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Emma Norton Services’ legacy has always been housing.

For more than 100 years this renowned nonprofit has ensured that people in Minnesota have a safe and affordable place to call home. What once started as housing for women coming from rural Minnesota to the Twin Cities has now evolved to an organization that makes sure women, individuals and families who have experienced homelessness and debilitating challenges have homes where they can thrive.

The Importance of Affordable Housing

Affordable housing is one of the most critical issues facing the East Metro according to East Metro Pulse Volume 4. Renters were 20% more likely to report it as being ‘very significant.’

Finding affordable housing becomes even harder for individuals who have experienced debilitating issues like homelessness, substance use disorders, physical disabilities, mental health trauma and/or lack of rental history.

That’s where Emma Norton Services provides help.

“We believe that housing provides the foundation for everyone to heal, recover and build a more stable and harmonious life,” said Emma Norton Executive Director Tonya Brownlow. “In the last 10 years, we've gone through lots of changes just to make sure we're implementing best practices with people who experience being unhoused, from a sober model to a harm reduction model.”

With support from organizations such as the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation, Project for Pride in Living and United Way, Emma Norton serves approximately 300 individuals who have experienced homelessness each year by moving them into safe and stable housing.

“ We believe that housing provides the foundation for everyone to heal, recover and build a more stable and harmonious life.”

Executive Director Tonya Brownlow

Each program and space is tailored to fit the needs of the client, be it through extra space, inviting designs or accessibility. Some of the ways Emma Norton provides safe and affordable housing is through its key sites and innovative programs:

Emma’s Place
Restoring Waters
Scattered-Site Housing

Scattered-Site and On-Site Housing

One of Emma Norton’s most innovative programs is scattered-site housing, which provides wrap-around-services to individuals and families that live in off-site rental units.

“When I first started, we could serve about 50 people at our old downtown site, but we had a wait list of about 50 more,” said Advancement Director Shawna Nelsen-Wills. “The scattered- site housing program is a great model to be able to work with private landlords who have spaces available but might be hesitant to rent to people who have experienced homelessness, have marks on their rental record or just don't have a rental history. We’re able to say ‘hey, we're going to partner with you and provide services to make sure that they have the education they need to be good tenants.”

When it comes to on-site housing, Emma’s Place in Maplewood consists of 13 townhomes providing supportive housing for families with three or more children who have at least one family member with a disabling condition, including mental and/or chemical health or a chronic health condition. The organization’s newest facility, Restoring Waters in Highland Bridge, offers 60 units of transformative housing to individuals and small families with a disabling condition.

Healing Power of Restoring Waters

In 2024, Emma Norton opened Restoring Waters, while closing the doors to Emma Norton Residence (ENR) in downtown Saint Paul. Twenty-seven residents moved from ENR to Restoring Waters, with more than 30 new residents from the community. To set this facility apart, the organization made it their mission to establish a holistic environment for all who live there.

“Now we don’t only focus on housing women; we have opened our services to everyone including individuals who are trans,” Tonya said. “We know that's a population that often faces a lot of safety issues when they are unhoused. So, our mission has been around how do we provide trauma-informed housing that matches our service.”

This trauma-informed design focuses on the needs of the individuals, offering immersive healing activities, exercise space, a gardening room with nature-based therapeutics classes, art space, a play space for children to play and a drop-in space for daily mental health peer counseling called the “Living Room.” The “Living Room” is a space where anyone in need of counseling or mental health support can drop in between noon – 8 p.m. seven days a week.

Upon move in, initial and new Restoring Waters’ residents are able to decorate their apartments with healing art pieces from Art to Change the World, a nonprofit employing the arts in service of positive change.

“We want to get to a place where we truly feel like we're utilizing the building in the right way,” Shawna said, “where we have active programs and partnerships in place and volunteers who actively come in from the community, plus broader utilization of our Living Room.”

Creating More Affordable Housing Opportunities

While these services have helped eliminate the stress of some Minnesotans, they have not removed the problems many still face.

“The biggest issue, especially for our scattered-site program, is affordability,” Shawna said. “What we're seeing is landlords continue to raise rents and when they raise rents, people are eventually priced out of that affordability.”

As Emma Norton continues to grow, the organization hopes to create avenues that provide stability for their clients as well as ways to feel like they are a part of the communities they live in. Whether it be getting involved in their district council or training to become a peer support specialist, Emma Norton values the importance of opportunities for growth.

“We have a theory of change with three main outcomes we hope to see: stability, self-acceptance and then empowerment,” said Shawna.

“That old pull yourself up by your bootstrap model is a facade,” added Tonya. “People who have privilege have operated for so long, not recognizing their privilege in that system. That’s why it's important for us to create systems around people that help support them.”

Theory of Change

The Foundation's Impact in Action

Over the years Emma Norton Services has received various grants from the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation and our partner foundation F. R. Bigelow Foundation. These grants have included emergency dollars from the Community Sharing Fund as well as capacity building funds and capital funding for Restoring Waters.

By Chris M. Garner, Communications Specialist. As communications specialist, Chris supports the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation’s work by showcasing it to the community through words, photo, video and other media. Chris has a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Alabama State University and a Master of Science in Journalism from Northwestern University.

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