Homelessness nearly doubles in N.D.
March 19, 2006
The Forum
Bismarck, ND
Broke, cold and desperate, Mike Greene says he had no
choice but to check into a homeless shelter here.
The 38-year-old Bismarck man lost his job earlier this month
and the ability to pay rent and buy food. He said he has no
family to help him out.
“I had nothing left,” he said. “That’s
why I’m here.”
Greene is one of about 5,000 people that a nonprofit group
says will experience homelessness this year in North Dakota.
The North Dakota Coalition for Homeless People said that is
up from 3,000 a year ago.
“On any given day there are approximately 700 people who
are homeless and seeking shelter,” said Mary Magnusson,
spokeswoman for the Bismarck-based nonprofit.
Most of the homelessness in North Dakota “can be
attributed to unaffordable housing for people with low to no
income,” she said. The organization said substance
abuse, mental illness and medical problems are secondary
causes of homelessness.
In a survey taken the last week of January, the group counted
739 homeless people in the state, up from 655 a year ago.
Magnusson said the number of homeless people this year is
probably not as big a jump as the numbers show, since more
agencies responded to the annual survey this year. She said
her group mailed the survey to 184 agencies statewide that
might deal with the homeless, and more than 90 percent of the
surveys were returned.
One-fourth of North Dakota’s homeless are children,
including infants of women under 18, the survey said. Single
white men make up the majority of the homeless population.
The survey said 52 percent of the homeless are unemployed, an
11 percent increase from last year.
About 200 people in the survey were identified as
“long-term homeless” – those who have been
without a permanent residence for years.
The survey showed that the average homeless person in North
Dakota has been that way for an average of about six months.
The report has been done each year since 2001 to obtain
grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development. North Dakota has received about $7 million since
2001, said Joel Manske, director of the HUD office in Fargo.
Kristi Schmidt, development director of the Ruth Meiers
Hospitality House in Bismarck, a nonprofit shelter and soup
kitchen, calls North Dakotans with no permanent place to stay
“the hidden homeless.”
Schmidt is a North Dakota native who returned home about six
months ago after living 18 years in New York.
“You don’t see them lying around on the
street,” she said. “North Dakota people are very
proud.”
She said unless the homeless are in shelters, they tend to
live under bridges, in abandoned buildings or in cars.
At the Ruth Meiers Hospitality House in Bismarck, no one is
turned away unless they are a sex offender, Schmidt said.
Residents there are given housing, food, health care and help
with finding a job.
“We try to give them the tools they need so they can be
productive,” Schmidt said. “The more tools we can
give them, the better off they’ll be, and not be in this
position again.”
For Greene, the shelter has been a savior. He said he was
able to use the shelter’s computers to fill out resumes
and search for jobs. On Tuesday he found one that he said
will pay him enough to be able to afford an apartment in
town.
“Without this place, I never would have made it,”
he said.