college student approach to housing the homeless: Find them roommates.

Dakota County, with the help of a grant from the St. Paul Foundation, is launching a "housing matchmaker" program that will link homeless in the county with one another as roommates in apartments run by willing landlords.

No one has yet been placed, but the county hopes to reach 96 homeless people in the next year. The program is believed to be the first of its kind in the state.

It is part of an effort by Dakota County, and an increased push by the St. Paul Foundation, to help the increasing number of people in need of shelter, food and other necessities amid the recession.

"With the downturn in the economy, there's a dramatic increase in people whose housing situations are at risk," said John Couchman, vice president of grants and program at the St. Paul Foundation.

Dennis Price, supervisor of housing and resource development for the county's social services department, said that there are 478 homeless people in Dakota County, a 32 percent increase since 2007. And that number doesn't include the 162 households that are doubled up or couch-hopping.

"Part of our difficulty is that often, social services clients lack social skills and independent living skills," Price said. "They're the kind of folks who, without support and advocacy, the landlords would turn down."

Paying the rent is up to the residents, likely two single people who have been matched and placed based in part on where they want to live.

According to an annual rental market survey conducted by the Dakota County Community Development Agency, the average two-bedroom apartment goes for $928 a month. Splitting that cost with a roommate is cheaper than the $762 average monthly rent of a one-bedroom apartment.

The county will screen interested people, eliminating those who have chemical dependency problems and those who are a danger to themselves or others.

"We will be taking very careful measures to ensure the safety of the participants," Price said.

Liz Kuoppala, interim executive director of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, said Dakota County's roommate program sounds like a creative solution at a time when homelessness is increasing and money to combat it is decreasing. And a successful roommate program would cut through some of the isolation that many homeless people feel.