The Ending Student Homelessness Podcast Series brings together a variety of leaders committed to understanding and addressing the issue of homelessness, and student homelessness. Homelessness is complex and challenging, and its demise demands the hands, hearts, and minds of many. Each episode of this series interrogates nuances and patterns of homelessness and offer insights from thought leaders in this field. Family and youth homelessness frequently intersect with child welfare and child welfare professionals can learn from the variety of housing professionals in these interviews.

Transcript Coming Soon

This episode features four professionals working together to address homelessness in Northwestern, Minnesota.

  • Brandi Wilkie is the Rental Assistance Specialist for Clay County HRA
  • Amy Riccio is the Transitional Student Support and Homeless Liasion for Moorhead School District
  • Sierra Neeland-Martinez is the Youth Self-Sufficiency Advocate for Lakes and Prairies Community Action
  • Chandra Calixte is the Family Case Manager for Churches United Micah’s Mission

Take a listen to this two-part episode where the group of professionals is in conversation about challenges and opportunities to address homelessness within their respective roles.

Transcript Coming Soon

This episode features four professionals working together to address homelessness in Northwestern, Minnesota.

  • Brandi Wilkie is the Rental Assistance Specialist for Clay County HRA
  • Amy Riccio is the Transitional Student Support and Homeless Liasion for Moorhead School District
  • Sierra Neeland-Martinez is the Youth Self-Sufficiency Advocate for Lakes and Prairies Community Action
  • Chandra Calixte is the Family Case Manager for Churches United Micah’s Mission

Take a listen to this two-part episode where the group of professionals is in conversation about challenges and opportunities to address homelessness within their respective roles.

Transcript Coming Soon

Charlotte Kinzley is the Homeless/Highly Mobile Manager for Minneapolis Public Schools where she supports students and families experiencing homelessness. Over the past 20 years she has developed programming and initiatives in family shelters and supportive housing facilities in Minneapolis. Her focus in this work has been to support the development of young people and to advocate for the importance of stable housing for all families. She currently serves as co-chair of the Hennepin County Family Coordinated Entry Leadership Committee and is a member of the Operations Board for Hennepin County’s Continuum of Care. She helps coordinate the Stable Homes Stable Schools initiative which includes a recent expansion through a Homework Starts with Home grant.

Download Transcript

Ending Family Homelesssness

Marybeth (Beth) Shinn is a Cornelius Vanderbilt professor at Vanderbilt University who studies how to prevent and end homelessness. She was co-principal investigator of the 12-site Family Options experiment examining approaches to ending family homelessness, the evaluator for the initial study of the Pathways Housing First program in New York City, and the developer of a model used by that city to target its homelessness prevention services. Her 2020 book with Jill Khadduri, In the midst of plenty: Homelessness and what to do about it (Wiley], surveys research to show that we know how to end homelessness, if we devote the necessary resources to doing so. Beth has received research or publication awards from the Society for Community Research and Action, the Society for Research on Adolescence, and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. She serves on her local Homeless Planning Council and on the Research Council for the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Episode 5: Ending Student Homelessness: Interview with Rinal Ray

Download Transcript

Rinal Ray is the Interim Executive Director at People Serving People. She leads a dynamic team in responding to the crisis of family homelessness and works to change systems to prevent the experience of family homelessness in Hennepin County. Rinal is a former deputy public policy director for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits where she advanced the organization’s policy agenda at a state and local level, trained leaders on nonprofit advocacy, and lead special legal projects for the statewide association. Rinal currently serves as a co-chair for the Voices & Choices Coalition for Children and is on the Board of College Possible Minnesota. She teaches Nonprofit Advocacy in the Masters in Advocacy and Political Leadership (MAPL) program at Metropolitan State University.

Related Publications: