When Bemidji leaders announced they would be moving occupants of the 60-year-old downtown federal offices to the city's northwest side, they assumed the current landmark had but one fate: Demolition. Tuleah Palmer envisioned something else: a vibrant, redeveloped four-story building with transitional housing and commercial space for an American Indian artists' marketplace and interpretive center. It's just one example of Palmer's visionary leadership as executive director of the Bemidji-based Northwest Indian Community Development Center. In November, her nonprofit won a $500,000 Bush Prize for community innovation. Palmer talks about good timing, next steps and what's even better than hope.
Q: The timing of your Bush Prize seems perfect. You were driven to create permanent supportive housing and now you have money and maybe even the building in which to make it a reality.
A: The timing was interesting. It was easy to figure out how to use that [Bush] money. Homelessness is a crisis in Bemidji. We still have to go through a purchasing process for the federal building, with an application due Jan. 5; we'll know if we got it in March. But whether or not we get the federal building, we will move forward with housing. It is the root cause of many disparities.
Q: When might the building be ready and who will most likely occupy the space?
A: I would say the end of 2020 or the summer of 2021. One of the greatest needs is housing for women coming home from incarceration. We surveyed 40 women we serve and all 40 said they can't find housing. If you can't find housing, you can't move forward for yourself or your children. If we get the federal building, we'll have three floors of redeveloped apartments that are transitional and supportive.
Q: What other challenges keep you up at night?
A: Beltrami County has the highest out-of-home [foster care] placement rate in the United States. Our juvenile incarceration rates are the most disproportionate as well. While we are dealing with the disappearance of our Native women and children, disproportionate suicide rates and addiction, we are also dealing with a system that isn't ours and doesn't understand us and doesn't have to.
Q: That is perhaps why you are adamant that, to break these devastating cycles, we must change the current negatively focused narrative.