Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP) has received a crucial grant to assist rural and Native leaders in solving housing and community development issues in their communities. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rural Capacity Building for Community Development and Affordable Housing Grant program (RCB) will provide $2.4 million to continue MHP’s important technical assistance and capacity-building work. 

The award will fund MHP’s Strengthening Rural Communities (SRC) program, which gives leaders the tools and knowledge they need to identify and address regional development needs through strategic collaboration. 

In rural and Native communities nationwide, there’s a significant gap between the supply of affordable housing and the number of people who need it, and a pressing need to address community development challenges. Providing resources and guidance to local and Tribal governments and other rural housing development organizations has proven an effective model of helping local communities address these needs.

“Minnesota Housing Partnership is ready to put this funding to work immediately in rural and tribal communities,” said Anne Mavity, MHP’s executive director. “We are thrilled that the Department of Housing and Urban Development has committed these funds to help our communities thrive.”

MHP has used past awards to provide technical assistance to rural communities in 17 states, including 20 Native nations. Past funding has resulted in hundreds of new and preserved units of affordable housing, and dozens of community and economic development projects in communities that need it most.

“MHP helped Lower Sioux’s Planning & Grants Department identify a new funder for an upcoming rental construction project. They then sat down with us to teach us how to complete the intensive 15-year feasibility projections and they reviewed our proposal draft,” said Nora Murphy, Tribal Planner and Grant Writer for the Lower Sioux Indian Community. “In the end, we were awarded two grants to build 10 new rental homes at Lower Sioux. We simply couldn’t have done it without MHP’s guidance. Many, many thanks!”

Funds will be awarded to eligible entities through a Request for Technical Assistance process that will be announced in the next few weeks and that will be posted here.