It's been six years in the making, and now the $100 million Dorothy Day Place in downtown St. Paul is complete.
The campus is the largest public-private partnership in state history designed to address homelessness in a new way, said Catholic Charities President and CEO Tim Marx.
"Ramsey County not only helps finance the Opportunity Center, but they're having their workers right there: their financial workers, their mental health workers, and others are renting space so that our clients and guests don't need to go find Ramsey County, Ramsey County is right there working with us, and working with out clients," he said.
Marx said the Dorothy Day shelter and low-rent apartments are already nearing capacity, which he says highlights a growing need.
The un-sheltered population in the Twin Cities, he said, doubled between 2015 and 2018, leading to those large homeless encampments in both Minneapolis and St. Paul.