Michaela Ficek, a fair housing specialist for the High Plains Fair Housing Center, is pictured July 24, 2026, near apartment buildings and homes in Bismarck. She is at risk of being furloughed due to a gap in federal funding. (Photo by Jack Dura/North Dakota Monitor)
BISMARCK (North Dakota Monitor) – The only fair-housing organization in North Dakota faces a grim outlook with the delay of a major federal grant.
The Grand Forks-based High Plains Fair Housing Center has been in a funding gap for two months. The center, which has one part-time and seven full-time employees, will likely furlough four of its staff on July 31 if the $425,000 Fair Housing Initiatives Program grant doesn’t show up, Center Executive Director Michelle Rydz said.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the three-year grant in 2023 but hasn’t released the third installment. The second-year grant ended in May. The center expected the third-year grant to start the day afterward, but still hasn’t received the funds, Rydz said.
“We have no idea if it will be tomorrow or if it will be in a year or more,” she said.
Everyday people will keep contacting the center because they face housing discrimination, need a disability accommodation or are at risk of losing their housing because of a miscommunication about a reasonable accommodation, Rydz said.
“These problems don’t stop because the funding stops,” she said.
A spokesperson for HUD did not return a request for comment Friday.
The fair housing center has been in touch with North Dakota’s congressional delegation. The offices of Sen. John Hoeven and Rep. Julie Fedorchak, both R-N.D., have inquired with HUD about the grant’s status. Fedorchak’s office also contacted the White House. Hoeven’s office said HUD has committed to giving an update.
The center could probably hang on with half staff for another year before being reduced to almost no staff or volunteers, Rydz said. With reduced services, fewer people would know about their civil rights and be helped in their housing situation, said Nicki Green, the center’s associate director and director of intake.
“To be honest, we’re going to do the best we can because the seven and a half of us are super passionate about this work, and we already work as hard as we can for our clients, but it’s going to be tough,” Green said.
The center, started in 2016, assists people within the scope of the federal Fair Housing Act, which prohibits people from being treated differently because of a protected characteristic, such as race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status or disability, Green said.
The center investigates, mediates and resolves housing discrimination complaints, and assists with accommodations such as closer parking spaces, changes in rent due dates and adjustments to heavy doors and mailboxes for people with disabilities.
Bismarck-based fair housing specialist Michaela Ficek is one of the employees who will be furloughed if the grant does not come through in time. She has helped people get their assistance animals approved, receive assigned parking spots and get out of their leases due to domestic violence situations. Her clients would have to be passed along to somebody else who will likely have to take on caseloads of three people.
“It’s just kind of day by day, we’re taking it as it comes,” Ficek said.
In 2025, the center fielded 958 total calls, more than one-third of which related to allegations of housing discrimination. The others related to landlord-tenant matters or general inquiries, Green said.
The center reached 204 resolutions for clients, about half of which were done without having to file a complaint, she said. Resolutions can be helping someone file a complaint or giving advice for how to ask for a reasonable accommodation or referring someone to legal services.
“We always help provide something or help in some way, even just education,” Green said.
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