Community Redevelopment in Grand Forks
UND Law alum familiar with northeast
North Dakota, as a staff attorney in Grand
Forks. LSND began fostering additional
relationships with community organizations
in the area in an effort to continue its
redevelopment efforts.
Breezy Schmidt, managing attorney, and John Best, staff attorney, at the Grand Forks LSND office.
By Breezy Schmidt
Legal Services of North Dakota (LSND)
is a nonprofit corporation that provides
free legal services to low-income, as well
as disadvantaged elderly, North Dakotans
in areas of civil law. It provides individuals
services through legal advice, education,
referrals, and representation. The organization
prioritizes use of its limited resources in
the areas of family, housing, consumer,
public assistance, income maintenance,
medical, individual rights, elder, and Native
American law. LSND is also the intake and
referral service for the North Dakota State
Bar Association pro bono and reduced fee
programs.
LSND is a statewide program with offices in
Minot, Bismarck, Belcourt, New Town, Fargo,
and now Grand Forks. The organization
currently has a total of 27 staff members, with
11 being attorneys. In 2016, LSND received
6,792 applications requesting legal assistance.
Of those applications, it was able to provide
some form of assistance in 4,427 applications.
The northeast region of the state is home
to several vulnerable population groups,
including new Americans, refugees,
agricultural workers, limited or non-English
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speakers, and students. In Grand Forks alone,
nearly 20 percent of the population has an
income below 200 percent of the federal poverty
level. It became clear additional legal services
were needed in northeast North Dakota.
In 2016, North Dakota received nearly one
million dollars in settlement funds from the
recent nationwide Bank of America lawsuit.
The funds were available to legal aid
organizations for the purpose of community
redevelopment legal assistance and services or
mortgage foreclosure prevention and related
legal assistance. In the spring, the North
Dakota Bar Foundation awarded LSND
more than $900,000 for the community
redevelopment project.
LSND and the University of North Dakota
(UND) School of Law partnered to redevelop
legal services in the Grand Forks community.
UND agreed to allow LSND to utilize the
UND School of Law’s clinic space. In return,
LSND agreed to provide in-house externship
opportunities for law students. LSND
immediately set to work. Richard LeMay
promoted Breezy Schmidt, attorney with
LSND’s Minot office, to the managing attorney
for Grand Forks. LSND recruited John Best,
In August, LSND moved into UND
School of Law’s clinic space and officially
opened for business. The Grand Forks office
has already accepted numerous cases for
services and began conducting outreach in
area communities. LSND has outreach in
Grafton on the second Wednesday of each
month from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Walsh
County Social Services. LSND’s Minot
office is continuing outreach in Devils Lake
on the third Wednesday of each month until
the end of the year. Then, the Grand Forks
office will take over this outreach, located at
the Senior Center from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00
p.m. and Community Action from 1:00 p.m.
to 3:00 p.m.
LSND holds outreach in two locations in
Grand Forks as well. Outreach is held at
Community Action on the first Thursday of
each month from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
and the Senior Center on the third Thursday
of each month from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30
a.m. Walk-ins are welcome at all outreach
locations.
The organization is redeveloping the
community through legal assistance by
creating a central site for information and
education on housing issues, including
landlord-tenant, discrimination, lending, and
foreclosure prevention. The housing center
located in Grand Forks will assist to prevent
blight, increase access to housing, improve
lending practices, and decrease homelessness
in North Dakota.
The Grand Forks office will begin an
externship program for law students in the
spring 2018 semester. LSND is excited to
have a presence in Grand Forks and at the
UND School of Law and is looking forward
to sharing its passion for public interest legal
services with students.