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“Together we are beginning a good life”
The American Indian
Community Housing Organization (AICHO), purchased the
historic YWCA building in downtown Duluth in June 2008. When
construction is complete, the building will consist of 29
units of permanent supportive housing for families and
Duluth’s first American Indian Center.
The 29 housing units consist of four efficiency, five
1-bedroom, eleven 2-bedroom, and nine 3-bedroom homes. The
units will target those individuals and families who are
homeless or who are precariously housed and at or below 50%
of the AMI.
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Specifically:
• 75% of the units will serve families with
children
• 5 units will target survivors of domestic
violence leaving emergency shelters who would otherwise face homelessness or return to an abusive relationship
• 15 units will serve long term homeless
families and individuals
• 6 units will target elders or aged persons. |
A variety of supportive
services will be offered to the residents living at Gimaajii;
however, participation in those services will not be a
requirement of housing. Services offered will include case
management, job training, domestic violence support groups,
and access to medical advocacy.
The American Indian Center (AIC) will include office and
community meeting spaces, an art gallery, a gymnasium, and
the HOPE clinic staffed by the students from the University
of Minnesota, Duluth School of Medicine.
Gimaajii’s supporters include the Corporation for Supportive
Housing (CSH), Duluth LISC, the Grand Portage Band of Ojibwe,
the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, the Shakopee
Mdwewakanton Sioux Community, Robert and Linda Powless, the
Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, the Greater Minnesota
Housing Fund, the City of Duluth, Federal Home Loan Bank of
Des Moines, the National Trust Loan Fund and the John S. and
James L. Knight Foundation, the Home Depot Foundation, the
Otto Bremer Foundation, the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation, and
the Minnesota Tribal Governments Foundation. The total
project cost is approximately $8 million dollars and
construction began in December 2010.
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