FARGO — Citywide restrictions on camping on public property that primarily impacts members of Fargo’s unhoused community is going swimmingly, city staff told Fargo City Commissioners during their meeting on Monday, Oct. 14.

Growing need throughout the metro has resulted in a record number of homeless encampments along the Red River corridor, adjacent to the social services in downtown Fargo.

In early September, the commission banned camping on public property in response. However, with nowhere else for the unhoused to go, commissioners did write in a temporary allowance: camping is allowed in groups of less than three people as long as they aren’t visible from bike paths and roads.

City staff has since cleared away the noncompliant camps and relocated people to allowable camping spots, Assistant City Administrator Brenda Derrig said. They started downtown under the bridges — where the camps were most visible to the public — and worked out from there.

No one has been fined or arrested during the removals, she said. Violators to the city’s new ordinance face arrest and a fine of up to $1,000.

“This is really something,” commissioner John Strand said, “To have five weeks of this unfolding and some of our fears really haven’t come to fruition yet, as far as arrests.”

He commended them for their work.

Staff now does weekly outreach to all of the unhoused people sleeping outside, Derrig said.

With winter weather imminent and temperatures already dropping below freezing at night, Jennifer Faul, director of Fargo Cass Public Health, said that the city of Fargo and Fargo Cass Public Health are still deciding where to locate the winter warming facility this year.

For several years, the facility has been located inside the Downtown Engagement Center at 222 Fourth St. N., to give unhoused people a safe place to sleep to avoid death or medical emergencies in the extreme North Dakota weather.

Fargo city leaders have explored the idea of moving all homeless services out of the downtown area in years past.

The engagement center has served 485 people in September, Faul said, and averages 80 guests per day.

As for other city-run services, the Mobile Outreach team has transported 265 people experiencing homelessness when they are in crisis this month, she said, which avoided 81 different calls to Fargo police or medical personnel.

Whereas the city-run Gladys Ray Shelter, 1519 First Ave. S., gave emergency shelter to 103 different people in September.

Their teams will continue to do outreach to unhoused people to better connect them to services and support their basic needs, she said.

Fargo’s camping ordinance lays the foundation for Housing First, Faul said, which is a nationally recognized model to end homelessness that prioritizes getting people into service-supported housing and eliminates the barriers and hoops that keep people on the street.

While Fargo has been eying implementation of Housing First, no tangible steps have been taken yet. However work is happening behind the scenes, Faul said.

Her team has been meeting weekly with potential funding sources, supportive service providers, master leasing partners and downtown businesses since September in an effort to get traction on Housing First.

In the meantime, however, Strand asked about the well-being and quality of life of the people left sleeping in small camps by the river. Does the city provide them with access to porta potties, he said, or garbage cans?

While Faul didn’t know, Derrig said that there are garbage cans by the camps.

Strand suggested that the city get porta potties for people as soon as possible, noting that there is precedent as the city of Fargo maintains such toilets near popular fishing spots along the river for recreational visitors.

He questioned whether the city of Fargo could see a change for the worse in the number and needs of unhoused people given that Churches United — a Moorhead-based nonprofit organization that helps and shelters hundreds of people – faces financial challenges so severe that they’ve threatened to close their doors within the year.

Does Fargo have a plan for that possible eventuality, he asked.

No, Derrig said.

“We share your concern and I think we’ll have to see how everything unfolds and see where we end up,” Derrig said.

There are plenty of different groups in Moorhead who are trying to find a solution for Churches United, Mayor Tim Mahoney said, to help them keep their doors open.

“We wish them well,” Mahoney said of Churches United.