FARGO -- An initiative that aims to end homelessness in the Fargo-Moorhead area has made progress in helping people find housing, but leaders of the group say there is more work to be done to prevent people from becoming homeless in the first place.
The United to End Homelessness Initiative has secured enough funding to help 20 people who experience "high-visibility" homelessness find long-term housing in Cass and Clay counties, said Chandler Esslinger, executive director of the FM Coalition to End Homelessness and a leader of the initiative. The group has secured permanent housing for two individuals, and 11 more people are "actively in the housing search process," she said.
Program case managers have reached out to three others to initiate the process of finding them long-term housing, Esslinger said. The program uses a recently developed model that helps those who experience "high visibility homelessness" find permanent housing while supporting them with individualized services.
The initiative defines "high visibility homelessness" as being unsheltered overnight and frequently contacting homelessness or emergency services.
The initiative identified 55 individuals who could qualify for the program, said Taylor Syvertson, community impact director for United Way of Cass-Clay. She works alongside Esslinger as a co-leader of the United to End Homelessness Initiative.
"We're using a model that has worked really well in our community," Syvertson said.
Implementing the model is part of an effort to end homelessness in the metro area that began about a year ago. United Way and the FM Coalition to End Homelessness announced in January plans to raise $2.5 million to develop a short-term strategy to address the current homelessness crisis and create a long-term preventative plan.
The group has raised about 75% of the $1 million it hopes to raise by the end of the year, Esslinger said. There is no set goal date to raise the full $2.5 million.
The funds will be used to pay for staff for the homelessness response system, provide housing solutions and support services for unsheltered individuals, and create programs to prevent homelessness, initiative spokesperson Kristina Hein-Landin said.
Like much of the nation, Fargo has seen a rise in homelessness in recent years. The number of homeless people in the area exceeds the beds available at shelters, Esslinger said.
About 1,050 people experienced homelessness on any given night in 2023 in the metro area, with 95 being unsheltered overnight, according to data from the initiative.
The number of people expected to experience homelessness in the Fargo-Moorhead area is projected to grow this year to 1,196, with about 100 unhoused overnight, according to data from the initiative.
About half of those who experience "high visibility homelessness" in the metro meet the definition of chronic homelessness, according to the initiative. That means they have been living in a safe haven, emergency shelter or a place not meant for human habitation for at least a year, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
A person can also be considered chronically homeless if, in the last three years, they were homeless on at least four separate occasions with a break of at least seven consecutive nights and the period of homelessness totaling at least 12 months, according to HUD.
Initiative data showed 40% of the 55 people identified as experiencing "high visibility homelessness" in the metro had a physical disability. One in four were diagnosed with a developmental disability, and one in three had a chronic health condition, according to the initiative.
Almost two-thirds had a mental health condition, with one-third diagnosed with alcohol use disorder and 16% with a substance use disorder, according to the group's data. Two-thirds have at least two disabling conditions, and 25% have at least four, the group said.
Case managers for the Fargo program are focused on building trust with people they can serve, Esslinger said. Those case managers want to focus on a person's individual needs and barriers, she said. That way, they can identify support services and permanent housing that fit each individual's needs, Syvertson said.
"We're really excited to see that way of serving people," she said. "We're not simply moving them into a temporary situation but really leap-frogging that crisis response and moving them into more permanent solutions."
Through the initiative, the group also created the Cass Clay Interagency Council on Homelessness. With representatives from more than 70 groups in the area, the council has met twice in the last 10 months, most recently on Oct. 15.
The council aims to coordinate services offered by dozens of organizations and form a strategy to end and prevent homelessness, Esslinger said. It will develop a plan over the next year that could be launched as early as July, according to the initiative.
Syvertson said she was heartened by the number of people and groups that took the step to help solve homelessness. The initiative has involved deep "behind the scenes" collaboration that has made "significant progress with people and the systems," she said.
"The easy part is getting people excited about it," Syvertson said. "The hard part is getting people to continue to show up and commit to it."
The initiative has disrupted homelessness for some individuals but also wants to do more work to prevent homelessness, Esslinger said. Shelters are overburdened because support services don't have enough resources, she said.
Homelessness has been a leading topic of discussion in the metro area, but the time that the community has to act before it reaches a point from which it can't come back "is dwindling," Esslinger said.
"Now is the moment to choose the path of ending homelessness -- of making homelessness rare, brief and one-time -- of changing the trajectory of our community," she said. "Otherwise, we will see that moment pass us by. It will be much harder, much more expensive and much more painful for all of us if we choose the alternate path."