Moorhead City Council

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

With winter’s housing emergency coming to an end in April, the partnership between the Coalition to End Homelessness and the United Way of Cass Clay is collaborating to move forward in developing its program to “make homelessness rare, brief and one-time” in the community.
Chandler Esslinger and Taylor Syvertson updated the Moorhead City Council Monday on the work of the collaborative effort by their organizations, announced at the beginning of the year. During these early months, the joint group has formed an advisory group of organizations involved in reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness – now at an all-time winter high of 1,050 – and laid the groundwork for managing the $2.5 million in contributions the United Way hopes to raise to support the project for 12 to 18 months.
Fargo and Moorhead schools report about 600 of their students experiencing homelessness. The number who “lack fixed, regular and adequate night-time residences,” as homelessness is described has risen by 18% across the nation, while Fargo-Moorhead’s homeless population has increased an estimated 5%.
Syvertson, the United Way’s director of community impact, detailed five kinds of resources needed to fully address the issue: Affordable housing and stabilization; prevention and diversion; outreach and coordinated entry; emergency shelter; and supportive housing and rapid rehousing. She said several of those elements are actually in oversupply. “We have 325 shelter beds, which should be adequate,” she said, “along with emergency programs sheltering 55 to 65 more during the winter.” Outreach and entry services, too, were identified in excess of need. The other three, however, need substantial input to ring them up to the necessary level.
Esslinger said the coalition is concentrating on developing a community-wide strategy to develop and support “a sustained, systematic reduction in homelessness.” The 15-member steering committee of service providers and 45-member board, representing a broader range of stakeholders are advising the efforts.
Mayor Shelly Carlson noted that Moorhead’s structure of social services is different from Fargo’s. “We don’t have city departments, as Fargo does,” she pointed out. “Instead we look to Clay County to provide combined services.”
Council member Nicole Matson asked how cuts to federal funding for services like transportation will impact plans. Esslinger replied, “A variety of agencies will be impacted. Here, though, they don’t receive the full impact, as other areas do. Often our agencies do their own funding and development/ they will continue to utilize whatever federal money remains to help their dollars go further.”
She added, “Right now, they are moving forward. But they will need an infusion of resources.”