Empowering the Person, Impacting the Community
Development Homes, Inc. (DHI) has been at the forefront of efforts to improve the quality of life for people with developmental disabilities since its inception in 1974. Dr. Leland H. Lipp, Clarence Ohlsen and Richard Christensen, three local professionals working in the field of children's services, founded Development Homes, Inc. DHI began as a single foster home on D**e Avenue that offered therapeutic residential care for children needing access to the former Medical Center Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Forks. The group home allowed these children to live in a nurturing, family-like atmosphere.
DHI has played an important role in the restructuring of North Dakota's services to persons with developmental disabilities. In 1982, the Association for Re****ed Citizens initiated a class action lawsuit against the State of North Dakota. The lawsuit challenged on constitutional grounds the condition and treatment of residents at two public institutions, the Grafton State School and San Haven. Under the settlement, North Dakota initiated efforts aimed at moving residents out of these state-run institutions into community-based living programs and to provide appropriate education, training and support services to people with developmental disabilities in the communities where they lived. The State of North Dakota turned to local non-profit service providers like DHI to implement these programs. In response to the need, DHI evolved from the operator of a single group home to a multi-faceted provider of residential, transitional and vocational support services.