Tuesday, the St. Louis County Board unanimously approved funding for a brand-new homeless shelter in Hibbing.

The board set aside $1.66 million of American Rescue Plan dollars to help fund the new shelter.

According to Scott Zahorik with the Arrowhead Economic Outreach Agency (AEOA), there’s just one shelter on the Iron Range right now.

“We’ve got ‘Bill’s House,’ [a shelter] which has 12 beds,” he said. “This building is going to have 54 units.”

Bill’s House has had to turn away roughly 800 people in the last year alone.

The AEOA says they’ve turned away more than 3,000 people experiencing homelessness since 2019.

“We’ve got homeless vets with no place to go. We’ve got families fleeing domestic abuse, we’ve got people with no choices,” Zahorik said. “These folks don’t come to us on a bus or anything from out of the area. These are friends, neighbors, and families that live here in this area already.”

County Commissioner Mike Jugovich helped champion the new shelter and believes a newer, bigger building in Hibbing will alleviate the problem.

“This is going to allow us to get more people in, but it’s not just about having a shelter,” said Jugovich. “It’s about combining with the AEOA and St. Louis County Health and Human Services, to where we can get these people back on track.”

According to Jugovich and Zahorik, the new shelter will provide expanded access to mental health services, housing solutions, transportation, and more.

“We are going to do everything we can in our power to get these people on the right track, get them into programs and serve them, and help them get to where they need to be,” said Jugovich.

He expects the shelter to open sometime in 2023 since much of the infrastructure is already present at the new site.

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