The City of Sioux Falls is hiring a City Homeless Services Coordinator.
It’s a first-of-its-kind position for the city.
Michelle Treasure is the city’s first Homeless Services Coordinator. She said she plans to streamline homelessness services, enhance data collection and analysis, and increase collaboration between the city and external partners.
“I really got to understand what the community of Sioux Falls has to offer, the people that live here, but what I also understood is a lot of people just really don’t know about all of the resources," said Treasure. "So, my passion really lies in that collaboration, the relationship building, and developing workflow so that people within our community really do know what we have to offer for them.”
Treasure has worked at nonprofits dedicated to providing services for victims of human trafficking, as well as Lifescape.
Paul TenHaken is the Mayor of Sioux Falls. He said Treasure is highly qualified to bring change to services for the city’s homeless population.
He said it was necessary to create the position because having a solution for homeless individuals is the primary concern asked of city government.
“You can see it when you’re in our downtown, you can see panhandling at our interstate exchanges. It’s a question I get asked a lot. And it’s a complicated answer, when people say, ‘what are you doing about homelessness.’ Well, its no homeruns, just a ton of singles," said TenHaken. "Hiring Michelle is a single, the Link is a single, Bishop-Dudley Center for Families is a single, I mean we just keep hitting singles in hopes that we will just continue to score runs.”
Late last year across the state, Rapid City leaders passed a resolution to reduce homelessness after a daytime mission announced it was closing its doors.
