New housing unit may be constructed in rural NYM

By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

A group of around 50 people were present at the Newton Township meeting last Monday, May 12 as representatives from Mahube-Otwa, Otter Tail County and Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV) answered questions about a homeless veterans housing project planned for a location just off of Highway 106 near New York Mills.

The township board invited these representatives to help answer questions and concerns that many local landowners and community members have shared with the board. Liz Kuoppala, Executive Director of Mahube-Otwa, gave an overview of the project plan after addressing her thoughts on the importance of veteran services.

“My father was a Laestadian speaker and soldier, a military veteran,” said Kuoppala. “It was from him that I learned to revere veterans. Many of his grandchildren now have served and my dad, one of his proudest moments was being in the Army, being called for the Cuban Missile Crisis and it was that story that I grew up with. So I grew up knowing veterans are ready to serve, ready to protect and ready to jump in.

“We heard several years ago about veterans who were sleeping in their cars, tenting in the woods, and oftentimes just temporarily,” she continued. “So we built a strong partnership with Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans as we continued our work and we found that sometimes veterans just need a place to land that’s not just for a night. We put people up in hotels for a night or three, so this idea of tiny homes actually came from us talking to some veterans about what is ideal. So that’s how this project came about.”

Kuoppala stated that the goal of the project was to build eight tiny homes and a shared community building for the facility, which would be located on 360th Street south of the Grace Connection Church. The community building will also include on-site staff which may include an employment coach, Otter Tail County veterans service, MACV, as well as possibilities for a confidential meeting space, computer labs, and laundry facilities.

“The idea is people would stay there up to 90 days—it’s not longterm permanent housing—but during those 90 days, they would build a longer term plan on what they need in their lives,” said Kuoppala. “The people would come from our five counties we serve—Mahnomen, Hubbard, Becker, Otter Tail, and Wadena—we think primarily Otter Tail and Wadena because many of these folks will be driving to work and if you’re coming from too far, that’s going to create additional barriers.”

The program will not house veterans with a high level of needs related to mental health treatment as Mahube-Otwa is not set up for that kind of treatment. Kuoppala stressed that the facility would be a landing ground for local veterans who need a roof over their head, some support from the local veteran community, a bit of privacy as well as time to work on a more longterm life plan. Those with significant health or mental health needs wouldn’t be eligible for this particular program.

Sam Amundson, Fiscal Controller at Mahube-Otwa, also gave an overview of the financial side of this project. She commented that the nonprofit organization applied for a grant through the State of Minnesota for this project and was awarded $1.7 million for construction of this veteran compound. Through the process of finding a piece of property for the location and their purchase of a 73.5 acres parcel in Newton Township for $275,000 in December, they are left with $1.4 million to work with.

Dan Josephson, Energy Program Director, stated that they were intending on building quality homes that will last and plan on using Structural Insulated Panels (SIP) construction to help with energy efficiency and longterm life for the facility buildings. He said they planned on installing concrete slab flooring with hydronic heat.

“The people that are going to be coming to these homes, it’s not going to be people from Minneapolis, or Sioux Falls, or New York, it’s going to be your friends and neighbors, it’s going to be your classmates who are coming back to the area. These are our friends, our family, our neighbors that need a little time to decompress,” he said. 

Lastly, Megan Hernandez, Family Development at Mahube-Otwa, commented on the organization’s history with this same type of work. She said that Mahube-Otwa has helped people achieve housing stability over the past few decades and is well-versed in this line of assistance programming. She emphasized that this is not something new to Mahube-Otwa and they have a good deal of experience in working with these types of programs.

As Kuoppala opened up the floor for questions, Chris Roberts of the Newton Township Board asked the question that many property owners in the room were similarly thinking: will the property be a tax exempt parcel or not? Amundson stated that the taxes for 2025 have been paid in full by Mahube-Otwa due to the late purchase date, but that they intend on applying for tax exemption status going forward.

“You paid a lot of money for that property,” said one neighbor, “which is fine, but now that sale went on all our properties. So if you paid $4,000 an acre, I’m right next to it, so my land went up in value. You’re not paying any tax on that, so you’re putting all the burden on everyone in this room to do that.”

Resounding agreement came from around the city meeting room. Concerns from the last few years of county tax increases, as well as road maintenance and future improvement were heard. Increasing tax bills were a large concern for local landowners.

“It was a qualified sale, so it is going to affect land values,” responded Josephson. “State statute requires that all of your property needs to fall between 90 and 105 percent of estimated market value, based upon land sales. That doesn’t have anything to do with what your taxes are, your taxes are from what the county is assessing each parcel and what the township assesses. Those decisions are independent of what your land value is.”

Lora Rogers, Newton Township Treasurer, asked about road maintenance on 360th Street as traffic will be increasing with the facility’s installation. She acknowledged Mahube-Otwa’s intent to be tax exempt, but voiced concerns over how the road maintenance would be covered in the future.

“I think along those lines, you probably have the ability to have some special assessment policy that you can come up with and assess the adjoining properties,” said Josephson.

Along with tax concerns, community members also had concerns over safety. Residents local to the immediate area voiced safety concerns over the loosely developing trailer court just north of the vicinity.

“We’re not against the program, we’re not against the vets, believe me we’re not,” said Allen Erickson. “We’ve just had enough problems with this thing going on here.”

“I don’t know if the sheriff has told you he can’t evict people from across the road, if that’s part of what you’re getting at,” said Kuoppala. “This is different, because to evict somebody who is a renter, you have to give 90 days. We can evict people if they need to be evicted, with or without the sheriff’s help. So that won’t be an issue.”

“We’re also going to have some staff on site, working directly with folks, processing applications and doing payroll, so we’ll have extra eyes on the place. We do screening to find who is going to succeed in these homes. Once things start coming apart in your life, they just keep falling and falling, so the sooner we can catch someone and stabilize them, the better,” said Josephson.

“We don’t take manufacturing (drugs) in our program,” said Kevin Beichler of MVAC. “We don’t take arsonists, we don’t take people who have committed heinous crimes. We don’t put sex offenders in there. Do we take people who have done 25 years for murder? Yeah, we will, but the case manager does an initial screening.”

Beichler explained that not only is there a stringent process of eligible veterans for these homes, but those veterans who might need higher needs with their health, mental health, or who have extended histories of crime, would be excluded from this program and likely would be referred to a facility with more resources for those issues.

A question arose about whether a similar project to this program has been successful elsewhere in Minnesota. Beichler said that there are homes similar to these in Duluth and Minneapolis that have been successful. They have many resources and example policies in place in these locations that Mahube-Otwa is welcome to utilize.

“Our homes are 400 square feet,” said Beichler. “You have all the necessities. It’s pretty self-contained and for someone who’s used to living in a large place, it’s small. But for somebody who’s been tenting up for a period of time or living in a vehicle, it’s a great start.”

Another question about turnover rates in these homes was brought up. Beichler mentioned that 90 days in their goal, but some veterans need more time than that, in some cases up to six months. Others, he said, have stayed two weeks and have been back on their feet with a plan in that amount of time. Statistically, most veterans stay for the 90 day period.

Another question asking what the current need for veterans in this area would be at this time. Kuoppala said that they have four homeless veterans in Otter Tail County, four in Wadena County, and four in Hubbard County that have immediate needs. She said that the number is almost certainly higher, but some veterans are able to room with a buddy for a few days to a few weeks and move on to another friend’s home or any similar circumstance which wouldn’t be known by the state or county.

“When we think of homelessness, we imagine what’s on TV,” said Kuoppala. “So we think the numbers are bigger than that, but we don’t exactly know.”

Other relevant questions included:

• Whether more homes would/could be added in the future? Kuoppala said it would be possible, but they had no intentions of creating a neighborhood of homes. The rural setting is an important aspect of this facility.

• What would the cost to run the facility throughout a one-year period? Representatives from Mahube-Otwa said they had a number at their offices, but couldn’t answer at the time of the meeting.

• Had they been turned down from any other locations? Kuoppala said that they had initially tried the project in Becker County with a party who planned to donate land to their cause. Josephson said they pulled the project because the landowner was going through “stress and anguish” so they decided to purchase a property elsewhere instead.

At the end of the meeting, Chris Roberts thanked the Mahube-Otwa representatives as well as those from Otter Tail County and Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans as well as the members of the community for coming out to voice their opinion. He also addressed some of the more tense moments during the meeting.

“I want to say something about these people,” said Roberts. “They didn’t have to come here. We didn’t force them to come here, they came here on their own just to be information for everybody.”