The Situation
IN 2015, a coalition of housing services organizations came together to address the need for supportive housing in the Grand Forks community. This coalition quickly understood the need to define the scope of need and to assemble the partnerships needed to operate a housing first facility in their community.Our Process
We collected the insight of community leaders, social services, housing, healthcare, and homelessness advocates and combined it with the latest policy research on permanent supportive housing. We facilitated group meetings, input sessions, in-depth interviews with advocates and experts, and collaboration with downtown business leaders. After several months of meetings, fact-finding missions to other communities, and discussions guided by Mark Schill, the project released a report prepared by Praxis on chronic homelessness in Grand Forks calling for development of a new permanent supportive housing facility built around the “Housing First” model.
The Outcome
Since the release of the report, community housing advocates and service providers have used the research and connections fostered by the process to build a coalition of stakeholders, identify new ways to work together, assess sites, and shape the service agreements needed to launch a successful new “housing first” facility in Grand Forks.