Jill Schramm/MDN Pierce County Commissioner Terry Hoffert, left, speaks at the Elmer Jesme Conference as fellow commissioner David Bednarz listens at right.

Despite thousands of dollars spent in Ward County in the past year to improve shelter care for at-risk youth, County Commissioner Howard “Bucky” Anderson recently found himself monitoring two teenagers housed in the county administration building because the county had no other place for them.

The problem of shelter care came up at a meeting of the Elmer Jesme Conference of Counties in Minot Thursday. The conference includes Bottineau, Burke, Divide, McHenry, McLean, Mountrail, Pierce, Renville, Rolette, Sheridan and Ward counties, of which several had representatives at the meeting.

A change in state law no longer allows youth in custody for unruly behaviors or running away to be housed with youth who have committed criminal offenses. The separation prompted Ward County to utilize some of its federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to assist Youthworks in obtaining housing facilities separate from the youth detention facility located in the Courthouse.

Ward County Commissioner Shelly Weppler said the county has been housing youth in the Human Service Zone offices in the administration building for nearly a month because rules restrict the holding of youth in shelter care for more than two seven-day stays.

For the few youth who have exhausted their allowed time with Youthworks, the human service zone has used its offices to accommodate them while seeking other options. That might be a foster home, but county commissioners noted it often is difficult to find a suitable foster home. A youth may end up in county care with no place to stay because of running away from a foster care home.

“The number of children varies from two to four. Our zone provides round-the-clock supervision in four-hour shifts, two people at a time,” Anderson said. The human service zone is short-staffed and has difficulty providing 24-hour care.

“My suggestion was to use volunteers and since I have some time, I am a volunteer,” said Anderson, a retired teacher. “They call me about, maybe, once a week.”

“We don’t want to have them in that building,” he added. “We want to put them in a Youthworks building or other buildings that we had before and be able to monitor them there. That’s kind of our first step is to get them to a place where we think it’s better managed. I don’t think we change anything, but at least we’ve got them in a position where we think we can better handle the problem.”

The Ward County Human Service Zone and State Department of Health and Human Services were unable to provide comment on Thursday but the state department indicated comments would be forthcoming at a later date.

Anderson said the youth often have more than just behavior issues. They also may be dealing with addiction or abuse.

“It’s very difficult to analyze these situations to figure out what you should be doing. And then they have the opportunity to just get up and walk out anytime they want,” he said. “Their minds aren’t necessarily mature enough to make their own decisions regarding care, and you’re not allowed to make them for them. You’re stuck in a spot. There’s no fix.”

The issue is of area concern because a number of youth served come from outside Ward County.