Public Comment on the Downtown Engagement Center – Fargo City Commission, September 15th, 2025
Good evening Mayor and Commissioners,
My name is Chandler Esslinger. I am the Executive Director of the Fargo Moorhead Coalition to End Homelessness, and a Fargo resident.
The Downtown Engagement Center (DEC) is not just a building, it is a vital lifeline and an essential part of our community’s effort to make homelessness rare, brief, and one-time. It provides a clear entry point for assistance and real pathways to permanent housing.
The DEC primarily serves people who cannot access other services, representing our most vulnerable and most disconnected neighbors. It is where people can rest safely indoors, meet basic needs, connect to healthcare, and begin taking steps toward housing. It also serves as a coordinated hub where agencies work together to move people from crisis to stability.
Some say the DEC attracts homelessness. The truth is, it reduces it, by bringing people indoors to connect with help rather than forcing people to survive on sidewalks and in doorways. That makes the DEC not just a compassionate response, not just a cost-effective intervention, but an essential function of public safety.
You all have been grappling with the City’s role in addressing homelessness. Even if you believe it is not the City’s job to end homelessness, it is the City’s responsibility to respond to the public’s concerns about homelessness and safety. That responsibility requires evidence-based solutions, not ideas rooted in opinion or politics, but approaches proven to deliver outcomes.
The evidence is clear:
The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness found that when engagement services are disrupted, people’s time without housing grows longer and their path back to stability becomes harder.
A HUD report from 2019 showed that when low-barrier centers close, unsheltered homelessness becomes more visible in public spaces, and cities end up spending more on police and emergency services without solving the problem.
The CDC has found that when people lose access to safe indoor spaces, both unsheltered individuals and the broader public experience increased risks related to safety, health, and sanitation.
By contrast, communities that sustain centralized hubs like the DEC see the opposite: people exit homelessness faster, public safety improves, and taxpayer dollars are used more effectively.
As you consider the future funding of the DEC, and its potential relocation, I urge you to lead with evidence. Choose what has been shown to not just address the symptoms of homelessness but to create real pathways to ending it. That is both the compassionate path and the fiscally responsible one.
Thank you.