DUNSEITH – “What you see on the street is just part of the problem,” said Emil LaRocque of the homelessness situation he and others are working to address on the Turtle Mountain Reservation.

Local advocates for the homeless population formed a nonprofit that partnered with the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa a few years ago to obtain American Rescue Plan Act dollars. With the funds, they opened a homeless shelter, Mikinaak Ode, in Dunseith. The project is more than halfway into a five-year strategic plan to end homelessness, and shelter staff staff say there’s been progress.

Melissa Anderson, executive director of the Mikinaak Ode Shelter, said resources are increasing and communication among the program providers is improving.

The shelter’s lead case worker, Moria Parisien, agreed people are uniting behind the problem.

Beds are ready for homeless individuals on Turtle Mountain Reservation who need a night’s rest. The emergency shelter in Belcourt serves both men and women.

“A lot of our people are not really educated in understanding addiction and homelessness. Just educating our community on it, they’re starting to come together,” Parisien said. The reservation now has a homeless coalition and an opioid coalition to attack those two problems.

With peer support that now is in place, clients have someone they can call for transportation or just to talk, Anderson said. The shelter has trained care coordinators who also serve as peer support due to lack of funding to fill additional positions, she said.

“We do a lot of outreach. So when our client leaves here, we still follow them,” she said. “A lot of our clients are illiterate and they don’t comprehend well. They have unmet needs for their mental health. They’re not diagnosed at a younger age, and they age, but emotionally, mentally, they stay stuck in that trauma that they’re in.”

“A lot of the problems that we experienced are caused by generations of forced poverty,” LaRocque said. In 1974 when he returned to the reservation after college, unemployment was 65%. Years later, unemployment remains high.

“Not all is lost. We have a lot of young people going to college, and that’s going to make a difference,” LaRocque said.

Lead case worker Moria Parisien, back, and Hayley Poitra, IT/care coordinator/activity coordinator, work on paperwork and other tasks to assist clients in achieving their personal goals at the Mikinaak Ode Shelter in Dunseith.

Still challenges remain. Students struggle to financially pay for college while meeting their basic needs, making it harder to climb out of poverty. Homeless youth are vulnerable to predators.

Many homeless shelter clients present with unaddressed depression, trauma and unhealthy coping mechanisms, Anderson added.

“When we opened we were able to design it around what our needs are on the reservation for Native Americans. A lot of the evidence-based programs out there, they work to an extent, but not for our culture,” Anderson said. “Before you even get to that evidence-based program, they need a lot more help.”

Anderson and LaRocque see a big need for a detoxification center, where those facing an addiction can get help before they come to the shelter, which is not equipped for detox.

Mikinaak Ode Shelter serves to connect clients with access to health care, housing and education. Staff help clients obtain identification cards and pay off any court costs they might have incurred. The shelter has assisted women who have been victims of domestic violence find help. The shelter offers a garden and poultry raising and trains clients in food handling. It is partnering with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish a greenhouse this summer.

“We try to do everything we can to help them move forward,” LaRocque said. “The change we look for is when they are up to par on their healthcare, including dental, or if we’ve been able to find them shelter, permanent housing. Or if we have been able to influence them to apply for the different programs that can possibly help them, and they do and they get help. We see that as progress.”

“Just giving them that hope is basically what they need,” Parisien said.

Additionally, an emergency shelter in Belcourt can accommodate six men and six women. Families are referred to other agencies. The shelter stays open year-round with the help of grants to pay utilities and workers and purchase supplies. Tribal support also helps with food, clothing and employment opportunities.

The tribe has established soup kitchens in Belcourt and Dunseith. Belcourt has a food pantry, while Dunseith has been in the process of establishing one. An addiction recovery center under construction in Belcourt also is expected to be a key resource in the community.

The Turtle Mountain Housing Authority manages about 900 housing units across the reservation. Another 52 apartment units are under construction, along with another 20 units designated for veterans.

Rebecca Patnaude-Olander, executive director for the authority, said the waiting list averages from 120-130 applicants, although there always are some tentative applicants who reserve a spot in case they decide to relocate back to the reservation.

Patnaude-Olander said homelessness has long been a case of families doubling or tripling up in housing, but in the past several years, the prevalence of homeless individuals living on the street has increased. She attributed the increase to factors such as drug addiction, which have caused people to no longer be able to find housing with family.

The Turtle Mountain Housing Authority also must conduct background checks, and some homeless individuals are disqualified on those findings, Patnaude-Olander said. Not everyone in need of housing has jobs or the daily living skills to be able to be renters, either, although the Dunseith shelter seeks to assist its clients with those independent living skills.

Patnaude-Olander said the housing authority works with homeless shelters, child welfare, law enforcement and addiction counseling services but is limited in its ability to serve clients who need help outside its scope. She added there currently is no transitional housing on the reservation, although the new recovery center under construction might provide some transitional living.

The Turtle Mountain Reservation participates in annual homeless counts held across the state, most recently recording 18 sheltered individuals between the Dunseith and Belcourt facilities and seven unsheltered, Anderson said. Actual numbers are far greater, though, she said. The last count included only unsheltered homeless along public roadways. Many homeless individuals are hidden to those who aren’t looking.

“We knew about a family wintering in a pickup camper – a family of seven,” LaRocque said. “We knew about people out in the outlying area who had no electricity, no running water and a blanket for an outside door. We knew about couch surfers, when you are bunking with relatives and you’ve got no place to go. We knew about people not having a home, living outdoors for two years in a row, even at 40 below. When I ask them, ‘How do you survive?’ they said, ‘What we do is we get under a pile of blankets and then we all huddle together all night long and then we go to the mall in Belcourt in the daytime to warm up.’ They did not know where their next meal was coming from.”

Although some individuals choose the homeless lifestyle, he said, most do not, and it is a dangerous choice, especially for women.

Anderson said the numbers of homeless individuals seeking help at the Dunseith shelter has been increasing as awareness has grown, with equal numbers of men and women coming for help. Because the shelter isn’t set up for families, rented rooms outside the shelter are made available when funds allow.

Shawnell Willer, coordinator for Continuum of Care in North Dakota, said emergency shelters are few across the state generally, and Turtle Mountain is the only reservation with a formal shelter program. The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa has been the only tribe so far to enter an agreement with the state that opens doors to certain federal grants to address homelessness. Mikinaak Ode Shelter has sought help from professional grantwriters as it strives to obtain the funding to maintain and grow its services.

Parisien said outside groups and agencies are hearing about what is being done at Turtle Mountain and want to work with them.

“And they’re listening,” Anderson added. “They are listening to our needs as a shelter.”