Public Affairs

"The legislators need to hear their stories": Homeless Day on the Hill

The North 103.3 | By Lisa Johnson

Published March 14, 2019 at 2:02 PM CDT

Yesterday was the biggest Homeless Day on the Hill in the history of the MN Coalition for the Homeless.

They came with two big agenda items:

- to increase MFIP (Minnesota Family Investment Program), a cash assistance program that's maximum payout, $532 a month, hasn't increased since 1986

- and to increase the Emergency Services program, giving homeless shelters across the state a $15 million dollar increase

And they got a boost that they perhaps hadn't expected: MN Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan told the group that she is where she is today because of the MFIP program.

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Lisa Johnson

Lisa Johnson started her broadcast career anchoring the television news at her high school and spinning country music at KWWK/KOLM Radio in Rochester, Minnesota. She was a reporter and news anchor at KTHI in Fargo, ND (not to mention the host of a children's program called "Lisa's Lane") and a radio reporter and anchor in Moorhead, Bismarck, Wahpeton and Fergus Falls.Since 1991, she has hosted Northland Morning on KUMD. One of the best parts of her job includes "paying it forward" by mentoring upcoming journalists and broadcasters on the student news team that helps produce Northland Morning. She also loves introducing the different people she meets in her job to one another, helping to forge new "community connections" and partnerships.Lisa has amassed a book collection weighing over two tons, and she enjoys reading, photography, volunteering with Animal Allies Humane Society and fantasizing about farmland. She goes to bed at 8pm, long before her daughter, two cats, or three dogs.

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