ABOVE: Curt Moeckle of The Shepherd's In in Fairmont shown with some food donated by a Girl Scout Troop in Martin County.

FAIRMONT – As the weather gets colder, those with unstable housing are doing their best to keep themselves out of the cold.

Martin County Human Services (MCHS) Social Services Division Director Anna Garbers said a majority of the homeless people in Martin County are couch-hopping or doubled up with other families in cramped living quarters. While they are technically sheltered, Garbers said this still presents plenty of difficulties.

“When we’re talking about homelessness, a lot of times people are thinking about the encampments,” she said. “Because our population of people who are unhoused or experiencing homelessness are technically sheltered, but they still meet that definition, it ends up being an under-the-radar issue.”

The situation is a Catch-22 for MCHS. While those with unstable housing still need assistance to avoid ending up on the streets, some funding algorithms do not consider them homeless because they have a roof to temporarily live under. This means less funding comes in, relative to the actual amount of people in dire straits.

The State of Minnesota gave Martin County $180,000 for local homelessness prevention aid in 2024. Garbers said they hoped to use it all before the end of the year. After four months, all of the money had been spent.

“[The level of homelessness], it’s incredibly significant,” she said. It’s amazing the number of people who are currently in really difficult situations, as evidenced by the local homeless prevention aid and how quickly that money went out the door.”

MCHS is slated to receive nearly $200,000 in this funding for 2025, a slight bump that could help support extend further.

Garbers said several local factors have added to this. Insufficient public housing means people wait from six months to a year for Section 8 availability. No emergency shelters or transitional housing means those in immediate need do not have a place to go. One-bedroom apartments average $700 to 800, and there are limited job opportunities that pay a wage covering this and other basic expenses.

“It’s challenging to make ends meet on minimum wage,” Garbers said. “Higher wages are always going to make a big difference in being able to maintain housing. The other thing we’ve identified is the cost of food is high. That contributes to people being able to make ends meet, which can play into their overall budget for the month and contribute to housing instability.”

There are organizations like Minnesota Valley Action Council, Salvation Army and Heaven’s Table that Garbers cited as major sources of help. For those looking to help and know someone struggling with housing directly, she encourages them to give people a chance as much as possible.

“A lot of times, there are circumstances beyond their control,” Garbers said. “When people are barely making ends meet and living on a tight budget in poverty, they might be just one unexpected event away from a similar situation. If people can, we encourage people to donate to organizations that support people in tough situations.”

Support for homeless or housing-challenged people often comes with a wait, during which time people from situations like jail or rehab can fall through the cracks. Shepherd’s In founder Curt Moeckel started the organization in 2018 to try and seal those cracks.

“There’s this big gap between what they would like to do or what they would like to become,” he said. “They can’t because society doesn’t know where to put them. Jobs aren’t readily available. Even if jobs are available, a lot of these people may be bipolar, ADD, ADHD or PTSD. It’s difficult for them to hold a regular eight-hour-a-day job and be independent workers.”

When there is support available, Moeckel said there can be barriers for people to apply such as lack of address or struggles with technology. Even when they apply, he said it can take weeks or even months for application replies to come. This time is a vulnerable one for people from bad situations with nowhere else to go.

“[Going back is] the biggest danger they have,” Moeckel said. “They’re going to re-offend. They’ll get reconnected to drugs. They don’t want to be but they can’t help it. They won’t have any other way to go. The only thing they’ll think about is how they can survive.”

Because there are no emergency shelters in Martin County, Moeckel has no choice but to put people in hotel rooms until they can find solid footing.

“Until we get a homeless shelter, I try to put them someplace where they could stay warm in the wintertime.”

This puts a drain on Shepherd’s In’s finances, as hotel rooms are expensive and a temporary solution to a constant problem. Without places to go, Moeckel said people will often use any accessible and sheltered areas with warmth.

“[Those are] poor homeless shelters,” he said. “We need to do better in this city and provide these guys [shelter]. It’s a real deal, it’s going to happen. People are homeless, whether it’s their fault or not. At this point, we can’t try to figure that out. What we have to do is figure out a way to provide them someplace in the cold.”

Currently, Moeckel is eyeing two buildings in Fairmont that could be used as men’s and women’s shelters, complete with commercial kitchens. He said $400,000 is needed to purchase and renovate both buildings. Moeckel said he is looking for a volunteer grant writer to try and raise funds for this project and Shepherd’s In as a whole.

Moeckel said he views Fairmont as a garden. People in need are plants with potential to bear fruit, and Shepherd’s In is the gardener to keep away dangers which act like weeds.

“The weeds are always going to be there,” he said. “They grow on their own. They don’t need any help, but we have to hold the weeds, support the plant, and then it’ll produce fruit.”

For more information or to support, visit https://www.fmchs.com/index.php and https://shepherdsin.com/. Checks can be mailed to Shepherd’s In at 105 East Fourth Street.