The Good Life – March-April 2018

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One of United Way’s Bold Community Goals is to Reduce Hunger and Homelessness. Thanks to support from our community, a team of innovative housing navigators are changing the way people, organizations, and systems work together when it comes to helping people who are homeless. Housing Navigators at Work Thanks to a housing navigator made possible by United Way, a local man named Dewayne had his life changed for good. If you were to meet Dewayne, it is hard to imagine that just one year ago, Dewayne was homeless and arrested for panhandling on a Fargo street corner with nowhere to go, no home, no job, and just the clothes on his back. Earlier that year, Dewayne and his life partner, Lisa, gave birth to a baby boy, but soon lost custody of him. Days after their arrest, Lisa suffered a medical emergency that left her on life support before passing away in her jail cell. Not only had Dewayne lost the opportunity to be a father to his son, but he had lost his life partner as well. “Once you lose everything, you lose hope. But I wanted my son back – that was the most important thing,” said Dewayne. When Dewayne got out of jail, like many individuals in our community, he fell back into the same cycle of homelessness and addiction – staying in shelters and passing out on the sidewalks of Fargo, until one day a housing navigator was standing over him. Many times, housing navigators literally pick up individuals off of the street. That is what people need – a connection to the community. They need to know someone will be there for them and walk the path with them toward getting an apartment and stable home. That is exactly what United Way and the housing navigators are providing. Thanks to United Way, housing navigators are working every day in our community to provide support to the chronically homeless with a goal of helping them to remove the barriers to attaining and retaining stable housing. The ripple effect of housing The impact of a housing navigator goes beyond the people they help. Today, Dewayne is a successful member of our community, a part of our workforce, and is destined to achieve his goal of being a good example for his son. He is a “Force for Good” that impacts us all. 26 / THE GOOD LIFE / urbantoadmedia.com
When people like Dewayne have a stable home, they can move out of crisis mode and move their life forward. While we want to see people like Dewayne break free from that cycle of homelessness, it affects all of us as tax payers and the economic well-being of our community. Jesseca White, a Downtown Resource Officer with the Fargo Police Department, sees United Way’s impact first-hand and describes it through “Tim.” “When Tim was homeless, police had to deal with him hundreds of times throughout the year. After Tim had a stable home, we dealt with him less than thirty times per year—think about the cost savings to our community,” said White. Having housing navigators available in our community means a reduction in shelter says, detox visits, police calls, and emergency room visits — and United Way is measuring the impact. • Watch Dewayne’s full story at: unitedwaycassclay.org What is Housing First? Housing First prioritizes providing permanent housing to people experiencing homelessness, thus ending their homelessness and serving as a platform from which they can pursue personal goals and improve their quality of life. This approach is guided by the belief that people need basic necessities like food and a place to live before they can be successful in getting a job, financial management, or attending to substance use issues. How is Housing First different from other approaches? Housing First does not require people experiencing homelessness to address all of their problems or to graduate through a series of programs before they can access housing. The Housing First approach views housing as the foundation for life improvement and enables access to permanent housing without prerequisites. Housing Navigators offer supportive services to help people with housing stability and individual well-being, so they can obtain and retain housing. Does Housing First Work? Housing First is cost efficient. When Housing Navigators provide access to housing, this results in cost savings for communities because housed people are less likely to use emergency services, hospitals, jails, and emergency shelter, than those who are homeless. In our local community, after housing navigators provided services to two individuals, after six months, they reported more than $37,000 in cost savings to our community because of decreased service utilization. urbantoadmedia.com / THE GOOD LIFE / 27
Page 2 and 3: FATHERS // MR. FULL-TIME DAD I May
Page 4 and 5: Contents MARCH-APRIL 2018 / VOLUME
Page 6 and 7: WRITTEN BY: KRISSY NESS PHOTOGRAPHY
Page 8 and 9: to keep fencing but found the close
Page 10 and 11: UNITED STATES // Barbecue Grill Ame
Page 12 and 13: HAVING A BEER WITH // TOM SZYMANSKI
Page 14 and 15: HAVING A BEER WITH // TOM SZYMANSKI
Page 16 and 17: Ask 30 WOMEN WHAT MAKES A MAN ATTRA
Page 18 and 19: COVER // MICHAEL SCHLACT 18 / THE G
Page 20 and 21: COVER // MICHAEL SCHLACT “He saw
Page 22 and 23: COVER // MICHAEL SCHLACT “The tra
Page 24 and 25: UNITED WAY'S TO REDUCE HOMELESSNESS
Page 28 and 29: Introducing American Blended Bourbo
Page 30 and 31: LOCAL HERO // HARWOOD FIRE AND RESC

The Good Life – March-April 2018

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