Purpose of MESH
In May of 2000 a formerly homeless man, Greg Horan, convened the first meeting of Metro-wide Engagement for Shelter & Housing (MESH).  Greg had experienced firsthand the labyrinthine difficulty in navigating shelter and service policies from one county to the next.  For a person facing homelessness, county boundaries are abstract and meaningless.  People who are homeless often move in and out of counties, many perhaps working in one county and seeking shelter in another.  County residency rules, on the other hand, often prohibit services and shelter beds based solely on an individual’s county of origin.  As co-chair of the St. Paul Coalition for the Homeless and a board member of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless, Mr. Horan recognized that in order to address the systemic causes of homelessness, dialogue and planning across jurisdictional lines would need to become a primary priority.

MESH’s mission is to form partnerships to build metro-wide solutions that will end homelessness and increase affordable housing choices.

Support MESH

Click here to donate and support our critical work

MESH Training
MESH works with a variety of community partners to present homelessness trainings.  Homelessness 101 is an in-depth 2 day training aimed at providing a broad overview of homelessness in the Twin Cities.  Homelessness 201 is a 2 hour training focused on a particular homelessness topic.

Click here for more information about upcoming Homelessness 101 trainings.
Click here for upcoming Homelessness 201 trainings.

Retooling Minnesota’s Homeless Response System
In October of 2011 MESH collaborated with Minnesota Housing and the Minnesota Department of Human Services to bring Iian de Jong “Retooling Minnesota’s Homeless Response System” Click here for documents from our Retooling Minnesota Training