Housing Workers Fear Homelessness Surge as State Ends Stabilization Program

When the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) announced on August 1 that it was pulling the plug on the state’s Housing Stabilization Services (HSS) program, Glorius Martin didn’t just sit back and take it.

“We felt moved to organize with other HSS providers to make a statement,” said Glorius, who co-founded 360 Housing Stability with his wife, Twyla. “Fraud has been discovered with certain providers taking advantage of the very people we’re supposed to be helping. Instead of stopping the fraud with those providers, the decision has been made just to stop the program altogether.”

Glorius, his wife Twyla and other providers rallied at the Capitol on August 7, saying DHS’s plan will punish legitimate organizations and devastate vulnerable Minnesotans.

“In my estimation, it’s gonna be like dropping an atomic bomb on the city,” Glorius said. “We’re already dealing with the homeless population.”

According to DHS, 77 providers are implicated in fraud — but Glorius says that’s just 5% of the field. “And we don’t even know if they’ve actually been found guilty,” he said. “You’re gonna shut down the whole industry? It just seems shady.”

For 360 Housing Stability, the accusations hit unexpectedly. Glorius says the company has been fully cooperative with audits and even hosts monthly meetings with other providers to review rules and billing practices. But on Tuesday of last week, they got a letter accusing them of “credible fraud” involving one client. The client, Glorius says, was stunned. “She was like, ‘I’m happy as hell with y’all! Whatever y’all need me to do to let them know that this work was actually done.’”

Despite that, DHS froze all payments to the company. That means 30 staff members — mostly women, some with kids, some with disabilities, one with cancer— didn’t get paid last Friday for a month's worth of work. Glorius also blames part of the financial strain on DHS’s own reimbursement rules, like a $3,000-per-client moving expense requirement. Providers have to pay up front and wait for reimbursement. “We have claims dating all the way back to last November they haven’t even looked at,” he said.

Glorious is also concerned that the state’s fraud detection process might be flagging innocent providers. “If it’s a case like ours, you’re undoing the work of everybody. Makes no sense to me.”

For Glorius, the solution is simple: go after the bad actors without dismantling the program. “If you put this time and energy into just removing the ones that are doing it wrong, we can actually start seeing the change.”

DHS has not yet responded to questions about how the alleged fraud was identified or why the entire program is being shut down.