It’s that time of year again: back to school.
As a kid, it was the day I dreaded most, leaving the long summer days and the freedom behind. If you grew up in a small North Dakota town like I did, those summer days felt endless and wide open to whatever your imagination made them. Most mornings started with my friends and me hopping on our bikes while my mom called out, “Be back by dinner!” No one thought twice about it.
Those summer days are long gone, but the memories linger. And if only we had a DeLorean handy, we could set the date to the summer of 1987, hit 88 miles per hour, and watch the flux capacitor do its thing. I would love to relive just one of those simple days again.
Then one day, like so many “last times” in life that we don’t notice in the moment, it was the last time we set out on our bikes like that. It was the end of an era, with no celebration and no sense of finality. It just happened.
But here’s the difference: for many of us, those endings fade quietly into memory. For too many children today, the “last times” are painfully clear. Some remember the last time they felt safe at night. The last time they slept in their own bed. And that’s what we need to change.
But time doesn’t roll backward. It marches on, and every year back-to-school season arrives whether kids are ready or not. Parents, of course, seem to look forward to it: kids back in school, the household back to a “normal” schedule (if we can call the busy chaos of school-year routines normal).
Yet for too many families across North Dakota, this time of year brings challenges far bigger than new shoes and sharpened pencils. For children whose families struggle to keep a roof over their heads, back-to-school season doesn’t come with excitement. It comes with uncertainty. Will they have to move again mid-year? Will they switch schools and lose friends? Will they have a quiet, stable place at night to finish their homework? Will they have a safe place to sleep tonight?
We know that a safe, affordable home is one of the most important foundations for a child’s education. When housing is stable, parents can focus on supporting their kids, and kids can focus on learning, building friendships, making their own summer memories, and dreaming about their futures.
At North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, we take that responsibility seriously. Whether through supporting first-time homebuyers, financing affordable rental housing, or working with communities to prevent homelessness, our mission is to create stability, the kind of stability that allows children to walk into a classroom each fall with confidence, ready to learn.
This fall, we will take another important step by hosting North Dakota Housing Finance Agency’s first statewide homelessness conference. Our Partnerships for Progress Homeless Conference will be held on October 14th in Bismarck. It will bring together partners from across the state to share ideas, strengthen collaboration, and work toward ensuring that no child and no family must face the uncertainty of not having a place to call home. We can’t accomplish this mission alone. It will take all of us, and we would love for you to be part of it.
So, as we send our kids back to school this year, let’s remember behind every backpack is a story. And the first chapter begins at home.