‘Our clients deserve better’: Former Rainbow Health employees demand answers for themselves, LGBTQ+ community

Mars King, Pioneer Press
Updated ·5 min read
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Former employees of Rainbow Health, a health care and social service provider for the Twin Cities LGBTQ+ community, are demanding answers from the board of directors after the organization suddenly closed last week.

After operating for more than 40 years, Rainbow Health informed some 80 employees Thursday that it would close immediately, and union members said Monday that little reasoning has been given since.

“None of us were prepared,” Ash Tifa, the former legal services program coordinator for Rainbow Health, said Monday.

Workers, 60 of whom are union-represented, received an email Thursday morning about an all-staff meeting where just two hours later they were informed of the closure, according to a news release from Rainbow Health Workers Union, which is represented by SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa.

During the all-staff meeting, Tifa said employees pressed for answers as to why the closure needed to happen that day. The only answer they were given was, “We can’t pay you past today,” Tifa said.

Just days before the announcement of the nonprofit’s closure, CEO Jeremy Hanson Willis resigned following a unanimous vote of no confidence, according to the union.

Leading up to the closure, employees had been calling for accountability and transparency, Tifa said, adding that “a pattern emerged” in regards to the organization’s executives being “unable to answer questions relating to our finances.”

Community impact

Lee Start was meeting with a client during last Thursday’s emergency meeting.

“I learned a few minutes before 1 p.m. that I had until 5 p.m. to terminate services with almost 40 clients,” Start said Monday. “I had a client in the waiting room while staff was in the hall sobbing.”

Start, who worked for Rainbow Health as a psychotherapist since 2019, said the sudden closure is causing trauma to people who are already traumatized.

Rainbow Health’s roots in the Twin Cities date back to 1980 when volunteers launched the Minnesota AIDS Project, which focused on providing a support network and information for gay and bisexual men in the midst of the AIDS epidemic. It eventually grew to include a formalized referral network in the early 2000s and merged with Rainbow Health Initiative in 2018, briefly becoming JustUs Health before being renamed Rainbow Health in 2021.

“Many of the clients we see, this is the only safe space and support they have,” Start said.

As a result, some of Rainbow Health’s former employees are providing pro-bono services like food and ride assistance to their clients while they sort through next steps, Start said.

Friday, the day after the closure, Tifa hosted a name-change clinic where more than 50 people showed up, Start said.

“There are thousands of people this is impacting and we demand and deserve answers,” they said. “Our clients deserve better than this.”

The Rainbow Health board of directors said Monday night in a prepared statement: “First and foremost, we deeply regret the abrupt nature of this closure and the distress it has caused. The decision to close Rainbow Health was made with heavy hearts after exhausting other options. Due to growing and insurmountable financial challenges, including decreased funding, grants that were not renewed or fully funded, and unforeseen cash flow issues, we reached a point where continuing operations were no longer possible. The Board chose to close the organization immediately to ensure employees receive compensation for the time they have worked since their last pay period.”

The statement goes on to outline three immediate priorities: “Ensuring continuity of care for our clients,” “supporting our staff through this difficult transition” and “preserving and managing organizational records.” The organization also said it plans to make the final return and audit publicly available.

“We are working diligently with our community partners to minimize service disruptions and ensure that our community’s critical needs continue to be met,” the statement reads. “We deeply regret the pain and disruption this closure has caused. Rainbow Health’s mission has always been to support and empower our community, and we are heartbroken that we can no longer continue this important work. We are grateful for the dedication of our staff, who have worked tirelessly to serve our community.”

Next steps

In addition to answers, the union is demanding the employees be paid out PTO and the 30-day notice period they were never given, which Tifa said was stipulated in their contract.

The union is currently trying to reach the board to discuss its demands. The board, which said it would respond Monday, had yet to reach out as of early Monday afternoon, Tifa said.

Uzoamaka McLaughlin, a former medical case manager coordinator with Rainbow Health, praised the union Monday, saying, “This platform has given us a voice. If it wasn’t for the union, I don’t know who would be talking on our behalf.”

Rainbow Health Workers voted to form their union in early 2022 due to alleged racial abuse and retaliatory firing practices, McLaughlin said.

According to a 2022 open letter to the community, Rainbow Health staffers wrote that they had witnessed instances of “tokenization and exploitation of Black staff by Rainbow Health leadership,” “potentially/perceived retaliatory employment termination for people who object to Rainbow Health leadership’s treatment of staff” and “hostile shut-down tactics creating a culture of non-transparency and fear amongst staff.”

McLaughlin went on to say the union had had its “best meeting ever” last December where the outgoing board recommended the new board members meet with the union in three months’ time. But the meeting never happened, McLaughlin said, despite repeated requests.

“We don’t even know who to channel our questions to,” McLaughlin said.

Caleb Hensin contributed to this report.

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