GraMar, a 16-unit 515 property in Kerkoven, MN and project from MHP's previous technical assistance grant.

USDA's Rural Development’s Rural Housing Service has announced the awardees for the 2022 515 Nonprofit Transfer and the Off-Farm Labor Housing Technical Assistance Programs. Nonprofit organizations and public housing authorities will provide technical assistance and other services to facilitate affordable housing preservation via$350,000 in grant funds. Awardees included Enterprise Community Partners with MHP for Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. 

According to Jill Henricksen, Community Development Manager, "During MHP’s last technical assistance grant, we were able to assist four rural housing and community development authorities with Rural Development’s transfer process, making preservation possible for a total of 82 units in MN and IL. With this new round of funding, we are partnering with Enterprise Communities in the Midwest Region, which will allow us to focus more on the transfer process with nonprofit or government buyers. We’re excited about what we’ll be able to  accomplish, in partnership with Enterprise!"

MHP's webinar on the new MN Affordable Housing Tax Credit included an overview from one of the bill's chief authors Senator Carla Nelson, insights about setting up a tax credit contribution program from Jennifer Henderson from the North Dakota Housing Finance Agency, and Dan Madler of Beyond Shelter spoke to developing projects with ND's contribution program.

Webinar resources can be found here:

Presentation slides (PDF): here

Recording: here

Meeting Chat (PDF): here

Affordable Housing Tax Credit Summary (PDF): here

Contact Libby Murphy at libby.murphy@mhponline.org with questions and/or feedback about program design. 

U.S. Senator Tina Smith, in her position as Chair of the Subcommittee on Housing Transportation, and Community Development, convened a hearing this week titled Opportunities and Challenges in Addressing Homelessness. Senator Smith and her colleagues used the hearing to gauge the state of housing and homelessness and highlight how the federal government may be a helpful partner to local communities, with a particular focus on veterans, and rural and Native communities. The hearing included:

• Ms. Ann Oliva, Chief Executive Officer, National Alliance to End Homelessness;
• Ms. Kathryn Monet, Chief Executive Officer, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans;
• Ms. Cathy ten Broeke, Assistant Commissioner and Executive Director, Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness (MICH);
• Ms. Isabel McDevitt, Co-Founder and Board President Work Works America; and
• Ms. Jamie Kirsch, Board Member, Journey On.

Senator Smith’s opening statement may be viewed here. A recording of the full hearing may be found here.

The House votes this week on its FY23 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) spending bill and amendments. The Senate is slated to release its draft spending bills before August recess. We expect Congress to pass a Continuing Resolution to keep the government open past the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, giving lawmakers more time to negotiate final spending bills hopefully by the end of the year. Sign your organization onto a letter supporting the highest level of funding possible for affordable housing resources in FY23. Share the letter broadly with your networks!

The House is scheduled to be on recess from July 29 to September 12, while the Senate will be on recess from August 5 to September 5. Start planning now to meet with your Member of Congress, or invite them to an event or tour of a housing project. An advocacy toolkit developed by NLIHC will be available soon.

Up for Growth's Housing Underproduction in the U.S. 2022 is a longitudinal study tracking nationwide housing underproduction by state and across 814 metropolitan and non-metropolitan units of geography. An article on Marketplace illuminates research from Up for Growth reporting that the housing shortage leaves the country with a deficit of 3.8 million homes, a figure that doubles the 2012 estimate. 

That critical shortfall is a prime driver of inflation and is fueling rent increases of 10% to 14% since last year. Jenny Schuetz at the Brookings Institution notes that longstanding shortages in coastal cities are now being mirrored in more than half of all US metropolitan areas. She labels the inadequate housing supply as a product of a precipitous drop in housing production prompted by the Great Recession, from which the country has yet to recover. Chris Herbert at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies adds that the broad proliferation of local zoning ordinances prohibiting multifamily housing or denser configurations of single-family housing pose a significant barrier to closing the gap.

"This report outlines how policymakers across the country can take action to create opportunity―to produce homes for everyone in our communities. The compelling benefits outlined in this report should be in every policymaker's toolbox for moving these policies forward.” Anne Mavity, MHP Executive Director, Housing Underproduction press release

A new report by Freddie Mac, “Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) at Risk,” examines the factors associated with LIHTC properties leaving the program and investigates the trajectory of units no longer subject to program requirements. The authors find that, after exiting the program, units in former LIHTC properties often remain affordable to households earning 60% of the area median income (AMI). However, the study also identifies significant caveats about the affordability of former LIHTC units for the lowest-income renters. Read more of this article here.

Welcome to the new MHP series Take 5, in which we ask the same five questions of a variety of people intersecting with MHP, from staff to housing advocates! First up are our two summer interns, Alex Griffin and Shuping Wang.

Take 5 with Alex Griffin

Winning the alphabetical lottery is Alex Griffin, currently getting a Master of Public Policy from the University of Minnesota (expected graduation Spring 2023). Their most recent work experience was as a Waiver Case Manager in Ramsey County, where she supported a caseload of ~30 elderly waiver recipients, and as a Trans Provider Passages Consultant with RECLAIM. She is currently a board member of the Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization (CANDO). This summer, Alex will be supporting the development of a new area of research MHP is about to embark on: examining property conditions of homes and the implications of those property quality for households statewide. At MHP, Alex is also supporting the development of a statewide public education campaign on housing in rural areas of the state

Q1: Name? Alex Griffin

Q2. What attracted you to working with MHP?

Alex: My background is in social work, and access to safe, secure, and affordable housing was always the biggest barrier to stability that the clients I worked with faced. MHP immediately attracted me as an opportunity to be a part of the solution to some of these larger issues.

Q3. What’s a challenge in the field of housing right now?

Alex: Funding! Congress capped the number of public housing units at current levels back in the 90's, but since then many units have been demolished without funding to replace them. According to HUD, the U.S. could add as many as 220,000 new units if only there were financing for Public Housing Authorities to construct them. 

Q4. Is there a book by your bed, and what is it?

Alex: I'm reading the second book in the Three Body Problem trilogy by Liu Cixin. Without giving too much away, it's a science fiction series that contemplates astrophysics and the philosophical questions related to academic skepticism. Highly recommend it!

Q5. Who is your superhero?

Alex: Emma Goldman

Take 5 with Shuping Wang

Shuping Wang's educational background includes getting a Master of Public Policy (graduating May 2023) from the University of Minnesota, a stint at Utrecht University in the Netherlands the summer of 2018, and a Bachelor of History with a Minor of Economics at Xiamen University in Fujian China. This past February, she participated in the RENTERS project to find the gap between renters’ experiences and current rental policy in Minneapolis, leading interviews with advocacy organizations, city official and renters.

Shuping will be conducting an analysis of the various Emergency Rental Assistance programs and the dissemination of ERA in Minnesota over the past year. She will be conducting interviews with legal service providers, local jurisdictions, program operators and field partners to better understand the successes and barriers of the rental assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We asked Shuping the same five questions, and she gave us a narrative response:

My name is Shuping Wang. I am major in Public Policy at Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. Through my last research project in Humphrey School, I interviewed several renters in Minneapolis and I realized they are a vulnerable group of people. The housing inequality has been exacerbated by the pandemic in US. We are hoping through this research project we can investigate various rental assistance programs provided by the governments.

I am an international student from China. This is my second year in America and I like my life in Minnesota.

I have made several friends and they are really nice people. I am impressed by the natural landscapes here. Recently I have been reading A River Runs Through It, recommended by a friend of mine. With the book I am trying to picture the people who have lived on this land and their old lifestyle. It would be a fun journey!

Look out for more Take 5 profiles coming soon!

Community Development Director

This position will provide strategic leadership, financial planning and marketing, and operational planning and leadership to MHP’s Community Development Team. Community Development department works directly with communities, regions, and organizations to achieve the community’s current and future housing and development goals. Most of the work is in rural America, and over three-fourths are outside the state of Minnesota. Full job description here.

Community Development Manager

This position will lead capacity building work plans, facilitate Housing and Native Institute teams, and coordinate the work of other staff, sub-recipients, and contractors in order to advance economic, community, and affordable housing development for rural and Native Communities. Full job description here.

MHP is committed to social, racial, gender, and economic justice and strongly encourages women, veterans, persons with disabilities, and individuals who identify as BIPOC or LGBTQ to apply. We will begin reviewing applications August 15, 2022.

Minnesota had a projected surpluses of $9.3 billion in Fiscal Years (FY) 2022-23 and $6.3 billion in FY 2024-25. The divided legislature accomplished little, and nothing for housing. Lawmakers came into session far apart on how to spend and give back the surplus. The Senate GOP wanted to give permanent tax cuts. The House DFL wanted to support families by spending on targeted program investments.

In end-of-session negotiations, Governor Walz, Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman, and Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller overcame many of their differences by agreeing to a “global framework” to appropriate $4 billion over three years, provide $4 billion in tax cuts and credits, and leave $2.4 billion in reserves.

In Minnesota, lawmakers pass a balanced budget in odd years and are not obligated to pass supplemental spending bills in even-numbered years. Odd-numbered years are typically dedicated to passing a large bonding bill. No bonding bill was released to the public, so it is unclear how truly aligned or far apart the House, Senate, and Governor were on bonding.

After the announcement of the global framework, leadership struggled to agree on conference committee targets, which delayed the work of chairs and committee members to negotiate omnibus bills. The housing conference committee did not receive its $50 million spending target until the final week of the session.

In the final days of session, the House and Senate failed to reach agreement in major budget areas, including infrastructure (bonding), health and human services, education, and transportation. Leadership did not advance bills that had been agreed upon in conference committee for final votes once it became clear that all the pieces needed to enact the framework agreement were not going to be completed on time.

While the agreed upon (but not passed) tax bill included several important investments in housing, the issue ended the session in a very fragile state. Drafts of the housing omnibus bill and capital investment bill, which often includes Housing Infrastructure Bonds (HIBs), were never released—so it is unclear to what extent lawmakers found agreement on other housing investments.

A tax agreement was reached by House and Senate conference committee members but was not enacted into law. For more information on the Tax Bill and what could have been, read MHP's Policy Blog.

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