Creating a Stronger Financial Future
Everyone deserves the opportunity to earn a living that can sustain a family and build security for future generations. That's why we're helping hard working families in Southeast Minnesota make ends meet while connecting them with the education, financial tools, and opportunities to empower them to create a better, more sustainable future for themselves and their loved ones.
United Way is working alongside our partners and community to close the gap between financial hardship and financial stability so that every family, in every ZIP code, has an equal opportunity to thrive.
1 in 3
households in Olmsted County are unable to meet their basic needs.
At least 8%
of Olmsted County children live in poverty.
Over 600
people are experiencing homelessness in Southeast Minnesota on any given night.
What We Do
United Way is working to help every person in Southeast Minnesota to get on a path toward financial security. This includes homelessness prevention, connecting people with affordable housing, tax assistance services, and financial education and resources.
We invest in local nonprofit programs that increase housing stability to break cycles of poverty and make a better community for us all. Together, we are working to bring an end to inequity in Southeast Minnesota and help people reach their potential. Without systems in place that support people to access and maintain safe, stable, and affordable housing, families struggle day after day to manage finances, access adequate nutrition, and meet school and work obligations.
Current Housing Stability Funded Partners
Housing Stability Fund
The Housing Stability Fund helps domestic violence survivors secure and retain safe, affordable housing. The Fund helps survivors with move-in costs, such as first-month rent, damage deposits, and utility costs. Survivors who already have housing get assistance avoiding eviction by receiving support for overdue rent payments and utility expenses.
Partner: Women’s Shelter and Support Center
Access Home
Access Home is a rapid re-housing program that serves homeless individuals and families. The program provides help with housing search and placement, rental application fees and deposits, and an ongoing rent subsidy that gradually diminishes as household income and independence increases. As the program ends, people remain in their current home where they can now independently pay rent.
Partner: The Salvation Army
Eviction Prevention Program
The Eviction Prevention Program clinic is the only civic legal aid resource providing legal representation for low-income tenants facing eviction in Olmsted County. Staff attorneys help tenants defend their eviction cases by negotiating settlements, taking cases to trial, and seeking expungements. With legal representation, many tenants are able to maintain stable housing. Through expungements, the program helps tenants avoid a record of eviction that would make it more difficult to obtain housing in the future.
Partner: Legal Assistance of Olmsted County
Shelter Prevention and Diversion
Shelter Prevention and Diversion prevents families from needing to access emergency shelter by providing services to help families maintain their housing when they are at imminent risk of becoming homeless or avoiding a shelter stay when a family has already lost their housing. Prevention services can include paying delinquent rent or utilities, helping with vehicle repairs so they can continue to work, assisting with childcare, or other interventions that help to stabilize the family. Diversion services include making down payments, security deposits, or utility payments so families can secure stable housing in lieu of accessing Family Promise’s emergency shelter services.
Partner: Family Promise Rochester
United Way partners with 125 Live and Salvation Army for the VITA Program to provide free tax preparation services for taxpayers in Olmsted and Dodge Counties. United Way's 211 serves as the appointment scheduling hub.
Thousands of low-income households access this necessary service for free, improving access to tax credits and bringing dollars back into our community in the form of tax refunds.
ALICE is an acronym for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed. ALICE households earn above the Federal Poverty Level but are unable to afford the basics -- including housing, child care, food, transportation, health care, and technology -- in the communities where they live. Unlike the Federal Poverty Line and Consumer Price Index, ALICE data are localized to each community and based on essentials that low-income households prioritize.
33% of households in Olmsted County are below the ALICE threshold and are unable to meet their basic needs. When our ALICE neighbors move from merely surviving to thriving, our entire community wins.
Sources
U.S. Census Bureau. (2022). Poverty Status in the Past 12 Months. American Community Survey, ACS 5-Year Estimates Subject Tables, Table S1701.
Wilder Research. (2024). 2023 Minnesota Homeless Study, Southeast Minnesota Counts.