New YWCA residence answers critical needs of domestic violence survivors and Fargo-Moorhead community

FARGO, ND (November 2, 2023) – Two years in development, a new residence called Lantern Light has opened and was dedicated today by YWCA Cass Clay.

An estimated 60 people will live in the new 23 apartments created in what was once Sacred Heart Convent. The residence sits alongside the Red River behind YWCA Emergency Shelter on South University Drive.

With homes in Lantern Light, survivors of domestic violence and homelessness will have support to address trauma and overcome barriers. YWCA staff will guide, encourage, and offer resources like an education and employment program, health services, medical and mental health referrals, and support for childcare and transportation.

“For more than a century, YWCA Cass Clay has responded to the changing needs of our community. With Lantern Light, YWCA answers the call for homes affordable and supportive to trauma survivors,” said Erin Prochnow, YWCA Cass Clay CEO. “With our reliable presence in their lives – every day and in many ways - Lantern Light becomes their bridge to long-term economic stability.

“As survivors grow empowered, their children can also flourish,” she added.

YWCA bought the Presentation Sisters convent in July 2022 and gained competitive state and federal funding to pay for its $8.3 million remodeling.

Besides apartments and community areas, Lantern Light offered space to create 10 offices for YWCA’s Supportive Housing team to move from cramped quarters at YWCA Emergency Shelter. Their vacated shelter offices have freed space for other programming.

Sacred Heart Convent was built in 1984 as a prayer, living, and program area for The Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary who performed mission work here for more than a century.

YWCA and the Sisters collaborated to name the new housing residence Lantern Light, honoring the foundress of the Presentation Sisters order, Nano Nagle. This determined woman cared for widows, the sick and the poor in 1750s Ireland by bringing food, medicine, and comfort late into the night. Carrying a lamp through dark alleyways, she became known as the Lady of the Lantern. The lantern later became the symbol of the of Sisters worldwide.

A sculpture of Nano Nagle on the grounds at Lantern Light was developed by a Colorado bronze sculptor. The statue was paid for by SCHEELS and its employees, who also sponsored the new playground and other building needs.

This isn’t the first time YWCA and the Presentation Sisters have partnered. In 2006, the Sisters renovated and began leasing to YWCA six vacated apartments near the shelter. This became a centerpiece of YWCA’s transitional housing program, where women leaving the shelter could continue benefiting from empowerment programs footsteps away at the shelter. In 2015, the Sisters renovated a portion of the convent that was once an infirmary to become six more apartments for women and children supported by YWCA. Over the years, the Sisters also hosted teas for women staying at the shelter, offered bible studies, and taught classes.  

“YWCA and Presentation Sisters have long aligned in missions to uplift the vulnerable. Lantern Light is a place of bright promise for the future, where people who have been robbed of hope can discover their pathway and have support to become everything they were created to be,” said Sister Mary Margaret Mooney.

Project partners

Other partners integral to this initiative includes the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, Beyond Shelter, Inc., Schultz & Associates Architects, and Roers. The residence has the financial stability of rental assistance guaranteed by the Fargo Housing and Redevelopment Authority. While program participants will pay up to 30 percent of their income toward rent, a 10-year $1.8 million commitment of housing vouchers will help individuals and families who live there.

“Supportive housing is a development priority for North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, and this new residence addresses an important need in the local community,” said Executive Director Dave Flohr. “A safe and affordable home creates stable ground where survivors of domestic violence and homelessness can rebuild their lives and come to thrive.”

In addition to local and state officials, attendees at the ribbon cutting included Karen Burke, COO of the national YWCA USA organization, and YWCA USA Board Chair Pia Wilson-Body, who is also president of the Intel Foundation.

“The journey for women and children to heal from violence and poverty is arduous, exhausting, and often overwhelming. Trauma has deep reverberations. Yet YWCA Cass Clay has formed a continuum with emergency shelter and housing services that can be seen as a national model,” said Burke. “Shelter saves lives. Stable housing brings healing, better income, and lessens the weight of being a sole provider and parent.”

Financial support sought

Thanks to many government and foundation funding sources, YWCA did not have need to conduct a capital campaign to build Lantern Light. Yet, YWCA is fundraising a total $6.2 million to create a special reserve to fund the annual cost for supportive services at Lantern Light into perpetuity. Key contributors to this fund have included Otto Bremer Trust and Offutt Family Foundation, and many private donors.

History and need

YWCA Cass Clay first ventured into supportive housing in 1989 when a local couple gave a four-plex in north Fargo to the organization. The program gradually grew to 18 units by 2015, when the YWCA board of directors set a goal to double its housing program by 2020. Major expansion came in 2019 with addition of a large single site, YWCA’s Grace Garden Residence in West Fargo. YWCA today operates 95 total units by opening Lantern Light.

Demand for housing after crisis intervention at YWCA Emergency Shelter (about 650 adults and 650 children annually) far exceeds the supply of housing that YWCA has available.

Other

YWCA Emergency Shelter is where victims of domestic violence come day and night, 365 days a year, to escape crisis lives and mend emotionally, physically, and spiritually. They receive basic needs like food and clothing, and resources for health, jobs, education and childcare as they navigate toward independence. A caring YWCA team also connects survivors to community resources that will further empower them. This is the largest emergency shelter for women and children in North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota.

• YWCA has calculated the cost of a night of Emergency Shelter at $66 per night where a night of Supportive Housing is a far more affordable $18.

• YWCA Supportive Housing is proven to work in ending homelessness and preventing women from returning to abusers out of economic need. In 2022, among those living in YWCA Supportive Housing: 50 percent of participants increased their education or income; 80 percent reduced their use of costly emergency health services; and 75 percent secured independent housing when leaving the program.

• YWCA also answers a need in the larger community. In 2021 Census Bureau data, 39.8 percent, or 14,528 renter households in Cass County, were cost burdened, meaning they pay more than 30 percent of their monthly income in rent and are vulnerable to homelessness.  

• YWCA Supportive Housing helps answer a particular need of women and single moms. They face particular economic disadvantage as they struggle to grow financial footing, as women still earn only 82 cents to every dollar earned by men. Lantern Light supports women on a longer road to economic stability. Currently, 100 percent living in Grace Garden residence are survivors of domestic violence.

• Lantern Light will have one- to four-bedroom apartments, a technology center, and a beautiful atrium original to the building.  

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