MOORHEAD – A homeless shelter here says it has recently been forced to turn away an unprecedented number of families in a sign of a worsening homeless problem in the metro.
The shelter has turned away 250 families since April, said Mike Almquist, operations director for Churches United for the Homeless.
"We're completely full and, at this point, it's not a Churches United problem, it's a community problem," he said Friday.
Shelter officials began tracking the number of families it was turning away on April 15 because they noticed an "unprecedented" influx of families looking for a place to live.
"This was just an alarming rate," Almquist said.
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On Thursday night, the shelter at 1901 1st. Ave. N. held a total of 106 people, including 39 kids and 15 families, he said. The shelter has only eight family rooms, so seven families were staying in overflow spaces.
Families who are turned away say they are "doubled up, tripled up, they're staying with a friend and they're maybe in their car, or maybe they're in a discount hotel," Almquist said.
Dara Lee, president of the Churches United board, said the problem is caused, in part, by a lack of affordable housing in the area. "We've had a very good economy here, which has both attracted people to the area and put pressure on the housing market," which leads to the housing crunch, she said.
The majority of those trying to get housing with Churches United are local people, she said. When people call from out of town looking for a place to live, shelter staff simply tell them not to come, she said, since there is no room.
Churches United has applied to the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency for $8.5 million in funding to build an apartment complex for the homeless in north Moorhead. The proposal was controversial when first made public in 2014.
MHFA declined to provide money for the project when Churches United applied last year, but Lee said the organization's application is stronger this year. She also said Churches United has raised almost $360,000 in private donations and a $500,000 grant from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines for the project.
The MHFA will announce its funding decision on Oct. 22.
