08-18-1979 Planning Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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McKnight Foundation ups ante on housing in suburbs ■ Group gives additional $4 million to promote affordable housing in the communities surrounding Minneapo lis and St Paul By Jeffrey Pieters Staff Writer A private, philanthropic groups ef fort to build and save affordable hous ing in Minneapolis and St. Paul will do more work in the suburbs in the coming years. The McKnight Foundation on July 29 announced it would give $4 million to the Family Housing Fund to help increase the number of affordable homes and apartments in the seven-county metro area. The $4 million grant will augment an earlier $3 million the Foundation gave the Family Housing Fund for use in the suburbs. The money, according to Anne Ray of the Family Housing Fund, will be avail able to communities and developers on a request basis, with requests to be re viewed by the Family Housing Fund, the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MMFA) and the Metropolitan Council. A primary use of the money, Ray said, will be to support existing programs in subur ban communities. Depending on the community, af fordable housing programs will focus on construction or preservation, Ray said. Inner-ring suburbs, which are more developed, have difficulty building af fordable housing developments, and have argued against standards they say would require them to devalue their housing stock. Communities such as Edina have cho sen to focus on maintaining, rather than increasing, their amounts of affordable housing. For example, an affordable housing program, the East Edina Housing Foun dation, provides financial incentives for owners of low- and mid-value properties to fix up their homes The program helps first-time home buyers with down pay ments and mortgages. “Even in a community that has older housing, there are thinp we can do to promote affordable housing," Ray said. To date, the Family Housing Fund has helped create or maintain 700 affordable housing units in communities such as Eden Prairie, Apple Valley, Bloomington and Eagan, Ray said. According to Family Housing Fund statistics, however, more than 50,000 suburban individuals and families still live in homes and apartments they can not afford. Affordable housing, said Ray, is that which costs a household no more than 30 percent of its income. To rent a typical Twin Cities apart ment — a two-bedroom with rent of around $620 per month — one must make at least $25,000 per year, Ray said. To buy an average three-bedroom home, valued at $93,000, the bench mark income is $30,000 per year, she said. The problem, Ray said, is that many jobs — particularly those in the burgeon- HOUSENG: To Next Page