Minnesota Housing Funding Decisions Bring Joy for Emerson Village, Disappointment for Prairie Pointe
Overview
Each year, Minnesota Housing allocates Low Income Housing Tax Credits and Housing Infrastructure Bonds from a pool of resources to create affordable housing across the state. Developers like Beacon submit applications for the homes we hope to build, and a scoring system is applied by Minnesota Housing that weighs the feasibility of each development. This year, we submitted two amazing family supportive housing developments: Prairie Pointe in Shakopee and Emerson Village in North Minneapolis. Once a year, they announce which developments will receive funding – and which developments (and the youth, individuals, families, and seniors who hope to call them home) will have to wait longer.
This process represents the largest investment in home by the State of Minnesota, yet only one-in-three developments receive funding each year. 65 percent of these worthwhile, shovel-ready, desperately needed affordable housing developments get rejected. Why? Because even though the State of Minnesota has increased the amount of Housing Infrastructure Bonds to record levels in recent years, home still doesn’t receive anywhere close to the investment needed to bring stability, safety, and opportunity to Minnesota families. We simply cannot keep underfunding home and expecting our housing crisis to get resolved.
That’s why Beacon is calling on the governor and state legislature to invest $2 billion in 2022 toward home, including $1 billion for creating new homes and preserving the homes we have, and $1 billion for expanding housing access and opportunities, including rental assistance through Bring it Home, Minnesota.
Home is the foundation of everything else we do. It’s time Minnesota’s budget reflected this and centered home as the priority that it is!
Prairie Pointe, Shakopee
We join the broader community in Scott and Carver counties in expressing our disappointment that Prairie Pointe did not receive funding from Minnesota Housing this year. This is especially disconcerting news for the families who must continue to wait for the supportive housing they need tonight.
One of the primary reasons we did not get funded by Minnesota Housing is because the Met Council did not provide the necessary project-based rent vouchers Prairie Pointe needs. Project-based vouchers make the construction of deeply-affordable housing – homes accessible to families who make 30 percent or less of the Area Median Income (AMI) – viable. This upsetting decision by the Met Council has a direct negative impact on the creation of Prairie Pointe and other suburban developments – and leaves families behind.
Despite 48 percent of renter households experiencing cost burden in Scott County, two years of strong scores on the Minnesota Housing application, and a national grant recognizing the impact of Prairie Pointe on families, these homes have slim chances of becoming a reality without vouchers from the Met Council.
This will just make a bad situation worse: the Twin Cities metro has only built a mere one-in-ten of the new deeply-affordable homes needed each of the last five years. It is simply unacceptable that ninety percent of families have to keep waiting for a home they can afford.
We believe an annual allocation process of project-based vouchers through the Met Council is an integral strategy to closing this egregious development gap in the Twin Cities metro. Members of Beacon’s collaborative from across the region are calling on the Met Council to increase the dedicated number of project-based vouchers to at least 200 so developers like Beacon have access to the resources they need to make homes like Prairie Pointe a reality.
At the same time, it is imperative that our state legislators provide bonding dollars to fully fund Minnesota’s housing needs. It is not acceptable that year after year after year, homes our families needed yesterday are delayed yet again because we allow the myth of “insufficient resources” to persist. We will continue to mobilize our base and stand with our allies to demand that the legislature treat deeply affordable housing as the priority that it is.
Emerson Village, North Minneapolis
On behalf of the families whom we hope will soon be able to establish a safe, stable home in a community they love, Beacon is honored that Minnesota Housing has allocated $12.991 million in funding for Emerson Village!
With tailored, on-site support offered through Project for Pride in Living for every member of the family, Emerson Village will help children do better in school, parents increase income, and families improve long-term health. This investment will be a testament to the desire of residents in North Minneapolis to create housing options that work for all of their neighbors.
Combined with recent funding of $1.52 million from the City of Minneapolis, $750,000 from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, $1.2 million from Hennepin County’s Supportive Housing program, and 40 project-based vouchers from the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, Emerson Village is now on its way to being fully funded! This is an exciting moment for the entire North Minneapolis community and the many supporters who have worked to get Emerson Village this far.
The development will now seek American Rescue Plan resources from Hennepin County to close the funding gap that has grown mostly due to volatile construction pricing. Once secured, Emerson Village will move to land use approval through the Minneapolis City Council, which we anticipate will be voted on later in 2022.
Quality affordable homes belong in all communities. While we are grateful that Emerson Village can move forward thanks to this funding, too many communities across Minnesota lack quality affordable homes due to years of underinvestment of state and local resources. Thank you for all the Beacon supporters who engaged with the Minneapolis City Council this past year, asking that they prioritize deeply-affordable housing. Your organizing and persistent voices made a difference. We must continue to take such action. Homes like Beacon’s Prairie Pointe in Shakopee stall because the dollars committed to Minnesota’s Housing Infrastructure Bonds are insufficient to cover the long list of worthwhile, desperately needed developments. It is past time for our state and communities to fully invest in the promise of home.
