An unidentified individual affiliated with a metro-area church sought information on public funds for the purpose of retrofitting portions of the church’s congregational space to temporarily house “asylum seekers,” according to redacted emails obtained in a data request.
In a November 2023 email chain, the unknown individual reached out to the City of Minneapolis to inquire about “possible grants or funding for faith communities such as ours, seeking to explore the possibility of retrofitting some of our congregation’s space to provide temporary housing for asylum seekers.”
The email was obtained via a data request to Hennepin County. In accordance with Minnesota law, certain identifying information is redacted from publicly requested data.
The church-affiliated sender of the email told the City of Minneapolis that “asylum seekers” have been temporarily housed in “various congregational members homes, in apartments, and for the past several years in a Bloomington hotel.” The email sender indicated that he (or she) had assisted in housing these “asylum seekers.”
The individual further said that a member of the church’s council read something about “grants or some type of funding being available to faith communities to establish housing for immigrants on their premises.” In turn, the email sender reached out to inquire about the existence of such funds or grants.
Upon receiving the email, a staffer with the City of Minneapolis reached out to a Hennepin County official to inquire about how to respond. Discussing the subject amongst themselves, the government staffers said they were not aware of any funding for the purposes specified by the email sender.
One Hennepin County official told his fellow government employees that the church “may want to keep an eye” on funding opportunities offered through the Minneapolis Department of Human Services.
In the chain of messages, one email from a Hennepin County employee contained several attached images. However, those images were not obtained in Alpha News’ data request. Given that those images could provide more information about the situation, Alpha News has requested those attachments. As of publication time, Hennepin County had not responded to the request.
Alpha News reported in February that Hennepin County was paying metro-area hotels to house migrants.
Luke Sprinkel
Luke Sprinkel previously worked as a Legislative Assistant at the Minnesota House of Representatives. He grew up as a Missionary Kid (MK) living in England, Thailand, Tanzania, and the Middle East. Luke graduated from Regent University in 2018.
