Fall 2017 Fall 2017 Gavel | Page 20

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 20 THE GAVEL 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.