Shelter For Homeless Veterans Finds Itself Without A Home

WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) — Michael Shaw came to Williston in 2012 to operate a homeless veterans shelter in an environment where unemployment was virtually unheard of.

"I realized that to be impactful about getting people jobs in my homeless shelter, I needed to operate in a zero-unemployment environment," Shaw said.

Since then, his program, The Guardians Foundation, has grown to a point where it can cycle through as many as 180 veterans in a year's time, helping them gain lucrative jobs in the fields of their choice. That success earned him recognition and a fair bit of grant money from Job Service North Dakota, and it ultimately attracted a federal contract that would allow him to help more veterans.

Unfortunately, that federal contract is part of the reason his homeless shelter is now, itself, homeless.

Shaw had picked a residential location similar to facilities that had been approved in the past for the shelter's home, and was under the impression it would either pass inspection or qualify for a waiver.

But, rules change, requirements increase, and, after a seven-month process, the facility he had chosen didn't make it through the red tape.

Shaw now owes his landlord a hefty $17,000, which he said he intends to make good on, even though his program is out about $40,000 in investments already put into his chosen facility.

"She will be paid," Shaw said. "I just cannot pay her all at once because it is a large bill."

Meanwhile, Shaw is regrouping. He has been seeking alternative arrangements for the 40 or so veterans he's been helping out all the while he searches for the program's next home..

Shaw's federal contract is still good, said Diana Hall, with the VA in Fargo, and there's nothing wrong with the home he was in as far as private use goes. It just couldn't meet federal standards for a commercial residential facility. It needed fire walls, sprinkler systems and commercial grade electrical systems, among other things, to meet the federal contract's fire safety standards.

"It's important to emphasize that it is a beautiful residential home," Hall said. "It wasn't appropriate to conversion to a commercial use, but it continues to be a beautiful home for a private family."

Hall said the VA will come down and inspect prospective properties before Shaw leases this next time, so he doesn't end up leasing something else that won't pass inspection.

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Mike Martin is one of the veterans being helped by The Guardians Foundation. He came back to Williston to get back on his financial feet after he says a girlfriend 'stole his money'.

He had a sleeping bag and a tent and was planning to camp out while seeking work.

Meanwhile, an employee at the Salvation Army learned he was a veteran and sent him Shaw's way. That has proven quite a boon to his job search efforts.

"Camping out is a full-time job to get clean and get food," Martin said. "It's a very large distraction from trying to get a job, so having that place, and just the connections, meeting the people there — Mike has got connections to jobs and he's driven me around — it has helped me enormously. I'm very impressed with what he has done."

He is not the only impressed veteran.

Cory Pannell was laid off from a job in Fairview, Mont. and a friend referred him to Shaw.

"Without Mike, I would have been homeless," he said. "I wouldn't have had food in my stomach because I don't get paid until tomorrow. I'd have been out on the streets, because I don't have a car now."

Finding a job while you're stressed out and don't know what you are going to eat that day is something Tom Hines can speak to, though he'd already gained employment by the time he found The Guardians Foundation.

Hines was laid off from a job in Watford City about eight months ago and came to Williston in hopes of finding something here.

He took the first job he could get, even though it didn't suit his skill set, and wouldn't be enough to cover rent. A co-worker advised him to see Shaw for help with housing.

Eventually, Hines was able to find something that suited his skill set better and could pay the rent. Shaw has offered to let him pay a reduced rent, however, in exchange for serving as a landlord for the foundation.

Hines is impressed with what he's seen at the shelter, too. "I've seen at least 50 veterans come to the facility and find jobs and housing through the services Mike Shaw, Job Services and the Salvation Army have provided," he said.

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Shaw is a disabled veteran himself. He started out with the idea that he'd provide fishing adventures for his fellow veterans, to help them get back to normalcy once they returned home. He changed his mind after seeing his first homeless veteran.

"I was driving by people with signs, and the guys in the back seat, they are having a good time and what not, but they were stable. They had roofs over their head. So I'm sitting here thinking, this isn't the best use of my donor's dollars. Matter of fact, it's a horrible use."

He couldn't go back to his donors and ask for another $5,000 for these trips.

"I have to believe in what I'm trying to pitch, and that just didn't make sense to me any more," he said.

So he started a shelter. And not a leave at 6 a.m. shelter, either. His program is a housing first model, which he believes is crucial to its success.

"Leaving at 6 a.m. and coming back at 7 p.m., tired and cold, not knowing what bed you will sleep in at the end of the day, I have issues with that," Shaw said.

He believes that a 24/7 program is necessary because the men can associate and share information. They can work together on the goal of finding employment. That keeps morale high. It keeps everyone focused on the job at hand.

Shaw had little more than resilience and a dream when he came to Williston in 2012. But in the first two weeks' he'd helped 13 veterans become employed earning more than $100,000 annually. Word of the program has been spreading as veterans he has helped tell other veterans about his services.

"For most veterans out there, you go through these other programs, and they might say, we offer this and that," Pannell said, "but he is a guy whose program actually takes you in, helps you find a job and gets you secure with your life."

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The decrease in oil prices has slowed the local job market. However, Shaw still sees the kind of opportunities that make a homeless shelter here highly successful. He wants the program to remain here, if he can find suitable accommodations for his grant.

The veterans say they, too, still see plenty of good jobs and opportunity in Williston.

"I've been working at the command center the past few days, just trying to get my wallet back in shape," Martin said. "But I talked to a guy a couple hours ago and it seems hopeful, so there you go."

Pannell, meanwhile, believes he, too, has a job lined up when he returns to the Bakken. He's going back home to retrieve his truck so he'll have transportation.

The downturn in oil may prove a silver lining for The Guardians Foundation, Shaw said. The man camps, no longer bursting with tenants, are interested in helping Shaw fulfill his federal contract.

"They qualify immediately for the VA contract," Shaw said, "so that would be ideal. I could stay here and expand my program."

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