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Meeting the housing needs of the homeless requires persistence and collaboration. In Bismarck, Community Works North Dakota created partnered with Ruth Meiers Hospitality House to provide affordable housing units for this vulnerable population.
CommunityWorks financed an interest rate buy down that enabled Ruth Meiers to complete construction on a repurposed nursing home to provide affordable housing units for low-income, homeless individuals and families as they reintegrate into the community. Efficiency and one- and two-bedroom units are available in three locations in the city. Apartments are rented at current low-income voucher amounts, up to a maximum of 30 percent of a tenant’s income. Tenants sign a lease and can stay in the apartments as long as they are eligible. On any given month, the units are at 95 percent occupancy and 28 days out of 30 they are full.
What makes the Ruth Meiers units such an effective intervention is that tenants also have access to other services. These include free basic and preventive health care, nutrition (three meals per day), affordable child care and after-school care and employment services.
Ruth Meiers residents Mary and her husband, Al, credit this program with helping them reunite their family and get back on their feet. Both had struggled with addiction for many years, eventually losing custody of their children. With another child on the way, Mary and Al felt it was time to get clean and sober. Both received addiction treatment and after-care services and moved to Ruth Meiers.
"I was very nervous to live in a shelter," says Mary. "I arrived a few weeks before my husband. Through my case manager, we learned of other services available, including parenting classes, re-employment training and education. The nightly breathalyzers and random drug tests have kept us sober for almost eight months now."
All of their children now are reunited with Mary and Al, and the entire family lives in one of the Ruth Meiers apartments.
"This is the first time since we have been married that we truly have a place of our own to come home to and be the family we always dreamed of," says Mary. "We look forward to having a healthy new baby soon and we can only thank God for all the gifts we have been given and for all the people who opened their doors to give us a chance."
CommunityWorks North Dakota Executive Director Brent Ekstrom says, "Collaboration with organizations like Ruth Meiers is a perfect fit for our mission. Fulfilling critical housing needs makes a big impact by helping families and individuals become contributing members of their communities."
