Beyond Band Aids: What Will Actually End Homelessness - A reflection on what our community is learning together through CCICH and Iain De Jong’s guidance.
At this week’s Cass Clay Interagency Council on Homelessness meeting, Iain De Jong held up a mirror to communities like ours, communities wrestling with how to respond to visible homelessness, public disruption, and human suffering that has become far too familiar on our streets.
He reminded us that what we are seeing is not moral failure. It is systemic failure, the predictable outcome of a housing market and social infrastructure that no longer meet the needs of the people who rely on them.
In Fargo-Moorhead, the public conversation often centers on what we see downtown: people sleeping outside, cycling through crisis systems, or struggling openly with addiction or mental illness. Those experiences are real. They can be unsettling. And they are symptoms of a deeper issue we can solve together.
Here’s what the data and decades of national evidence tell us:
About 60 million Americans live with a mental illness, and almost none become homeless.
Nearly 50 million Americans meet the definition of having an addiction, and almost none become homeless.
Every $100 increase in median rent leads to a 9 percent increase in homelessness.
That means addiction and mental illness do not cause homelessness. Lack of housing does. When housing is scarce, every other challenge -- trauma, substance use, mental illness -- hits harder. When housing is affordable and supported, people stabilize.
And the inverse is true too: when people who do have homes begin showing distress publicly, sleeping in cars, arguing in doorways, or moving from couch to couch, it is rarely because their illness or addiction suddenly worsened. It is because their housing stability has weakened. Rent went up. They lost a job. A relationship ended. The private strain of instability spills into shared public space.
Persistent homelessness also creates collective trauma. When people’s friends and chosen family remain unhoused, that grief ripples through the community. It pulls people back toward the street, toward the only networks that will not disappear on them.
So when we talk about what is happening in public spaces -- about safety, cleanliness, and dignity -- we are really talking about housing instability. And that is good news, because instability is something we can fix.
To do that, we have to see the whole system. Landlords, developers, business owners, and employers are not the problem; they are part of the ecosystem we must strengthen. The real drivers are stagnant wages, lagging social care systems, fragmented healthcare, and the ongoing shortage of homes that everyday workers and families can afford.
When we invest in housing access, prevention, and supportive services, everyone benefits. Businesses see more stability in their workforce and less disruption in their doorways. Neighborhoods feel safer and more connected. Property owners face fewer evictions, fewer vacancies, and more consistent support when they choose to rent to people exiting homelessness.
This is not about choosing between compassion and accountability, or between helping “them” and protecting “us.” It is about choosing effectiveness. If our goal is safety, order, and economic vitality, housing is the solution that delivers all three.
Our community doesn’t need another band aid or another plan that moves suffering out of sight but leaves the root cause untouched. We need the courage to stay focused on what works: housing access, prevention, and stability. That is how we make homelessness rare, brief, and one time, and how we build a community where safety and dignity belong to everyone.
So let’s be clear-eyed about what we are solving for. We are not just solving for fewer people struggling in public view. We are solving for people to have a place, and the stability, to come home to.
Ending homelessness is not only possible. It is the most direct path to addressing every symptom of disorder we see. The data proves it. The people living it deserve it. And our community will be stronger, safer, and more whole when we finally align our actions with that truth.
Reflection written by Chandler Esslinger, Executive Director of the FM Coalition to End Homelessness.