Our History and Mission

St. Stephen’s Human Services, a 501c3 nonprofit, helps thousands of people secure housing and other support each year, but its beginnings were modest. In the 1960s, members of St. Stephen’s Church began offering programs for the poor and homeless. These programs were often initially staffed by parish volunteers. Across the country, homelessness escalated dramatically in the early 1980s due to a number of factors, most critically a national recession, decreased federal funding to local governments by 60%, demolition of affordable housing in many major cities, and the deinstitutionalization of mental health facilities without providing alternatives.

Guests in the early days of the St. Stephen's Shelter

St. Stephen’s Church, along with ten other Minneapolis churches, responded by opening shelters which were believed to be temporary measures to a temporary crisis. Most of these church-based shelters have since closed, but St. Stephen’s began creating programming to assist people experiencing homelessness to access and retain permanent housing. In 1991 St. Stephen’s launched Alliance Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer. In 2002, its founding parish community determined that St. Stephen's Human Services should obtain nonprofit status independent of the church.

St. Stephen’s Human Services was founded with a mission to end homelessness through programming that includes housing opportunities, employment support, emergency services and outreach, and systems change.