Andover City Council — Transcript
Thursday, July 9, 2026
Haven for Heroes: Mission and Services
Organizational Credibility, Funding, and Volunteerism
Veteran Intake Process and Support Programs
Campus Renovation and Historic Preservation
Community Engagement and Future Development
Votes (1)
Anoka Community Podcast: Haven for Heroes Feature
This podcast episode features an in-depth interview with Bart Ward of Haven for Heroes, discussing the organization's mission to provide housing and support for veterans in Anoka County. Topics covered include the nonprofit's operational model, renovation efforts on historic campus buildings, veteran intake processes, partnerships with other veteran services, and various ways for community involvement and contributions. The discussion highlights the impact of volunteerism, corporate donations, and collaboration with government and non-profit partners.
Notable Quotes (6)
Haven for Heroes is a nonprofit 501c3. Uh, we have control of four of the buildings at the Anoka County Rum River Human Services Campus.
This was not a project for everybody. Like we talked you talked a little bit about a lot of people taking a look at it before before uh you guys uh really came uh into formation in 18. And it was really uh I mean it obviously the board collectively has a lot of great experience that that led to um the business model but but can you just speak a little bit about your history and um the expertise that you brought to the Haven and h and how to make this business business model work?
We interview everybody. We do background checks on our volunteers, on people who are uh are at that campus and we do background checks on uh veterans as well. There's some people we simply cannot take in. um sexual predators and violence. Yeah, we're probably not going to be having a person, you know, we're group housing and um unfortunately uh you know, a lot of women veterans that we take care of have had some type of sexual trauma in their life, either in the military, out of the military, or both. And we take that vis that really seriously. So, that building has extra security in it.
Well, safety, security, housing. I mean, if you come to the Haven and you probably don't have a lot of resources and housing is, you know, food, shelter, really important to these people. I mean, a lot of people that we have had stay with us have been on the streets at one time or another.
Uh uh asbestous abatement. Uh cottage 3 was flooded out. Uh a water mane broke in it and so there was mold in the building we had to abate. So, those are the first places that you get started is is abatement and or in the case of cottage 3, the first place to start was to put a roof on it.
So we always need volunteers. I mean, if you know how to do a little plumbing and you know how to do some electricity, you know how to pound some nails, we'll take uh, you know, an hour's worth of your time a week, we'll take 10 hours worth of your time a week. Our all volunteer construction crew has been coming there since 2017. 30, 40 hours a week.
Ordinances & Resolutions (3)
Nonprofit tax-exempt status held by Haven for Heroes.
Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing voucher, offering Section 8-like assistance with additional veteran support.
General housing assistance program, used as a comparison for HUDVASH vouchers.