Friends, colleagues, and community: We are physicians and healthcare workers in Minnesota. We’ve seen ICE brutalizing our communities and patients for months. Though the occupation has changed, the devastating impact lives on. People are returning to work, businesses are opening — but an unprecedented housing crisis looms. And you have a remarkable opportunity to help.

Please make a tax-deductible contribution to help keep our vulnerable neighbors in their homes! All funds will be directed to Neighbors Helping Neighbors, a mutual aid network connecting Twin Cities communities to families most in need.

The Power of Your Donation

Right now, your contribution goes a long way. A major infusion of resources over the next 60 days is critical to stabilizing immigrant families and preventing mass evictions:

The Situation in Minnesota

The militarized immigration crackdown occurring in the Twin Cities has waned, but the damage has been done. It will take time and support for the immigrant communities who bore the brunt of this siege to recover.

As physicians, we have seen families forced to ask impossible questions: Will I have enough food for myself and my family? Should we pay for our medication or our rent? Can the insulin we have last a bit longer? My kid is having trouble breathing, but is it really safe to go to the hospital?

This is the new reality for our immigrant neighbors.

Housing Crisis — By the Numbers

Minnesota eviction filings are at record highs — with 6,400 cases in just the first three months of 2026.

As mutual aid funds run dry, eviction filings surged 19% in March alone.

211 received nearly 3,000 housing calls in the first week of March — up 33% above normal.

Rental assistance requests via 211 are up 39% in the first week of March, and Spanish-language calls are 88% above baseline — a sign immigrant families are bearing the heaviest burden

Mutual Aid to the Rescue

Thankfully, communities are standing together to profound effect. That’s why we are proudly partnering with Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN). NHN has become a streamlined destination for donors who want to reach all coalitions. To date, NHN has enlisted more than 2,500 volunteers and distributed over $1,200,000 in direct rent relief to affected families, and over $1,700,000 to community and church rent funds.

Your donations will be used to help NHN deliver direct rental assistance through subgrants to our community and church rent relief partners with 501(c)(3) sponsorship.

Housing is a Healthcare Issue

Stable housing is one of the most powerful social determinants of child health; its absence drives chronic disease, developmental delays, and toxic stress. The prolonged fear, displacement, and lost wages are Adverse Childhood Experiences accumulating in real time, with lasting effects on brain development and lifelong wellbeing. We have an opportunity — and an obligation — to intervene. Because keeping families housed is medicine.

The impact of this crisis is still being felt in our community, leaving an imprint of lasting trauma and harm. Together, we can step up and help our communities heal.

More Ways to Donate

For other ways to donate via donor-advised funds, check or wire, please contact Cindy at the bottom of this page.

All donations are tax deductible and the Family Housing Fund accepts employer matches.

Sincerely,

Aaron Ackerman, MD

Third-year pediatrics resident & co-organizer, Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Cindy Howard, MD, MPHTM

Retired Professor of Pediatrics and Global Health

Janna Gewirtz O’Brien, MD, MPH, FAAP

Adolescent Medicine Physician

Ben Trappey, MD

Medicine-Pediatrics Hospitalist

Jessica Goldstein, MD

Pediatric Neurologist

Michael Pitt, MD

Pediatric Hospitalist

Angie Erdrich, MD

Pediatrician

Emily Borman-Shoap, MD

Pediatrician

Marjorie Hogan, MD

Retired Professor of Pediatrics

Megan Schultz, MD, MA

Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician

Maren E. Olson, MD, MPH, MEd

Pediatric Hospitalist

Billy Sveen, MD, MA

Pediatric Critical Care Physician

Michael Westerhaus MD, MA

Primary Care Physician

Heidi Coplin MD

Internist

Chris Reif, MD, MPH

Family Medicine

Iris Wagman Borowsky, MD, PhD

Pediatrician and Adolescent Medicine Physician

Stephanie Madzey, MD

Medicine-Pediatrics Resident