Project-Based Vouchers Deserve an Annual Plan
Written by Lee Blons, CEO/President
The following testimony was present by Lee Blons at the Met Council Public Hearing on August 16, 2021.
Add your support for project-based vouchers by August 31 by emailing the Met Council (attn: Terri Smith) at data.center@metc.state.mn.us.
I’m Lee Blons, CEO/President of Beacon. I am here to testify on the Annual Plan proposed to HUD. We would ask that you amend the plan proposed by staff. We ask that you specifically commit to providing project-based vouchers as part of the plan for 2022.
I have three points that I wish to make today: The role of an annual plan, the community development role of the Met Council, and the importance of this resource to break through racial segregation in our region.
This is the annual plan, yet it appears to us to be generic language – ‘we may do project-based vouchers or we may not.’ We ask you to actually engage in annual planning on the resources available for regional affordable housing development.
In the discussions that we’ve had with many of you, you have shared that it is not clear to you when and how you have an opportunity to influence Met Council policy and practice. As I understand it, you are required to vote on this Annual Plan. So, we ask you to not “check a box” but to actually engage in conversation with each other and the community on this precious resource.
We know that the Met Council values community engagement. We applaud the engagement of the Resident Advisory Council which was facilitated by staff. You could also request that staff facilitate input from others in the community as well; non-profit organizations, mayors, county staff, etc.
It is our experience that they will not choose to testify unless explicitly invited for testimony. Given the power that the Met Council wields, they can be intimidated to testify in what is perceived to be in opposition to the staff.
As part of this Annual Plan process, I ask you to step into your full role as the Community Development planning role of the Met Council. I believe an important part of your perspective is in your role in guiding overall development through the Comprehensive Plan for the region.
You devote significant resources to working with all of the municipalities to develop and approve the Comprehensive Plan that specifically sets affordable housing goals for each community. We commend you for explicitly naming the goal of creating homes that are affordable at 30% area median income. Given the disparate income of BIPOC communities, this is an important step in naming the changes necessary for Black, Indigenous and People of Color to have an opportunity to live in the community of their choice.
I would ask that you have staff report to you – what is the total number of homes affordable at or below 30% area median income that is in the Comprehensive Plan? And what are the resources necessary to reach that goal?
I don’t know of any affordable housing expert that would say that homes can be created that are affordable at or below 30% area median income without a rent subsidy.
The Met Council is the primary, and in many communities the sole, provider of rent subsidy in the whole region outside of Minneapolis and Saint Paul. You have an opportunity (and dare I say responsibility) to make available rent subsidy to support communities in reaching the goals that you and they have mutually agreed upon.
Minneapolis and Saint Paul Public Housing Authorities regularly provide project-based vouchers to encourage the development of deeply affordable homes in their cities. If you don’t offer vouchers, you will drive all deeply affordable and supportive housing development to be only in Minneapolis and Saint Paul. The choice is yours.
Predictability matters to all developers.
I want to be clear that Beacon is not asking for all rent vouchers to be project-based. We support the both/and approach that HUD sets. HUD requires that 85% of the vouchers remain for scattered site homes. As staff have explained, providing project-based vouchers is not a break from past practice. However, we ask that you explicitly make a commitment.
We are asking you to move toward full utilization of the flexibility that HUD provides you – to project-base 15% of the vouchers. We understand that moving toward 15% is based on the vouchers turned in each year, so it won’t happen overnight. But we do believe that the Annual Plan should explicitly state that project-basing will occur to support the Comprehensive Plan of the Met Council and then develop a plan for the number of vouchers to be made available each year to reach the 15% allowed by HUD.
Knowing that they will be available next year and every year will drive regional development. In the hot real estate market, a non-profit organization like mine has to take significant financial risk. We need to purchase a $1 million piece of property that is dependent on managing through the myriad of capital, rent subsidy and service funding to create a new supportive housing development.
Vista 44, family supportive housing in Hopkins, received MHFA after 3 years, only after you made project-based vouchers available. Prairie Pointe, the first of any major homeless housing in Scott County, is stuck in development delays due to a lack of rent subsidy. And now I wish to bring to your attention, the desire to create family supportive housing in the East Metro. It is desperately needed to help families exit homelessness or the child welfare system. But where should we locate it?
We are excited that Ramsey County is stepping up to the plate with an HRA levy this year, which will bring new resources. They are interested in fostering deeply affordable homes in the suburbs and breaking the economic barriers that stop BIPOC from being able to have choice in the community.
But I’m in a discussion with my board and staff right now. If we choose a Saint Paul location, it’s a slam dunk to get rent subsidy and therefore MHFA funding. Or do we dare to take the risk to select a suburban location and create choice for families exiting homelessness? Can we count on the Met Council in being a partner in this process?
I want to be clear we love the capital funding that you make available. But the most important resource that you have is your rent subsidy.
We understand from staff that the project-basing creates an administrative burden with limited resources. Perhaps as you put together your Annual Plan, including your budget, you think creatively about how you invest your resources most wisely in how you have the greatest fair housing impact. I don’t know what HUD allows but perhaps you could even charge us, the housing developer, for the administrative costs. Let’s think outside the box to solve what appears to us to be a minor issue and to meet the hefty goals that you have set for regional affordable housing development.
We believe that this is a fair housing issue. I hope that you all read the recent Star Tribune article on the impact of zoning on segregation of the Twin Cities. These NIMBY zoning fights are the ones that Beacon and other non-profit housing developers are willing to take on if you give us the resources.
When someone on the waitlist gets a voucher, around 35-40% of them will turn back their voucher because they can’t find a landlord willing to accept their voucher. Perhaps for economic reasons or perhaps out of prejudice or perhaps because of a past eviction on their record. Another significant percentage will utilize the voucher within Minneapolis and Saint Paul, rather than in the suburban/ex-urban communities. Perhaps out of choice – or perhaps due to discrimination in the suburbs.
When you invest project-based vouchers in a housing development in the suburbs, specifically designed to welcome people with low incomes and people who have experienced eviction, you can affirmatively break down the systemic barriers built into our inequitable housing system.
When you project-base vouchers for supportive housing, you develop a new housing system that embraces choice, recognizes that homelessness is regional and that government’s role is to change unjust systems, not perpetuate them.
Please support a HUD Annual Plan that commits to project-basing vouchers next year.
Thank you.
