2000 Best Practice Awards

120 Housing Acquisition, Rehabilitation

The HRA buys single family homes which need extensive repairs and are difficult to market because of that. The HRA, in collaboration with others, rehabilitates the homes and then sells them to moderate income households.

201 Prairie Harvest Human Resources

In 1997, Prairie Harvest Foundation successfully completed a HUD 811 project to address the need for a 24 hour supported housing complex for individuals with serious mental illness residing in Grand Forks, North Dakota. Harvest Homes Inc. was developed to address the problem of homelessness resulting from the deinstitutionalization of North Dakota State Psychiatric Hospital. Traditionally, community intervention starts with individuals less severely affected by mental illness and progresses to individuals more severely affected. As a result, Grand Forks was experiencing a gap in services provided between residential group-home living and independent community living. Harvest Homes fills this gap. Individuals who reside at Harvest Homes are individuals who have tested the limits of existing services and have demonstrated the need for an enhanced level of support. These individuals are referred to Harvest Homes by Case Managers from the Extended Care Unit at Northeast Human Service Center.

477 Village Family Service Center’s

The Village Family Service Center is a multi-service agency providing many family social needs including that of homebuyer education seminars. The Village began offering an ongoing bilingual Homebuyer Education Seminar in 1999 in order to address the significant homebuyer needs of the multi-cultural refugee population in the Fargo/Moorhear area. The Village Financial Resource Center is committed to helping individuals and families develop the capacity of homeownership. Within this commitment, the Village first time homebuyers education and pre-purchase counseling focuses on preparing households for homeownership.

The Village Family Service Center is a multi-service agency providing many family social needs including homebuyer education seminars. The Village began offering an ongoing bilingual Homebuyer Education Seminar in 1999 in order to address the significant homebuyer needs of the multi-cultural refugee population in the Fargo/Moorhear area. The Village Financial Resource Center is committed to helping individuals and families develop their skills as homeowners. As part of this commitment, the Village makes education and pre-purchase counseling available to focus first time homebuyers on preparing for homeownership.

537 Dakota Pioneer Center

The Dakota Pioneer Center which opened in April,2000 provides affordable housing and 24 hours extensive supportive services for persons with serious mental illness and chemical dependency. The project targets those individuals who are homeless, mentally ill, addicted, or suffering from a debilitating health condition. Individuals who no longer need the structure of a hospital setting, but are not yet fully ready for independent community living, will benefit from this project. The Center was designed as a 24-hour staff supervised facility with a security system to assure maximum privacy for the residents. It has 31 residential apartments which consist of 10 efficiencies, 18 one-bedroom, 3 two-bedroom units. In addition, there are 4 crisis rooms, a medicine room and a resident lounge. The Center is located in a four story 1910 historic building. Prior to the establishment of the Dakota Pioneer Center, the upper three floors of the building were vacant and deteriorating from the results of a fire. The rehabilitation of this building into a functionally usable housing project not only benefit persons with special needs it also benefits the Fargo Metropolitan Area.

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570 Community Homes, Inc.

This pilot program is administered by the Division of Field Services, Parole, and Probation, and the North Dakota Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and Community Homes Inc. The program seeks to establish satellite offices throughout the community and in concentrated areas where offender populations have been identified and located.

Community Homes Inc., a prime candidate for the program because of neighborhood demographics, is a lead partner in the endeavor. Protecting the safety of residents residing in Community Homes is of utmost importance to Hendricks Property Management. However, a lack of resources limited the ability of the property managers to provide additional screening mechanism’s and onsite policing. As a result, significant staff resources were tasked with monitoring such problems as vandalism, rent collection, and tenant complaints.

Community Homes, Inc. provided increased policing allowing management staff to focus less on the security needs and more on tenants’ needs.

573 LaGrave Place Learning Center

The LaGrave Place Learning Center is owned and operated by Grand Forks Homes Inc., a non-profit corporation in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Learning Center serves 66 families living in the LaGrave Place assisted-housing complex and 125 families in two additional properties housing the elderly and the disabled on the same contiguous block. In the most recent 12 month period the center recorded in excess of 3,000 visits. In 1976 Grand Forks Homes Inc. constructed the LaGrave Place residential assisted-housing complex to house low and moderate income families. This development, while intended for family occupancy, neglected to consider the educational, recreational, and social needs of the households that would eventually inhabit the homes. Many of the occupants, as a result of their socio-economic history, tended not to be involved with community activities. This lack of involvement tended to leave children with extended periods of time (i.e., summer months, after school hours) without the opportunity to develop social skills, work study habits, and attitudes that foster self-sufficiency. Due to this unstructured environment, these children were steered towards episodes of fighting, vandalism, unauthorized property acquisition, and other disruptions of the peace. Adult members of the housing complex lacked job training, skills education necessary for attaining economic self-sufficiency. Location, distance, child care issues, fear of new places and activities, were often identified as impediments to residents involvement in self-sufficiency activities. The availability of the onsite facility has removed these barriers and provides families access to the above services, thus, enabling residents the ability to become economic self-sufficiency.

583 Oakwood Court

Oakwood Court is a seven unit independent-living apartment complex for low-income individuals with serious mental illness. The housing makes it possible for residents who would ordinarily remain in state institutions to live independently while receiving services on-site by the North Central Human Services.

633 City of Grand Forks- Summer Youth Employment

Summer Youth Employment Training Program is a youth job development initiative designed to provide job training through a transformed classroom. The intent is to provide meaningful work opportunities for the low and moderate income youth; develop functional context-based educational services that are effective in teaching a full-range of skills that will be needed in the workplace; help youth understand the relationships between the skills learned in an educational setting and skills applied on the job; and to help build linkages between the summer and year-round education or work to help translate summer success into the school year. The Program has created many opportunities for young people to get involved and to work as contributing members of their community.

701 City of Fargo/Moorhead Homeownership

In collaboration with the Cities of Fargo, West Fargo, West Fargo, Moorhead and Dilworth, the Fargo, North Dakota Community Builder staff initiated a Homeownership Fair including the participation of the local REALTOR Association, F-M Home Builder Association, USDA/Rural Housing, 15 local lenders. FannieMae, North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, and the Village Family Service Center. More than twenty vendors participated in the Homeownership Fair. The goal of the fair was to strengthen partnerships that deliver homeownership opportunities to homebuyers and share the common goal of making homeownership a reality for those residing in the Fargo-Moorhead area.

760 MHA Entrepreneur Training Program

The Entrepreneur Training Program promotes self-employment as a viable and legitimate method for our participants to become self-sufficient. It provides an opportunity for them to receive the professional training, guidance, and technical assistance to start their own businesses. This business creation in turn strengthens local economics and plays and important role in the upward mobility paths to higher earnings. The program provides individualized counseling to the participants, addressing such needs as child care, transportation, credit history, budgeting, housing needs, additional education, and job training. Motivational presentations which focus on empowerment, networking, business etiquette, and dressing for success, provide the tools needed to be successful in any business situation. We work closely with other social service agencies the Entrepreneur Program is committed to helping its participants become self-sufficient. The success of the program is measured by the number of businesses created, purchased, or expanded and by the business and life-long learning skills gained by participants.

807 Parkview Apartments

Overview: Kenmare, North Dakota is a small rural community of 1,351 (est. 1997) population located in Ward county, North Dakota, near the Canadian Border. The major industry in the area is agriculture. The nearest large trade center is Minot, North Dakota located 52 miles east. The Kenmare Housing Corporation (KHC), was experiencing a need for additional units. Contact was made with the Minot Community Action Opportunities (CAO) office for HOME dollars to commission a needs study. Minot CAO a partner of Affordable Housing Developers, Inc. (AHDI), one of two multi-regional CHDO's in North Dakota. worked to secure a HOME pre-development loan. The proceeds of the loan were used to commission the Minot State University, Business and Community Assistance Center to conduct a needs assessment. The needs assessment indicated need for six units in the community, with a unit mix of elderly and family use. KHC applied to the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development (RD) for a loan to construct the project. Prior project commitments left USDA RD approximately $260,000 funding available in the state. This mount a funding was not sufficient to build the Kenmare project. The time frame of the use of the RD funds was such that if not committed in a short time they would be lost to the RD national pool of funding. KHC again approached AHDI to see if it could help to address the gap with HOME dollars. AHDI stepped into the project development role with KHC to address the gap. A local private for profit group was contacted and agreed to donate the land for the project. A HOME CHDO application was submitted and received funding. A geo-thermal heating system has been installed in conjunction with the project, funding was provided by the Division of Community Services in the form of a grant. The grant funds were from the Petroleum Violation Escrow account, Renewable Energy Initiative.

1154 Grand Forks Corporate Center

As a result of the Flood of 1997 the Central Business District in downtown Grand Forks was devastated. In addition to this destruction, three of the core Central Business District financial tenants were negotiating to relocate outside the district, increasing the uncertainty of the future of downtown. An immediate post-flood recovery strategy envisioned the construction of 100,000 square feet of class A office space in the heart of the Centaral Business District. The new building was intended to restore part of the lost tax base, bring the three core tenants back downtown, and act as a catalyst for private sector investment. The Corporate Center is the result of this immediate post-flood recovery strategy to redevelop the Central Business District area. The Center has been successfull in attracting private investments.

1496 Accounting Internship

The Minot Housing Authority decided to begin a partnership with Minot State University in order to create additional staff in the Housing Authority's Accounting Department. Additional staff was needed to convert the accounting system to HUD required GAAP accounting. The Minot State University Accounting Department was contacted in order to begin an internship program that would provide the housing authority with qualified, temporary assistance to complete the project at a nominal cost.

1505 City of Grand Forks- Acquisition and Demolition

After the spring flooding of 1997, many homes and commercial structures within the city of Grand Forks were damaged and beyond repair. Due to the fact that most of these structures were damaged in excess of 50% and were located in the flood plain, the property owners did not have an opportunity to repair their property. As a result of the CDBG Supplemental Disaster Grant provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the City of Grand Forks was able develop Voluntary Acquisition Programs to purchase these structures at pre-flood values. Because the vast majority of the residences were substantially damaged, the city of Grand Forks initiated Residential and Commercial Demolition Programs. This allowed the city to remove the substantially damaged homes. The city placed a high priority on site reclamation with the demolition contracts. After the removal of debris, the properties were backfilled with specific compacting requirement. Six (6) inches of black dirt was placed on the lot and the area seeded. In a relatively short period of time, each parcel was reclaimed to an attractive and maintainable state, most of which will be utilized as part of an ongoing Parks Department beautification program.

1516 North Dakota Fair Housing Council

The North Dakota Fair Housing Council was created two years ago to prevent, reduce and eliminate discriminatory practices in the rental, sale, and financing of housing transactions for members of all the protected classes as outlined in the Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968 and amended in 1988. To eliminate housing discrimination against residents due to their race, color, national origin, religion, gender, disability, familial status, age and status with respect to marriage and public assistance in the State of North Dakota in all its forms. Our goals are to provide education on federal and state fair housing laws and investigate illegal acts of discrimination. We assist individuals in the complaint filling process with HUD and advocate on their behalf. Through our activities, we ensure greater awareness among North Dakotans of the full scope of state and federal fair housing laws, including a greater willingness to pursue legal remedies to end discrimination.

2262 Prairie View Apartments

Rehabilitate a vacant, run down 8 plex in a community of 300 in rural ND, to provide the community with elderly living units, that are affordable. The small community had a very tight housing market due to an increase in oil exploration, in the area and several expanding local businesses. We needed to do some extensive repairs to the structure, make it accessible to the elderly by adding an elevator, make it affordable for the local elderly and be able to cash flow the complex for the investors. Area community leaders came up with the idea to rehab this building because of a concern they had, that the local elderly who could no longer take care of a home, had to move from the community for lack of a place to live. So the Community Action agency, the City of Scranton, County of Bowman, three local investors and the local Economic Development Organization joined together to complete this project.

Content Archived: April 20, 2011