The North Dakota Housing Finance Agency has announced its recipients for this year’s federal Emergency Solutions Grant (or ESG) and state North Dakota Homeless Grant (or HDHG).
Jennifer Henderson is director of the community housing and grants management division at the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency. She says ESG focuses on providing funding for emergency shelters, outreach services, homelessness prevention and rapid re-housing assistance.
ESG was awarded $731,980 for seven agencies. NDHG was awarded $10 million for the biennium for 18 applications.
Henderson says these awards go above and beyond what is typically allocated – and she says it couldn’t be arriving at a better time.
“Last biennium we received a $2.5 million allocation, which was an increase over the prior biennium as well, so – year over year, we’ve had increases in that appropriation. $10 million is the most significant that we’ve had, and we’re looking forward to seeing how that can be helpful. The timing of receiving that large dollar amount really has been a benefit because the ERA funds from the covid era are now running out, so having that significant increase will help us to hopefully maintain stability for individuals who were being served in other programs that will no longer be in existence.”
Henderson says according to the latest statewide housing needs assessment, wages are not keeping up with the costs of housing in the state. She says these programs are meant to help people regain stability in the short term and recover from short term crises. Henderson also says 6,600 people were served in North Dakota in 2024 – and that that number of people has been increasing year over year.