MHP Connect

Investors Council Recap: Vouchers in the New Housing Market

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Created: Tuesday, 22 November 2016 12:52

Written by Laura Proescholdt

On November 9th, nearly 100 housing developers and advocates convened at MHP’s latest Investors Council breakfast to discuss the challenges facing housing choice voucher (HCV) holders and to consider how housing industry leaders might work together to address those challenges.

MHP welcomed four panelists, Jessica Deegan of the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, Lael Robertson of Minnesota Legal Aid’s Housing Discrimination Law Project, Terri Smith of Metropolitan Council HRA, and Mary Rippe of Minnesota Multi Housing Association. The panelists provided insight into a range of perspectives — from the voucher holders themselves, to their landlords, to the entities that administer vouchers. Deidre Schmidt of CommonBond Communities (pictured right) moderated the conversation.

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Micro-grants available for fair housing community engagement in the suburbs

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Created: Monday, 21 November 2016 06:49

Written by Carolyn Szczepanski

In May, a group of government officials and community leaders started a year-long process to more deeply investigate the barriers to fair housing faced by communities of color — and rewrite a key document that informs how federal dollars flow into the Twin Cities region. After months of meetings discussing that process, it's time for the public to weigh in.

To get that input, the Fair Housing Implementation Council (FHIC) is awarding micro-grants to community-based organizations that work in the suburban areas of the seven-county metro area — specifically the counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Suburban Hennepin, Suburban Ramsey, Scott, and Washington — to convene their communities to discuss barriers to housing opportunity and fair housing within their respective cultural backgrounds.

More specifically, the FHIC is seeking input to create an addendum to the region's Analysis to Impediments to Fair Housing, a document required for area cities to get funding from the U.S. Department for Housing and Urban Development. In particular, this addendum specifically focuses on race and national origin — and the impact of segregation, housing discrimination, displacement, gentrification, and barriers to housing choice on communities of color.

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Creating a Full Spectrum of Senior Housing in Mora

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Created: Monday, 14 November 2016 17:42

Written by Carolyn Szczepanski

Like so many communities, Mora has a long waiting list to secure one of the city’s affordable rental units. But, in the East Central Minnesota town, a particularly vulnerable population makes up the majority of the list. Of the 208 families, 161 are older adults over 55.

“The waiting lists are so heavy with seniors that many of them aren’t living long enough to get to the top of the list,” says Rose Dunn.

As the Executive Director of the Mora Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA), Dunn has been elevating and addressing the need for more affordable senior housing for close to a decade. And last month Dunn, the HRA and the dozens of people on the waiting list got a significant victory: Funding for a project that will add 24 units to a burgeoning senior living campus in Mora (pictured right).

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The Little HRA that Could: MHFA Funds White Pine Apartments in Cloquet

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Created: Tuesday, 01 November 2016 07:41

Written by Laura Proescholdt

“I wanted to pinch myself,” says Debra Shaff, Executive Director of Cloquet Housing and Redevelopment Authority.

Last month, Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) announced that it would provide $542,000 in funding and an estimated $5,717,724 in 9 percent tax credit equity toward a project Shaff has been working to make happen since 2015.

The White Pine Apartments, a 35-unit affordable housing complex in Cloquet, Minnesota will provide both workforce and supportive housing in a community that hasn’t seen new construction in many years.

“Finding affordable housing for our citizens has always been a challenge,” Shaff says. “Finding affordable housing that’s safe, sanitary, and decent has been an even bigger challenge.”

Shaff and her colleagues at Cloquet HRA decided it was time to meet those challenges head on after a housing study released in February 2014 forecast the need for 260 new units of rental housing in Cloquet and nearby Scanlon by 2025. Minnesota Housing Partnership provided $10,000 toward the study — and Cloquet HRA leveraged it as a tool to take action. But, when Shaff presented the results of the study to her board, they seemed uncertain about Cloquet HRA’s capacity to address the problem.

Read more: The Little HRA that Could: MHFA Funds White Pine Apartments in Cloquet