With homelessness in Grand Forks on the rise, outreach workers are stretched thin

GRAND FORKS — For people who work with unsheltered and unhoused people, urgency is key — even on the warmest, sunniest day of the year. But in North Dakota, as winter temperatures fall below freezing, everything becomes a crisis-level emergency. When local shelters are full on the coldest nights, Grand Forks Police Cpl. April Prock says the police department first tries to locate an individual’s family or shelters in other cities and states that could take them. If those efforts fail, the police department has limited funds to put people up in hotels. When the hotels are full, Prock has been known to take people to 24-hour truck stops for a few hours to get out of the cold and to get something warm to eat. And as a desperate last measure, the police department has at times opened its entryway to anyone who needs a place to stay. “That is the last resort — who wants to spend the night in the PD anyway? — but it’s heated,” said Prock, the department’s mental health and housing liaison.

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