Mayor Larson addressses homelessness concerns

Duluth Mayor Emily Larson addressed ongoing homelessness concerns in the city during the quarterly Downtown Perk Breakfast meeting in Duluth Tuesday morning.

“We are seeing, like many communities, a huge increase in people who are not currently competitive in a market economy. Many of the people are seeing an increase in homelessness,” explained Mayor Larson. “These are our people these are not people who have moved here from other places. Our warming center is at capacity on the nights when it is open. That’s about 60 people.”

Mayor Larson went on to say that the city will be using some of the city’s federal funds towards a new, larger, and permanent warming center in Lincoln Park.

Other projects were also highlighted during the meeting.

“We are going to be using $19 million from our ARP funds, our American Rescue Plan funds, to address housing.” Mayor Larson said. “We also are moving forward with an annual $600,000 allocation to the Human Development Center to increase outreach workers on the street to help address the chemical and mental health underlying issues that we are seeing with people who are living unsheltered or who are homeless.”