Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP) and Habitat for Humanity of Minnesota (Habitat Minnesota) have invited candidates for the Minnesota House of Representatives and the Minnesota State Senate to complete a 2022 Candidate Questionnaire on Housing Issues. The questionnaire covers issues from housing affordability to utility costs, racial disparities in homeownership, and more. View the full questionnaire and responses as they come in over the next few weeks here: bit.ly/VoteHomes2022

Engage your Candidates!

To help make sharing the questionnaire quick and easy MHP has developed a promo kit of pre-drafted content that can be cut and pasted into social media posts, a blog post, and an E-newsletter.

On Thursday, August 18th, MHP hosted a webinar on the importance of candidate engagement during the 2020 election, with a focus on housing. Learn about the 2022 Candidate Questionnaire on Housing Issues, tips for non-profits engaging with candidates, social media engagement, and hosting candidate forums. You can find presentation slides (PDF) here, and a video recording here.

There aren’t enough homes people can afford, and we are losing the affordable homes that exist at an alarming rate. Proven effective solutions do exist but need sufficient funding to ensure everyone—every child, every elder, every person with a disability—has a stable place to come home to. That's why MHP has developed our Key Facts on Housing 2022! This document is meant to serve as a tool, using Minnesota as the example, for advocates to communicate the most important facts about housing in the state to lawmakers, community partners, and other stakeholders.  

MHP's Minnesota snapshot of the 2022 Out of Reach report highlights state and county trends that reveal that households in every corner of Minnesota are spending thousands of dollars more than they can afford each year just to pay the rent for a modest apartment. Now more than ever, as evidenced by the rippling effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, housing security is central to overall health and well-being.

One exemplifying fact: Four of the top ten in-demand jobs in Minnesota do not pay enough to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment, and eight of the top ten occupations do not pay enough to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment. 

Is your community facing a lack of affordable housing? Is a demographic group in your hometown underserved? Do you work for an organization that could benefit from enhanced local knowledge, training, and/or strategic partnerships? If so, MHP is available to assist in addressing the issues your community faces.

MHP is opening its Request for Technical Assistance (RFTA) Application through its Strengthening Rural Communities Program, which delivers technical and financial assistance to rural entities and Native nations at no cost to them.

Awardees will position themselves to achieve their unique vision and sustain successes long after work with MHP is complete. In the current year alone, our team has supported 36 rural communities through our TA and capacity building, helping our community partners advance a pipeline of nearly 250 affordable housing units being developed, rehabbed, or preserved, as well as numerous community and economic development projects and programs. (For example, MHP worked with the City of Frazee's Economic Development Authority - see story below!) Our TA Specialists have the expertise to assist with a diverse set of issues, including (but not limited to) housing development, housing program development, organizational development, funding and resource development, and community engagement and outreach.

Apply now! Contact our staff with questions or concerns! RFTA@MHPonline.org or 651-925-5536

New Frazee development, awaiting signage and landscaping

Our intrepid Community Development team recently worked with the City of Frazee's Economic Development Authority to bring to life a new commercial building on their main street corridor. For this project, through our Strengthening Rural Communities program (see above) MHP assisted in creating and administering an RFP for architects (which resulted in hiring Goldmark Designs) and provided a grant that paid for an update to their housing study and assisted with architectural fees. The EDA was intentional on building a strong pedestrian friendly environment in the front with parking in the rear and on the street and has attracted an anchor business, Seip Pharmacy Drug, occupying a little more than 50% of the space. The city is seeking more commercial tenants for the building - for information check out their brochure here. It’s an exciting project for the City of Frazee! 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) has published new guidance on using SLFRFs for affordable housing production and preservation. The guidance is described in this Final Rule FAQ and How-Two Guide. Additional resources include a webinar (https://bit.ly/3SL4gmE) and webinar presentation slides (https://bit.ly/3Q2wtTS). The new guidance clarifies that SLFRF can be used to fully finance long-term affordable housing loans. 

On August 9, the New Democrat Coalition (NDC) sent a letter to President Biden, asking the administration to address the need for more affordable housing. Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig (CD2) and Congressman Dean Phillips (CD3) are members of the NDC.

Read the full Scope of Work here. To request additional details on the project, i.e., Data Dictionary and report samples, please send an email to Deb Peterson, Finance and Administrative Officer, at admin@mhponline.org. 

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