On November 15, we welcome Monica Nilsson, Executive Director of Haven Housing, a 40-year-old program in North Minneapolis that provides women in crisis or transition with a stable environment and the opportunity to explore options for their future.

As a leader in program development, advocacy, and collaboration-building, Nilsson has partnered with those facing homelessness to bring respite, healing and advocacy on issues of housing, homelessness, and poverty. Believing in the power of storytelling and human connection to bring change, she works to ensure that people have a place to call home.

Nilsson has a long career in helping those homeless in Minnesota.  She is the recipient of the two statewide awards of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless: the Distinguished Service Award and the Outstanding Organizer Award.

Early in her career, she served as Shelter Director at Simpson Housing Services in Minneapolis, opening a shelter for women in 1999, followed by work with homeless or sex-trafficked youth at The Bridge for Youth. She also partnered with long-term homeless programs on the Iron Range and northern MN reservations in her work at Hearth Connection. She moved on to develop what is now the largest street outreach team for adults in the state at St. Stephen’s Human Services and later directed a Community Engagement Program that included zAmya Theater and an education program called A Day in the Life.

In recent years, Nilsson helped develop a shelter for single adults and youth in Dakota County and worked to educate Minnesota’s health plans on senior citizen homelessness. In 2020, she developed the largest project that resulted from Governor Walz’s Minnesota Winter Homeless Initiative, a partnership supported by the Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation to ensure that unsheltered individuals had safe respite overnight. In recent months, as the COVID-19 crisis hit, Monica developed and led two 40 bed shelters at neighboring Elim Church and Strong Tower Parish in northeast Minneapolis. According to Nilsson, “I am passionate about people having a place to safely sleep.”

The forum will be held on the ZOOM platform. Please contact the church office to get the link to participate.