At the Ramsey County Family Service Center in Maplewood, as many as 65 adults and children at a time are offered up to four consecutive months of crisis housing, food and onsite medical and dental services, as well as assistance navigating employment, transportation, tutoring and parenting skills.
There’s palpable fear among some volunteers that could soon change. Catholic Charities, which has operated the Family Service Center on behalf of Ramsey County for more than 25 years, was recently notified by the county that their long-standing contract will not be extended past June 30. The center will close temporarily, and it remains unclear who will run it when it reopens after months of planned building improvements. Families were to be informed of the closure on Friday, according to a county spokesperson.
Joseph Sevick, an 82-year-old volunteer with Catholic Charities, called the Maplewood location his favorite place to donate his time and worried for its future.
“The whole thing is very well run,” said Sevick, who learned of the contract issue on April 10. “It’s a lousy thing. It’s kind of a commentary on the times. Everything is tightening up. … The good Lord says love me first and then go out and love your neighbor, which I wish more people would do.”
Catholic Charities has weathered its share of financial challenges even as demands for its services have grown. Ramsey County and Catholic Charities officials both issued statements this past week indicating those challenges were not the reason for the closure.
“We have heard from Ramsey County that this decision in no way reflects any dissatisfaction with our quality of services,” reads a written statement issued by Catholic Charities on Monday in response to a reporter’s inquiry. “The county has also stated that they do not intend to close the Family Service Center permanently. Our primary concern is for the families we serve. The county has assured us that they are committed to ensuring that families continue to have shelter options during this transition period.”
New contract by the end of the year
The Family Service Center, which is funded through state Local Homeless Prevention Aid and county levy dollars, operates on a $1.2 million contract that took effect last July 1 and runs through June 30 of this year.
A spokesperson for Ramsey County said the contract has been competitively bid multiple times over the years through a required request-for-proposals process.
After some soul searching, officials are “choosing to perform needed renovations to the building and solicit a new RFP to see if other organizations may be interested in providing this service,” reads a written statement from the county. “The plan is to have a new contract in place before the end of the year.”
Any families still residing at the Maplewood site toward the end of June would be transitioned to other county facilities, he said.
The Maplewood building, which is owned by Ramsey County, houses an average of 17 families and has drawn some 494 volunteers this year alone, accounting for nearly 3,000 hours of service, according to Catholic Charities, which began informing longtime volunteers of the situation last week by email. “It reflects the very best of Catholic Charities and has truly made a meaningful difference in the lives of countless families,” reads the email.
St. Paul, Uptown Clubhouse sites lose DHS contract
Catholic Charities isn’t the only social service provider trying to maintain services for the most vulnerable in the face of county, state and federal funding upheaval. Vail Communities runs three “Clubhouse” locations in Hopkins, Minneapolis and St. Paul where adults with mental illness can spend the day socializing and learning new skills in an active but relaxed environment.
Ralph Coleman gets a hug from fellow club members after becoming emotional while sharing how welcomed and happy he feels at the Vail Communities Clubhouse in St. Paul on Wednesday April 15, 2026. “It’s a community where you can say that you can come in naked and leave fully clothed,” said Coleman about the facility, where he’s been a member for at least 15 years, “It gives you a sense of hope, a sense of community.” (John Autey / Pioneer Press)
The goal is to build community for adults otherwise isolated by their mental health challenges.
Susan Montgomery, a member of the Ramsey County Clubhouse, had just completed hospitalization for her mental health difficulties when she discovered the St. Paul site was opening on Dale Street two years ago.
“It took me a really long and hard time to open up, but a staff member was like, ‘Well, what do you like?’” she recalled on Wednesday. “I like art and I’m sitting here crying and they’re like, ‘What do you do?’ I said photography and they said, ‘OK, bring some of that here.’” She’s since found a strong sense of belonging alongside peers with similar struggles.
“I never visit a Clubhouse without hearing somebody say, ‘Clubhouse saved my life,’” said Vail Communities President and Executive Director Ashley Trepp, in an interview.
On April 10, Trepp issued a public alarm of sorts, alerting the media and other supporters that the Vail Communities state contract with the Minnesota Department of Human Services will not be renewed, placing its Uptown and Ramsey County Clubhouse sites at risk if alternative funding is not secured by June 30. The contract covered the majority of the $1 million it takes to run the two locations annually.
The Uptown location, which sits close to Hennepin Avenue and 36th Street in Minneapolis, served 402 clients last year. The Ramsey County Clubhouse opened within space owned by the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer on Dale Street and Carroll Avenue in St. Paul in 2024. It served 297 clients last year.
“Potentially having to close Uptown and/or Ramsey County Clubhouse is not only destabilizing for its members, but fiscally short-sighted, likely increasing reliance on higher-cost emergency and institutional services,” reads Trepp’s public statement. “Lack of funding for Ramsey County Clubhouse is especially devastating. Opened in 2024 in response to a strong community demand in St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood, it has quickly become a trusted, culturally responsive space for individuals seeking safety, belonging, and stability, particularly during a period marked by heightened anxiety and social unrest.”
The Hopkins location remains funded by Hennepin County. The Uptown location lost its Hennepin County funding in 2022, and closed briefly before fully reopening with funding from the Department of Human Services, which also backs the St. Paul site through the same federal mental health block grant, Trepp said.
The decision not to renew that fiscal backing follows a report from the Office of the Legislative Auditor last January, which raised concerns about the state issuing noncompetitive or “single-source” grant funding for social service organizations without allowing other providers a chance to compete for the same contracts, specifically within the area of the department’s Behavioral Health Administration.
“We can award a grant in a noncompetitive manner … when, after a search to validate, only one entity is determined to be reasonably able and available to meet the intended purpose and objectives of the grant,” reads a statement issued Wednesday from a department spokesperson. “The preference for the RFP process was further reinforced by the release of the (legislative auditor) report in January.”
The statement goes on to say that Vail Communities was informed a year ago that the state grant would not be extended without going through a request for proposals open to other providers. Trepp noted that process will not open until the beginning of 2027.
Single-source grants
The legislative auditor’s report found that from July 2022 through December 2024, BHA paid out roughly $200 million annually to counties, tribes and providers for services related to mental health and substance abuse disorder, totaling some 830 separate grant agreements.
Among the legislative auditor’s 13 findings and recommendations, BHA “used single-source grants when they were not justified and did not always sufficiently document its reasons for using single-source grants.”
The legislative auditor raised additional concerns about oversight, missing progress reports, site visits that may never have been conducted and, in some cases, payments that were made to providers before their grant agreement was even finalized.
Trepp maintains that the Clubhouses meet the state’s standard for single-source funding.
“We were and still are the only provider in the state that operates Clubhouses that are accredited by Clubhouse International,” she said.
Looking to Ramsey, Hennepin counties for help
Trepp said she’s asked Hennepin County to reopen its funding for the Uptown location, and she’s also talking to Ramsey County about a possible request for proposals for community support programs, which could open later this year. For Vail Communities, securing those dollars would be a competitive process.
“Their request for proposals hasn’t been published yet,” Trepp said.
Ramsey County Board Chair Rafael Ortega said federal funding cuts have made that and other timelines uncertain.
“We’re getting impacted on a weekly basis with different stuff coming out of Washington,” said Ortega on Monday. “We’re looking at all of it. I cannot give you a definitive answer. We’re going to have to make some tough choices.”
Even after the RFP closes, the county funding — if awarded — would likely kick in around Jan. 1, well after the DHS contract runs out on June 30.
“We end up with a gap that is insurmountable in the absence of some other funding,” Trepp said.
At the direction of the Legislature, the state has been studying whether Medicaid billing would be an appropriate funding mechanism for the Vail Communities Clubhouses, an idea that’s been discussed for the past 10 years. That study was due last December, Trepp said, but has yet to be completed.