Skills center

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were learning in their mentoring sessions and the home environment they were going back to.

“We were running into a lot of individuals that don’t have stable housing. A lot of our youth were going from home to home… If they have major life instability, that negates any positive impact we can have. So that’s why we developed a housing program,” said Carlson.

There wouldn’t be an additional cost to the county for this shelter to operate; Carlson said Medicaid funding is available to cover the majority of mental health and substance abuse challenges clients face. But there are other state and federal funding sources, including grants, available as well.

“The pool of money already exists; it’s already going out to a lot of different organizations. There’s a lot of organizations doing really good work. It’s just figuring out how to best leverage that funding.

“We’re not here to take over any services from anybody — we want to help the services that are already there,” he added.

He said he would plan to work closely with the partners in the Clark County Housing Coalition, and was willing to train someone from Clark County to work at the skills center, if that is what the county wanted. He also would have opportunities to hire people who have worked through the skills center and are now ready to help someone else. He has many mentors on staff who have gone through significant personal challenges themselves, which helps them to meet the mentee where they’re at.

Carlson has personal experience himself with housing insecurity, which is defined as having moved two or more times in the past year. Carlson was unhoused at age 14 and spent a summer going from place to place in North Minneapolis. He was adopted at age 15. He also did two military tours in Iraq and when he came back, he ended up unhoused again. In 2015, he got out of incarceration and was gradually able to put his life back together.

Now, he has a desire to help other individuals who find themselves in the same situation. Initially he was focused on youth, but now has expanded the vision to youth, families and veterans.

“To really help our youth, we have to help the adults in their life and their families also,” he said. “We have to help the family to have a dynamic that is conducive to the recovery of everybody in the family.”

For more information, go to CCWe-Adapt.com.