residents, alumni, and people in the community,” says Roberts. “I was
blown away. In every area, people were saying, this really works. I
thought, ‘this is the answer. North Dakota has nothing like this in the
state.’”
Finding Hope
Roberts began looking at starting Hope Manor in fall 2013. “I had no
concept of how to financially do this, but I was looking at houses.”
After finding a possible home for sale, she went to the bank. She
discovered the equity available in her personal home was exactly the 20
percent needed for a down payment on the new home. “I refinanced my
personal home, and the bank loaned me the rest,” she says.
She took possession of the first Hope Manor house on Jan. 1, 2014, and
it was in desperate need of repair. “At 7 a.m., I sat in the middle of the
living room thinking ‘what have I done?’”
But by 10 a.m. that day, her outlook began to change. “People from the
community started showing up with brooms and buckets. They just
kept coming and we just went to work.”
Ace Hardware donated all the needed paint, Imperial Flooring donated
carpet for the bedrooms, and people started dropping off household
items. “I asked for sponsors to purchase new beds and, within 24 hours,
those were all covered,” says Roberts.
Within 15 days, the house was ready, and the first sober living home of
its kind in the state was open. Thirteen women filled the available beds.
“I was quickly full and then kept getting calls and had a waiting list.
My goal was to continue practicing law and work on Hope Manor on
the side, but I took a leave of absence in January 2014 and never went
back,” Roberts adds.
It wasn’t long before she saw a dire need for a second Hope Manor
house. She received a call from a 21-year-old woman battling
alcoholism. “She was cut off from family, homeless, and had been
sexually assaulted the night before,” says Roberts. “I didn’t have a bed
for her and I asked her to give me an hour to find her another place.
She said, ‘I won’t last that long,’ and hung up.”
Roberts didn’t hear from the young woman again and doesn’t know
what happened to her. “That shook me. I just kept thinking, ‘we can do
better.’”
The second Hope Manor location caught her attention while she was
driving one day. “I noticed the house and turned the corner and there
was a For Sale By Owner sign in the yard.”
The house was newly remodeled and could fit another 11 beds for
women. Roberts returned to the bank and asked about a revolving
line of credit. The bank provided a total of available credit that again
matched the needed 20 percent down payment to purchase the home.
Roberts took possession of the second Hope Manor home in August
How to Help
For more information on Hope Manor and opportunities
to support its mission, visit www.hopemanornd.org, call
701-751-4005, or email [email protected].
Find Hope Manor on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.
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