Madison Lehner signs home ownership paperwork at Ward Title Friday with closing agent Marie Hallof, right. Her parents, Val and Erik Lehner, in the background, and real estate agent Mehgan Krueger look on.

When Madison Lehner signed the paperwork Friday to close on her new Minot home, it also closed out the National Disaster Resilience Program’s Resilient Homebuyer Program.

Lehner qualified as the 76th and final homebuyer in the program, which drew 209 applicants before intakes ended this past July 1. Applicants needed to demonstrate they were impacted by the 2011 flood to be eligible for up to $60,000 in a forgivable second mortgage on a single-family home out of the flood plain. The first homeowner to use the program closed on a home in the fall of 2018. 

The program worked with local real estate brokers and financial institutions to distribute $3 million in federal NDR funds to assist 51 households in buying a home, with an average second mortgage of $57,000. The city later added another $1.5 million from NDR funds to aid another 25 households.

Through a partnership with the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, the Minot Disaster Recovery Program conducted the initial screening of applicants for loan underwriting and final mortgage amount determination.

Lehner, who made her purchase in northwest Minot official at Ward Title on Friday, learned about the program from her parents, who were familiar with it because one of her father’s co-workers had benefitted. She began house hunting last April after completing the process to qualify for the homebuyer assistance.

“Without the grant, I wouldn’t have been able to purchase a home,” Lehner said. “It was very beneficial.”

Lehner grew up in southeast Minot. When the flood damaged their home, Lehner, an eighth grader, and her family moved in with her grandmother. Six people and four dogs in a mobile home lasted six months before the family moved into a temporary unit provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. After about a year and a half, they moved back into their house, living in one room with mattresses on the floor while the building’s rehabilitation progressed.

Currently, Lehner works as a Ward County Sheriff’s Department deputy and is in the North Dakota Army National Guard. She looks forward to leaving apartment life behind and having a place of her own.

“I’ve always wanted a dog. So now I have a fenced-in yard, I can get a dog and it’s just kind of my own space where I can actually renovate and make it a home,” she said.

The Resilient Homebuyer Program helped retain other young people in Minot as well.

Alissa Mack, who purchased a northwest Minot home with the help of the Resilient Homebuyer Program in the summer of 2020, said the program opened the door to owning a home for her and her then finance, now her husband.

“I’m thankful for it every day. I knew we went through a lot, though, as family,” she said. “It wasn’t all just handed to us. We definitely went through a lot to get to where we are.”

An eighth grader in 2011, Mack’s education was disrupted when her school was flooded and classes had to be relocated that next school year. Her parents’ home was rebuilt, but the family later moved when the house was acquired by the city to make way for the flood protection project. 

In using the homebuyer program in her purchase, Mack said, she had more resources available to help locate the right property.

“”It gave us a better opportunity to get a house that we can grow into and stay in Minot,” she said. “We love our neighborhood. We live close to both of our parents and I have younger siblings too. So it’s super nice to be less than a mile away from my little sisters. My parents will ride bike over with the girls. It’s just super convenient, and we always wanted to be on North Hill.”

Paige Melby wasn’t initially interested in the homebuyer program because she wanted to expand her horizons outside Minot. However, she gave it a look after gravitating back to Minot from Minneapolis and deciding to stay.

Melby, who had turned 16 in 2011, saw her family home completely destroyed by the flood. Her family spent four months living in a camper in a friend’s driveway.

“Definitely a challenging time. Lots of tears and lots of struggle, but in the end we ended up getting a new house,” she said.

She closed on a new home of her own at the end of April with the help of the homebuyer program.

“Overall, it was a really good experience, and super grateful for the little boost and help,” she said. 

Melby, an occupational therapist, said she works for a great organization and loves the community.

“Being a part of the community is super important to me, and it’s definitely my home — born and raised here.  I have memories here. I have a lot of great friends here,” she said “I think Minot is a fabulous place — up and coming and there’s a lot of room for more growth. We’re continuing to grow, and it’s fun to be a part of that and be a community member here.”