Janet Williams is the mayor of one of the wealthiest communities in the region. But she knows of a family that spent the summer living in a tent just a few blocks from her home in Savage. She has been told of people living in rented storage units.
Moreover, she adds, when she ran Scott County's libraries, the homeless not only would hang out in them for long stretches -- they would even give out the library's phone number as their own.
"Surprisingly," she says, "homelessness is an issue in Scott County. We need to be more aware of what's happening in our community."
A plan to end homelessness in Scott and Carver counties, and a Nov. 23 event aimed at pulling together all sorts of resources for people who are in that predicament or in danger of it, were topics on Friday for a gathering of civic leaders from across the county.
"More than 1,000 households in Scott County meet the definition of homeless," said Teri Funk of Safe Haven, which operates a homeless shelter near the Shakopee-Prior Lake border. A 2009 survey found, for instance, 152 individuals or families couch-hopping, 101 living in cars or parks, 41 in shelters and 137 facing imminent eviction with no place to go.
The session was a plea for public awareness -- many at risk of homelessness don't know how many resources are available, experts said. But it was also a plea for help on a number of fronts, including affordable housing and the preservation of services as the county and cities head for budget cuts in the weeks to come.
The talk drew expressions of concern, but also a fair number of skeptical questions. Among them:
• County Commissioner Barbara Marschall: "What happens if a person who's probably in need of shelter, but comes with baggage such as gang membership, but once here are here? Without denying the reality of homelessness, are you inviting an expansion of that?"
