(Spirit Lake)– Efforts are underway to start up a program in Dickinson county similar to one already in place in Spencer and Clay county, to assist the homeless population.
Regina Reed, Executive Director of ATLAS at the Lakes, says the Community Housing Access Resource Team, or CHART, would provide a response to someone looking for shelter within 6 hours of being referred to them. She says they would provide up to 10 days of temporary housing in a hotel if no other options are available. While a limited system is already in place in Dickinson county, Reed says it has a number of shortcomings…
“No coordinated responses. Once in awhile we’ll put somebody in a hotel for a night or we’ll send them to a campground when possible and if we have the funding. When we have to take them to a homeless shelter or for any sort of recovery because we don’t have any place locally, we’re taking them at least two hours away. We have developed some strong relationships in Sioux Falls and places like that to take people for recovery, but it’s expensive getting them there and it’s ripping them away also from the community that they’re used to being in.”
Reed adds the need for such a program in Dickinson county is very real…
“So from January of 2025 through October of ’25, these are out of 208 clients, these are the numbers that we put together at ATLAS that we’re dealing with: near homelessness is 38 percent; homelessness 58 percent; substance abuse 61 percent; domestic abuse 13 percent; mental health 79 percent and financial hardships 94 percent. We have established some relationships in the community for housing we have helped people get into. We’ve placed four people in a place in Milford that’s been working with us that rents rooms and things like that, so we’ve already started developing those relationships that we’d be able to continue to use through the CHART program.”
Reed says a number of guidelines and requirements would be established, along with navigators who would provide case management services and transportation…
“If somebody needed to be in recovery before we thought about finding them a permanent home anywhere, we would make sure that they’re getting that recovery help. And whether that’s addiction, whether it’s a mental recovery the need, whatever that looks like, we would make sure that they’re going through that process before we ever thought about actually finding them a home.”
CHART has been in existence in Clay county since October of 2023. Rebecca Goeken oversees the program in that county. She says since then, they’ve had 189 households referred to them and that they’ve provided services to some 375 individuals.
Reed and Goeken presented the information at Wednesday’s Dickinson County Board of Supervisors meeting. Supervisor Steve Dullard said he’d like to see them work with Discovery House on the matter, which the county already provides financial assistance to.
