MINOT — The Minot Area Homeless Coalition, Inc is a homegrown organization that has been going on for almost 36 years, having started in 1986. Louis (Mac) McLeod, the director, described its beginnings as a group of “concerned citizens who noticed there were no resources for homeless individuals.” McLeod said they noticed many of the homeless individuals that would come to their churches had no one to help them.
The MAHC has now expanded to become a 501c3 and has grown geographically. “Instead of just being something that is confined to Minot, it is now an organization that covers seven counties,” said McLeod. Those counties include Burke, Mountrail, McHenry, Renville, Bottineau, Pierce, and Ward.
The Homeless Coalition works with other shelters, using information and referral. “We may not be the first place that they call. We might be referred to, or people will call us, and we’ll have to tell them, “Hey, we’re not the agency that actually can help you, but we can get you to the right place,’” said McLeod.
McLeod has been involved in the agency since 2005. Over that time, he said he has noticed that homelessness has mostly been on the rise during the last few years, for several different reasons. Many have to do with COVID-19, as well as other circumstances such as floods, fires, tornadoes, drugs, mental health, disabilities, and deaths in the family. “There’s just not one thing that will cause a person to become homeless, there’s so many different things. A lot of people want to focus in and say ‘them people’. Well, I tell people all the time when I give presentations, I ask the folks that are there to look to their left and look to their right, and then I tell them, ‘Now that you have done that, you have just seen a homeless person, because they look just like you and me.’ The assumption is that homeless people are dirty, and they don’t want to do this and they don’t want to do that, and that’s false from the truth. Nobody wants to be homeless – especially in North Dakota. Who would want to be homeless in thirty below zero weather?”
"Nobody wants to be homeless – especially in North Dakota. Who would want to be homeless in thirty below zero weather?”Mac McLeod, MAHC director
McLeod also explained how much of homelessness has to do with housing problems. “Even before the pandemic. It’s hard to live on a ten dollar an hour job, when you’re paying 30% of your income just to keep a roof over your head. With the rise of housing during the oil boom, prices went up, and they still haven’t gone completely down – they’re still high. Most individuals cannot afford $800 for a two bedroom apartment, or in some instances you’re looking at $1,000 for a one bedroom apartment. So that is way out of pocket for a lot of individuals.”
The Minot Area Homeless Coalition is able to take some donations. McLeod explained, “We definitely take monetary donations, and we do have a small food pantry. We also get some clothing donations. We do not have a big storage area, so we can’t take as much, but we do collaborate with other agencies in our area that deal with homelessness. Donations are always welcome. Volunteers are welcome. I always tell people this, ‘If you’re not sure, always ask questions, find out who’s doing what.' We’ve tried to put out quarterly, available resources in the Minot area, and this way people have an idea of who’s doing what. And the agencies that are on this list have all been vetted.”
McLeod continued, “We have truly been blessed the last two years, and one of the things that has helped most of us non-profits in this area has been because of the Saint Joseph’s Community Health Foundation, who has run a program from mid-November until the end of December the last four years called ‘Twice Blessed’. And what that program does is, if somebody wanted to donate throughout a period of time, say to our organization, $100, that would be matched to become $200. When people understand the need, it’s much greater than anybody has anticipated. Donors know who touches their heart, and this gives them an opportunity to give to that particular organization, and help them to continue to do their mission. For a lot of people, knowing that their donation stays within this area is a big thing. When they know that it’s not going out of the state or out of the area even, that’s a great motivator."
According to McLeod, helping those who are already homeless is not their only mission. “The non-profit organizations that deal with homelessness across the state have been working for over 20 years to try to ensure that people who are in a situation are taken care of, and trying to prevent homelessness as well, and I think that’s very important. And this goes from east to west, north and south of North Dakota. They have tried, and, in some respects successfully and in others areas maybe we haven’t done so well, but you wanna talk about agencies that are firm advocates for the homeless individuals, the North Dakota Homeless Coalition has so many individual agencies that their main goal is to try and improve the housing situation and improve the resources to keep individuals from becoming homeless.”
More information on the Minot Area Homeless Coalition, Inc can be found on its website and by calling 701-852-6300.
