Otte-Coleman - City Magazine

| YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY!
A Place to Call Home
A meal. A haircut. A shower. A roof. A hug.
What do these words have in common?
They are things that most people
take for granted on a daily basis.
On Jan. 28, 2009, the North Dakota Coalition
for Homeless People (NDCHP) conducted a
statewide point-in-time survey (the count of all
the people who are homeless on a given day).
This survey revealed 987 homeless people right
here in N.D., 220 of which were children under
the age of 18.
In December 2008, Tina Grumbo became the
executive director of the Missouri Valley CHP.
Three months later, she started planning a Project
Homeless Connect event. In April, Jaime Fox,
the single point of entry coordinator of the Ruth
Meiers Hospitality House, joined her. The next
month, Carrie Transgrud, the shelter coordinator
at Ruth Meiers jumped on board; and in July,
Ashlie Bieber, a social worker at Ruth Meiers;
and Kristina Kalenze, an administrative assistant
intern at the Missouri Valley CHP completed the
team. They partnered with the Central Dakota
Veterans Stand Down group, which also brought
assistance from Joe Hall and Tyson Quire.
The Project Homeless Connect event was
initiated in response to goal #28 in Bismarck-
Mandan’s 10-Year Plan to, “End long-term
By Nicole Morrison-Mathern
16 thecitymag.com