(lighthearted music) (lighthearted music continues) - Hello, and welcome to "Prairie Pulse."

Coming up a little bit later in the show, we'll meet artist Deanna Joy Mayer.

But first, our guest joining us now is Chandler Esslinger.

Chandler, welcome to the show.

- Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here.

- Well, you're the Fargo Cass Public Health community liaison, and we'll get to that in a moment.

But first, tell the folks a little bit about yourself and where you're originally from, maybe.

- Yeah, so I grew up mostly in Sioux Falls and moved up to Fargo about 13 years ago.

My background is in anti-poverty programming via community action in the region, and then I also managed a homeless program that supports homeless veterans and their families across the state of North Dakota, as well as implementing, or developing and implementing community-wide initiatives that help improve overall health and wellbeing.

And I've been in my role at Public Health since March of 2023.

- Yeah, well, you're here today to talk about the homeless in our region, and especially in Fargo, I guess.

Let's start with maybe talking about, maybe a definition of homeless and then how that issue has changed over the last few years.

- Yeah, so people who are homeless just don't have a permanent residence, they don't have a place to sleep at night.

And we know that homelessness has been increasing across the nation.

Recent reports show that over the last year, we had a 12% increase in homelessness nationwide.

And of course, we're seeing some of those same trends here in Fargo.

- Yeah, so what percentage increase have you seen in the homeless population in Fargo then?

Has it been since COID or is it just happening?

- Yeah, so actually, that's a great point.

COVID, certainly the economic incentives or programs that were available during COVID have now pretty much all gone away, and so that really buffered kind of the cliff into homelessness that was coming kind of regardless.

And so now, yes, we do continue to see an increase in homelessness.

You know, the percentage kind of varies depending on what types of data we're analyzing, but what I tend to look at when I'm trying to understand the population that I primarily serve is the number of people who are living unsheltered.

And so in our most recent point in time count in the downtown area, we had about 50 people who were experiencing homelessness and were unsheltered, and that's more than we've seen in previous years.

- Yeah, so, where are these folks coming from?

Are they from North Dakota?

Are they from other regions?

Were they coming here for services?

- Yeah, so most people become homeless in the county that they were residing in.

But we do also know that sometimes people will travel back to a community that they have ties to, maybe they have family, maybe they lived here once, and they will return to a community that they're familiar with, maybe where they know they have access to services, and so it's a little bit of both.

- Yeah, well, you said a little bit about it, but talk more about your role as community liaison.

You know, what is it you really do and how does it play into the situation in Fargo?

- Yeah, so I work out of the Downtown Engagement Center every day, and I do a variety of different things.

One of my responsibilities at the Engagement Center is helping to bring in programming for our guests, make sure that we have outreach workers on site every day who are available to provide case management or care coordination to the people we serve.

And in addition to that, I work really closely with other city departments to kind of coordinate our homelessness response as well as our community-based organizations that make up the homelessness response system.

And so my goal with that work is really to help align the community around best practices for ending homelessness.

- Mm-hm.

So, how is Fargo Cass Public Health, you know, how are they actively involved with the day-to-day part of this issue?

- Yeah, we have a number of programs that serve our community who's unsheltered or experiencing homelessness.

So we have the Downtown Engagement Center, which is open every day from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM right now.

And that's a drop-in center where people who may not have a place to live, maybe were recently housed or who are at risk of homelessness, can come access resources, get connected to services.

And we also provide showers, lockers, and laundry as kind of some of those basic needs.

Often we'll have some food available for people, and really just serve as a place for people to be outside of the elements throughout the day.

And we also run the Gladys Ray Shelter, and that is the only low-barrier shelter in our region, meaning that there are very few preconditions to entry.

Abstinence is not required.

So we really try to capture the population of people who aren't being served by the traditional shelter system, and so that program runs from 5:00 PM to 8:00 AM every day.

We also have our Street Outreach Program that works to connect with people who are living unsheltered in our community, getting to build relationships with them, hopefully help get them into a better place by connecting them with services.

So we really touch a variety of different points of the homelessness system and the individuals in our community.

- You know, can you talk about numbers a little bit?

How many, do you have identified a number that are homeless in the Fargo area here?

And well, start there.

- Yeah, so I can really speak specifically to the folks that we serve in our programs.

So at the Engagement Center, when we have a really busy day, we'll see upwards of 150 people.

We recently partnered with the city for our winter warming initiative, and that was also really eye-opening for the number of people that were in need of temporary shelter throughout the winter months.

And we saw over 700 unique individuals throughout the winter coming in to access the winter warming center.

And about 200 of those individuals were not previously known to us, so they had not been accessing any of our other resources before.

And so that really tells us that there was not only a demand for the winter warming center throughout the winter months, but we continue to see more and more people coming in and attempting to access services.

The Gladys Ray Shelter is a 24-bed shelter, and very frequently throughout the year we're serving above that capacity, just, again, to try to meet the need of people.

- That was the thought in my head.

Does it change with the seasons, the number of people you see?

- It can, yeah, absolutely.

We know that the winter months can be deadly.

We have really, really cold winters, and so we do tend to see more people present for shelter at that time.

But there are many factors that can contribute to that.

Weather really is one of them.

This rainy weather that we've been having has also driven people, more folks to come into the Engagement Center, more folks to present for shelter.

And so we do see it kind of wax and wane, but the trend just is that it's increasing, - You know, is housing the ultimate goal here and long-term solution or not?

- Yeah, I mean, absolutely, housing is the goal.

When we think about what qualifies somebody for being homeless, if you're accessing emergency shelter, if you're accessing transitional shelter, you are still considered homeless.

It is only once you become permanently housed that you no longer fall into that category of experiencing homelessness.

And so if we really want to address homelessness, we do need to get people into permanent housing.

That's the only way to kind of resolve the issue.

- Mm-hmm.

Well, I understand a representative from Milwaukee came by.

Can maybe you talk about how they're dealing with their homeless situation?

- Yeah, so we had James Mathy from Milwaukee County come and present to our community, and really what Milwaukee has been able to do is implement a Housing First approach with fidelity.

And so what Housing First really means is that you're able to move someone into housing without preconditions.

What we've learned is that when people are given the opportunity to have a dignified place to live, they're more likely to attend to other barriers that may keep them from being stably housed or may have led to their homelessness in the first place.

And so when we combine that access to housing with supportive services that people need in order to improve their situation, people tend to stay housed longer.

And one of the strategies that Milwaukee County has employed is master leasing.

And so they'll partner with local property managers, local apartments, and they will receive a certain number of units that then they can move people in and out of as they identify folks who are in need of housing, and then really serve as that liaison between that property manager and the tenant.

- Mm-hmm, are there other cities that Fargo's learning from and things you can do?

- Absolutely.

I think that we are learning from other communities all the time.

I think Fargo is unique because of our size.

And so Milwaukee's a lot bigger than us and they've been able to reduce their chronically homeless and unsheltered population by over 90%.

And when they've been able to move people into housing, those folks stay in housing at percentages of 80% or higher, above 90% actually in their community.

And so when we look at other areas, there are lessons learned in terms of what works, what doesn't work, and so we're always kind of evaluating what's working in other communities and how might we be able to implement that here.

- Yeah.

How does Fargo's homeless situation compare with Grand Forks, Bismarck, Minot?

- Yeah, so, we do know that homelessness is increasing throughout our entire state.

There isn't a single county in our state that hasn't been touched by eviction or where people aren't at risk of becoming homeless.

Of course, because our population is larger, we do tend to see a larger percentage of people experiencing homelessness.

But there are people experiencing homelessness in all of those communities.

And one of the things that I think is actually really unique about the relationship between Fargo and other parts of our state is that sometimes Fargo will be able to implement something or kind of pilot something, and then other communities will be able to replicate that as well.

So we saw that with our winter warming center.

Many communities were facing more people than they had seen before in need of shelter and there just wasn't available shelter beds.

And so because we were able to adopt our winter warming center, other communities began to explore that model as well.

- Yeah.

When you talk about the homeless, and I got a couple of different things here, some homeless is because of mental health reasons or alcohol or drug addiction, but can you talk about the services or treatment that you have that's out there available for that, for the homeless?

- Yeah, so, you know, we are in need of more mental health and substance use services for everyone in our community.

And the vast majority of people who have a mental health issue or a substance use issue are housed.

But we also know that the need for those services just really outweighs the availability in our community, and so it would benefit everybody if we were able to build up those services more, not only to meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness but also people who may be housed who are struggling with those same issues.

So it's absolutely an important intervention for everyone in our community.

- You know, what percentage of the homeless population are, I guess, chronic homeless versus maybe those who are in a temporary situation or in a transition phase?

- Yeah, so most people who experience homelessness are able to self-resolve.

So there is a small portion of people who are chronically homeless, and that population does continue to grow as well.

And so I think, you know, the numbers that we see in our community of people who are experiencing chronic homelessness, that's really driven by the fact that they have just so many more significant barriers to access housing than folks who are maybe becoming homeless for the first time, and that's just the nature of being on the street for a prolonged period of time.

But it is a small population of the overall population of people experiencing homelessness.

- Mm-hmm.

You know, why do people end up homeless?

I know a variety of reasons, but maybe you can explain a little more about, you know, why they are and what they can be?

- Yeah, I mean, there are a number of personal crises that an individual can face that can lead them into homelessness.

A lot of times those are economic factors, like unplanned medical bills or car repairs.

Sometimes there's a death in the family, and maybe it's the breadwinner and people are now in a financial situation that they didn't think that they were going to be in.

Some folks have been in foster care their whole lives and age out of that system into homelessness.

And some people have actually been homeless their entire lives.

So there's a variety of different factors that lead to someone being homeless, but ultimately, it's really because they have lost their place of residence and they cannot get back into housing.

And that's kind of where we see people kind of fall into that trap of being homeless.

- You know, maybe a tough question, but how do you balance the humanitarian issue when it comes to homelessness and then issues, versus issues for patrons who are downtown that may feel unsafe or are subject to panhandling?

- Yeah, that's a great question, and it's something I grapple with quite a bit in my day-to-day work.

And you know, I actually don't see those two issues as in contradiction or conflict with one another.

Everybody in our community is harmed by the experience of homelessness, whether you're housed or unhoused.

And so if we're able to address homelessness, move people effectively into permanent housing, that makes our entire community a better place to live and a place where everybody belongs.

And so I feel like if we were able to address that homeless issue with those more permanent solutions, we wouldn't be dealing with some of those symptoms of homelessness as well.

- You know, what kinds of shelters are available at night for the homeless?

I know certain times of the year, churches open up, other organizations help with this situation.

Do you work with those, or are you aware of those?

- Yeah, we are in constant collaboration with the shelters in our community.

I already mentioned the Gladys Ray, which is our only kind of true low-barrier shelter in the community.

We do have the New Life Center, which is a shelter for single adult men, and they serve many, many individuals in their programs.

We have Churches United on the Moorhead side that serves homeless individuals and families.

We also have the YWCA that primarily serves women and women and families fleeing domestic violence.

There is a shelter that opens up in the wintertime at Fraser, their Stepping Stones Resource Center that houses youths.

In homeless terms, we kind of identify youth as individuals between the age of 18 and 24.

And then we also have Youthworks, and they have up to five spots of shelter beds for youth who are under 18 in our community experiencing homelessness.

And so that really makes up the continuum of shelter availability and kind of the identified populations that they're meant to serve.

- Yeah, but can you talk about the personal and humanitarian angle to this?

That obviously these are human beings and, you know, not just faces, they have a backstory and a life.

- Yeah, I mean, because I work out of the Engagement Center every day, I have the pleasure of getting to meet some of our guests and hearing their stories.

And some of the things that people have done and experienced are just truly incredible.

People have attained really high education.

Some of them have been business owners, some of them have really just traumatic pasts that have led them into the situation that they're in.

But the level of resiliency that these individuals show, the level of commitment to changing their situation is really inspiring.

And so I'm grateful to sometimes be able to see a little bit beyond just the face and get to know more about that person as an individual.

These are moms, sisters, fathers, siblings, you know, these are people who live lives of meaning and substance every single day, whether they're housed or unhoused.

And so I think it's really important for everybody in our community to recognize that these people have a role to play in our community, and if we're able to kind of permanently address this homeless situation, again, that just makes our community a better place to live.

- Well, without naming names, can you talk about any success story or two that you've been involved with, seeing people, you know, getting off the street, so to speak?

- Yeah, so in my role, I don't do as much direct service as some of my peers, but I have been able to hear success stories of people who maybe have gotten their first apartment in their entire life and just how their life can completely transform when they have that dignity of housing.

You just have access to different choices than you have when you're on the street.

You're able to address other issues that you may want to in your life, maybe reconnect with your children, maybe get a job, or maybe, you know, pick up a hobby that you have abandoned because you haven't had a place to live.

And so, you know, I think the folks that I know who've been able to get housing are just some of the most incredible resilient people, and I wanna see more of those success stories continue.

- Yeah.

So what's your message maybe to the public who go to downtown Fargo or Moorhead or anywhere, and in terms of safety and in terms of, well, what the city of Fargo's trying to do?

- Yeah, that's a great question.

And I think, you know, because I work in the Harm Reduction Division of Fargo Cass Public Health, we really think about this in terms of wherever we go, there is an element of risk, right?

And so what we try to think about is, how do we minimize or mitigate the risks that are associated with any type of activity?

And so we work really hard to meet people where they're at, both our housed community members and unhoused community members, and that's actually helped us develop a brand-new program, our Neighborhood Response Team, which is specific to downtown.

This is a team of harm reduction advocates that are walking around downtown every day from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

Business owners, visitors, and residents can call the Neighborhood Response Team if they identify somebody who's in a crisis or maybe have passed somebody who's in a crisis or interacting with them.

And they're able to then kind of manage a response to that.

And just by default of being downtown actually, alongside these folks, sometimes we can prevent a crisis altogether.

And so that's really our approach to trying to make our community as safe as possible for everyone.

- Which I'm sorry we're out of time, but if people want more information, where can they go?

- Yeah, please visit us at the Fargo Cass Public Health website.

We've got some great information there about our programs and how to get in touch.

- Thank you for joining us today.

Stay tuned for more.

(lighthearted music) Deanna Joy Mayer of Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, has loved flowers since she was young.

To capture the intricate beauty of nature, she started using clay and plaster to create botanical bas-relief.

Her art is a form of self-expression and healing.

(gentle music) - Art is an integral part of who we are.

I think that everyone is an artist at some point, in some way in their life.

It expresses a part of ourselves that, when it is expressed, we have a much more full life.

(gentle music) When I was young, my mother gave me a flower press for a present and I started pressing flowers, and I had one of those rock tumblers and I made agates.

So I've always needed to have my hands busy creating something.

I started off in college with a business degree, and that was just a little too boring for me, and so I took an interest test and it said that I should be a florist.

And so I'm like, oh, that really sounds perfect.

So I went to school to learn the mechanics of floral design, and then I worked in the field and specialized in wedding flowers.

I was playing online, looking for something creative to do.

I saw this botanical plaster art, and I'm like, I've gotta figure out how that's done.

And it took a couple years for me to figure out the best plaster, the best moisture of content for the clay, and then I've just been having a lot of fun.

I lost a child 13 years ago, and if I wasn't working, I was pretty shut down.

And this was the first thing that kept me from shutting down after work.

It was revolutionarily healing for me, and I would consider it the biggest blessing in my life.

Bas-relief is anything that's raised from the surface.

So botanical, if you add that to it, it means that I used flowers, leaves, branches, anything that is fresh that will leave an impression in the clay.

I will pick my florals, and then I roll a slab of clay out to get a uniform thickness in the clay.

And then I will place and arrange the flowers on the clay and press them in.

I use just a standard clay, and the really cool thing is it's ecological in that I can reuse the clay time and time again.

I pull them out, and then I build a border, and then I pour in the stone plaster on top of that.

It's a really strong, dense plaster that captures all of the intricate details of the flowers beautifully.

And then once that cures, I'm able to pull back the clay and it reveals your piece.

And that's absolutely the most exciting part, is to peel back the clay just to see how it turns out, 'cause you don't really know, you don't know how something's gonna turn out until you peel the clay back.

And it's always in the reverse, so it doesn't look like you think it's gonna look when you peel back the clay either.

Once you peel back the clay, you cannot rearrange the flowers.

And as a flower arranger, I'm like, oh my gosh, why didn't I put that there?

Or why didn't I add something there?

So I would say there's a lot that goes to the landfill.

(chuckles) From there, it gets sanded and edited, and then I'll paint, and then I put a hanger on it and hang it on the wall.

I get inspired pretty much last minute.

On a walk, I will take a leaf and I'll flip it over just to see the veining in the leaf to say, "Oh my goodness, this would be amazing, this would capture great."

Or, last year, I had these tall wheat flowers and I'm like, oh my gosh, they're just perfect right now if I could capture 'em right now.

I also will do memorial pieces for people.

I'll take the flowers from the arrangements of the celebration of life or wedding flowers and then I'll bring them home and then I'll arrange them on the clay and create a piece that way.

I don't have any favorite flowers that I use, and I'm always experimenting to see how they'll work.

I will get in a bunch of flowers and they don't press well, or they stick in the clay, and to get them out of the clay, it marks up the clay too much.

I'll find ones, like delphinium are beautiful, they have a wonderful relief.

Pine branches are pretty amazing.

You get such detail you wouldn't know that it's not the real pine branch that you're looking at.

Sage leaves, they have intricate veining in them.

It's beautiful.

When people look at my art, I would love them to appreciate the beauty of nature and the flowers and the fine parts and pieces that it contains.

I believe that my early exposure to flowers and flower pressing gave me a delight when I look at a flower.

Just their beauty overwhelms me.

When I work on art, it's as though time will stop.

I'm in this wonderful world of exploration and joy.

I love it.

Yeah, I absolutely love it.

(gentle music) - Well, that's all we have for "Prairie Pulse" this week.

And as always, thanks for watching.

(lighthearted music) - [Narrator] Funded by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4th, 2008, and by the members of Prairie Public.