Maurice Coleman watches TV in the main room at Listening House in St. Paul on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023.  (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

From a new location near downtown St. Paul, the Listening House day shelter intends to serve as a space where people experiencing homelessness can safely eat, congregate, receive counseling and hunt for jobs.

“Listening House is and always will be a place for people to visit with no questions asked,” said Molly Jalma, executive director at Listening House, during a tour on Thursday.

The Listening House moved from their old temporary location at 296 West Seventh St. in November. The new site is at the former Red’s Savoy Pizza building. The building had been sitting empty after the popular pizza joint’s original owner passed away in 2017.

State Sen. Sandy Pappas, who helped secure $3 million of the total $6 million in remodeling funding as chair of the Capital Investment Committee, said the mission is significant.

“It’s important that unsheltered people have a place they can go where they can shower, eat, and meet counselors,” Pappas said.

Other sources of funding included the city of St. Paul, Listening House’s own board and private donations.

A day shelter

Guest relax in the main room at Listening House in St. Paul on Thursday, Dec. 7, 2023.  (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Annie Byrne, the senior project manager at St. Paul’s Department of Planning and Economic Development, helped Listening House work through the development process, including a whole lot of paperwork.

“To go from all that paperwork to a building you can stand in is very satisfying,” Byrne said.

Listening House has been a day shelter for people experiencing poverty and homelessness since its first location in 1983. They provide visitors with food, private bathrooms that include showers, storage lockers and act as an address where mail can be received.

Listening House is unique among homeless shelters because of its little-to-no questions asked policy regarding guests and offering a place to sleep during the day. It’s a service Jalma said is important because of how many of their guests work at night and would therefore not be able to sleep at overnight shelters.

She said that, in fact, many of those who stop at Listening House have jobs but still experience homelessness due to increasing housing costs.

“One way to dispel a lot of the stereotypes around homelessness is talking about how vulnerable to losing our homes we all are,” Jalma said. She said that she’s seen a specific increase in homeless children and elderly.

In 2018, the Minnesota Homeless Study and Wilder Research found that people aged 24 and younger make up 15% of the homeless population, and that people aged 55 and older were the fastest growing homeless population. Both homeless groups had increased in population since 2015.

Additions planned

Homelessness also often means a lack of important documents such as birth certificates, which can be a further barrier to finding housing. Services that provide help getting copies of documents and filling out housing applications will be available at the new location, alongside medical and mental health counseling provided by Listening House partners such as Clinic 555 and Minnesota Community Care.

Listening House also intends to expand the building to include more bathrooms, more sleeping areas, three “quiet rooms” for more private counseling, as well as an outdoor courtyard.

Jalma said that the plan is to start work on the building’s additions “as soon as possible,” within the next 60 days, and that she hopes for it to be finished by autumn 2024. The final facility will be 8,200 square feet in size

Jeff Stromgren, the architect who designed the new location, has helped build everything from places of worship to cheese curd factories. He said it was “incredibly gratifying” to work on the project.

Criticism from neighbors

Listening House faced opposition to the new facility, including a lawsuit from local businesses in 2022.

The previous location on West Seventh Street drew criticism and a lawsuit from neighbors who said officials did not screen guests for drugs, as well as accusations involving litter, loitering and fighting.

Jalma said that there were instances where she felt Listening House was blamed for incidents they had no involvement in, citing a time she was called over a shopping cart that had been left blocks away from the building.

“When there’s that much hyperbole, it’s hard to know what’s real,” she said. However, she also said she was thankful for community members who were willing to communicate and share information.

Elyse Pennica, the program and services manager at Listening House, has been working at Listening House for less than a year. She started in June as a part-time office manager, and was excited when her current position became available.

Currently, Listening House employs 11 people, and relies mostly on volunteer work.

“Being of help and service to others is so important, and being there for the guests, that’s my favorite part,” Pennica said.

The courtyard to be built was one thing that excited her. She said it excited guests, too. Some were interested in starting a community garden.

“I see only great things in our future,” she said.

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An Oakdale man has been sentenced to four years in prison for his role in the robbery and fatal shooting of a St. Paul man near the Dorothy Day Center in downtown St. Paul.

Jesse Willis Gleeson was with Keland Makeba Kamese Raino when Raino shot Deondrae R. Atkins about 1:30 a.m. Nov. 13, 2022, according to the criminal complaints. People familiar with Atkins told police he sold fentanyl pills in the area from his parked car, where he also routinely slept.

Jesse Willis Gleeson (Courtesy of the Ramsey County Sheriff’s Office)

Gleeson and Raino were charged with two counts of aiding and abetting murder. In July, prosecutors added an aiding and abetting first-degree aggravated robbery charge against Gleeson, then dropped the murder charges.

Gleeson, 33, pleaded guilty to the robbery charge last month and in exchange prosecutors agreed to seek a prison term capped at four years. He was sentenced Wednesday, and received credit for 386 days already served in custody.

Raino’s murder case is pending in court, with a hearing scheduled for Feb. 7. He also has a mental health civil commitment hearing scheduled for Dec. 13 in Hennepin County District Court.

According court records, Raino, 46, of Minneapolis, has eight prior felony criminal convictions, including four for making terroristic threats, and since the mid-1990s has been civilly committed and recommitted several times in Hennepin County for being mentally ill and dangerous and chemically dependent. He’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia and is delusional.

Five days before the murder, Raino was recommitted in Hennepin County “as a person who poses a risk of harm due to mental illness,” according to the criminal complaint. The next day, he was provisionally discharged from a hospital. His case worker told investigators she dropped him off at a St. Paul apartment building in the 200 block of Ravoux Street west of Marion Street.

Victim died on sidewalk

Officers and paramedics responded to the 200 block of West Ninth Street just after 2 a.m. on a report of a man who was unresponsive on the sidewalk. Paramedics pronounced Atkins, 33, dead.

Atkins had a large amount of money in his pants pockets, and a cellphone and bullet were near his body. People told police that Atkins’ Saturn Aura was missing.

Surveillance video showed someone parked a Dodge Journey near Atkins’ Saturn about 12:15 a.m. About a half-hour later, Raino got out of the Dodge’s front passenger seat and approached the Saturn. He appeared to speak to Atkins before returning to the Dodge.

Just before 1:30 a.m., Raino approached Atkins from the passenger side of the Saturn. Gleeson exited the Dodge’s driver’s seat and stood behind Raino.

Raino’s “arm quickly pulled back and up as if he pulled an object from his waistband” and Gleeson walked to the rear driver’s side door and tried to open it, but it was locked, the complaint says.

Gleeson tried to open Atkins’ driver’s door, but it didn’t open. Gleeson “flinched as if reacting to a gunshot,” the complaint said.

Deondrae R. Atkins (Courtesy of the family)

Atkins then opened his car door and walked away from his Saturn while hunched over. Raino pointed a gun over the Saturn’s roof at Atkins, who walked across the street and collapsed on the sidewalk.

Gleeson ran back to the Dodge and drove away. Raino got in Atkins’ Saturn and also drove away.

An autopsy showed a bullet entered Atkin’s right arm, traversed his body and exited his left shoulder.

Police located Atkin’s Saturn parked in the 200 block of Ravoux Street in St. Paul. A handgun was found in the driver’s seat floorboard area, Atkin’s wallet was in the center console, and there were suspected fentanyl pills in the car.

Just after 8 p.m., Raino went to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis seeking mental health treatment. He wore the same black jacket and shoes that he wore during the murder, the complaint said.

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Former NFL player Sergio Brown pleaded not guilty to murdering his mother during an arraignment Wednesday.

Brown was charged with first-degree murder for the September death of his mother, Myrtle Simmons-Brown, who prosecutors said he lived with in Maywood.

The 35-year-old who played for seven seasons as a safety for the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills was also charged with concealment of a homicidal death, court records show.

He pleaded not guilty to the concealment charge and the two murder charges he faces Wednesday, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said.

The disappearance of Brown after police discovered his mother’s dead body wrapped in a sheet near a creek close to their home drew national attention. Brown resurfaced days after the gruesome finding in expletive-filled social media posts calling reports tying him to his mother’s death “fake news.”

Three weeks after police found Simmons-Brown’s body, Mexican authorities detained the former Proviso East High School and University of Notre Dame football player in Mexico City and deported him to San Diego, where he was held in custody, prosecutors said in October.

According to an autopsy performed by the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office, Simmons-Brown died of blunt-force trauma.

A search of Brown’s residence revealed Ajax in a bathtub drain, indicating the tub had recently been cleaned, prosecutors said. His mother’s iPad, credit cards and phone were missing, but her cigarettes were left behind, court documents said.

Cameras in the area captured Brown burning items in a fire pit the evening of Sept. 14, and police later found burned fabric inside of the pit.

Cellphone activity was discovered during the investigation and showed both cellphones of the mother and son pinging together Sept. 14 and 15, before they stopped pinging altogether, prosecutors said. When Brown was extradited U.S. Border and Customs Patrol found his mother’s cellphone, iPad and credit cards in a bag Brown was carrying, prosecutors said.

Brown is next scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 24.