Continue the Warmth

Since 1999, Casa Guadalupana has served the immigrant community, offering shelter to Latinx women and families who are homeless, in crisis or temporarily unable to meet their basic needs.  Those marginalized by language, immigration, or cultural barriers find empowerment and discover new ways to stabilize their situation.  In 2008, Casa moved into the former rectory of St. Matthew’s Catholic Church.  In 2019 Casa expanded to provide welcome individuals and families going through the asylum process.

Our mission is:

• to provide welcoming and safe housing in support of individuals going through the asylum process and their efforts to re-build lives that have disrupted,
• to walk with individuals and families during a time of transition and vulnerability, with the idea to intentionally avoid their being exploited for their labor and to get through this period without building up a large debt to cover housing and the basic necessities of life in the United States,
• to achieve stability, reduce anxiety, and launch onto active pursuit of each individual’s life plan, whether it is a university education, building a business, learning a trade, or making a contribution to our community in another way.

Since February 1, 2019, Casa has welcomed twelve individuals – 11 adults and 1 child. Six have relocated to the Twin Cities from East Africa – Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda; four from Central/South America and the Caribbean – Columbia, Cuba and Honduras; one from the Middle East - Oman.  Five of the residents have professional degrees or will soon have complete university degrees in mechanical engineering, veterinarian science, cyber security, computer technology, and nursing.

There are currently eight adults and one child living at the home.   

What has Casa and the Residents accomplished over the last two years?

• helped twelve individuals out of homelessness and unstable housing situations that were taking a large percentage of their income or otherwise were not sustainable,
• through a variety of sources, including a very active volunteer community, insured that all residents have nutritional food daily,
• connected the residents with medical services and job search services,
• reduced anxiety of residents and improved everyone’s focus on the next steps regarding immediate work, their educational degree programs, and securing of permanent housing,
• all adult residents have received their work permits, with five currently having steady employment, one with past employment and currently transitioning to jobs in their career field, and one currently medically unable to work,
• access to needed medical and dental services for all residents,
• access to additional education services for their children,
• four residents enrolled in university classes and making progress toward degrees in mechanical engineering, veterinarian degree and license, licensed nursing assistance, computer technology,
• one resident returning to school in 2021 to finish her education in computers/cyber security,
• two projected university graduation ceremonies by spring 2022,
• the creation of a revolving loan fund to spread out the cost of the fee for applications for green cards.  A related benefit of this fund is that individuals who take advantage of the loan can utilize their monthly payments to build up a credit history,
• providing guidance on a wide variety of issues from the process to secure driving lessons and obtain a driver’s license, assist with filing tax returns, tips on how to search for permanent housing, explaining how the insurance system works, explaining how the social security system works, and learning about how to invest and grow their income,
• even though the next asylum hearings for individuals not in detention, as currently on pause due to Covid-19, all residents have attorneys to help them progress through the multiple steps of that process.