Family Healthcare Center (FHC) of Fargo is an organization that has long provided medical, dental and pharmacy services to low-income and homeless persons in the Fargo-Moorhead region. From the early 1980s, doctors were providing medical support for the region’s homeless, working out of various shelter facilities, churches and the YWCA facilities. Currently, FHC operates out of three separate locations, but through this historic rehabilitation project, is consolidating its current operations in downtown Fargo.
The new site opened in 1920 as the Pence Automobile Company, an automobile showroom and warehouse. The objective is to create one new facility that serves the needs of all of its stakeholders, while eliminating the overhead and administrative burden that is associated with offering services at multiple locations. Designs for the facility call for 33 medical exam rooms, 7 dental operatories, new space for behavioral health practitioners and rooms for community health programs, administrative offices and meeting areas. The project represents a doubling of space in anticipation of a growing number of uninsured and Medicaid patients in the Fargo-Moorhead region.