The Face of Homelessness

What does a homeless person look like Fact is you may have come face to face with homelessness and not even known it That s because most of the people considered homeless in our area are considered hidden homeless Debbie Kuehn has more Safely tucked into bed on a chilly February night She slept peacefully unaware that her world was about to drastically change Erica Minot My neighbor next door to me woke me up and said there was a fire It was a nightmare come true 29-year-old Erica suddenly realized she was homeless not living on the street in a cardboard box or sleeping in her car homeless but Erica had become a member of Minot s hidden homeless population Wendy Rupert Vegas Motel Mgr I was a single mom for quite a long time and I know the struggles you face everday And sometimes it s hard to make ends meet and you just need a helping hand A stroke of luck brought her here to the Vegas Motel where she was given a bed in exchange for making some beds Erica is not the first person to find refuge here Over the past few years manager Wendy Rupert has opened her heart to many Wendy We ve had over 30 people that we ve helped in the last three years that have been homeless Most of it has been temporary A nd they work for a wh ile they get back on their feet And I have three that have continued to work and they ve been valuable employees for the past year 19-year-old Tiffany found herself in the same boat folloiwing a disagreement with her parents Tiffany She put me up for a few months and I ve been working for her basically And she helped me get an apartment basically And I m still working here Now as the Minot Homeless Coalition joins with other agencies in a nationwide effort to combat homelessness Rupert is uping the anti She s challenging other local businesses to the same Wendy From my perspective there are some challenges in employing a homeless person and challenges in wodking with a homeless person and I wanted to bring that perspective to the table Rupert says if communty leaders really want to make a dent in the problem they need to do more than talk It s been a rude awakening for Erica and Tiffany But when we come to terms witih the idea that homelessness is everyone s problem That could be an eye opener for many of us The community is receiving some federal money to help combat homelessness but in order to receive that money a strategic plan must first be in place Leaders say they are currently working on that plan and hope to have it done soon