The Urgent Need for Project-Based Vouchers
Written by Theresa Dolata
Theresa first shared these words at Beacon’s congregation convening on December 9, 2021. They are republished here with her permission.
I am Theresa Dolata, a parishioner at Saint Joan of Arc Catholic community in South Minneapolis. I am a leader with Beacon, and I am working with the Met Council team in our efforts to secure Project Based Vouchers from the Met Council. These vouchers, part of the Housing Choice program formerly known as Section 8, are essential to our ability to build deeply affordable, supportive housing; homes for individuals and families making less than $31,000 a year.
Vouchers provide the rental assistance needed by low-income renters to actually be able to pay their rent. Unfortunately, there are far too few vouchers to meet the need for rental assistance. In fact, the Met Council itself admits that the need for affordable housing in the Metro area was unmet, and especially affects those at the lowest incomes.
How do I know this? I live in Southwest Minneapolis, and I am on a waitlist for a Housing Choice voucher right now. I got on that wait list after 15-years of bouts of homelessness and housing insecurity. I called the Minneapolis Housing Authority in September of 2021 to make sure my information was up to date. The person said that they are just issuing vouchers to people who got on the waitlist in 2008. 2008!
Can you imagine having to wait 13 years just to get assistance in paying your rent? And let me tell you, it makes me feel like I am the problem. That my humanity does not matter, rather than acknowledging the real problem is how resources are being used.
I am 47 and disabled and most likely will not see the rental assistance I need before I take my last breath on this Earth.
You might ask why am I doing this? How can I go on? Why am I not hopeless? Look around. I see hope all around me in your faces, in your actions. I see joy when we win a small fight. When I learn someone else’s story when I’m doing a 1-1 with them. I have faith that together we won’t normalize homelessness, we won’t be swayed by a promise that is too good to be true.
As urgent as this work is – I feel joy in knowing I am not alone. That I have a faith community that is in this struggle with me.
And it is a struggle. Affordable housing simply cannot be built without the rent subsidies or vouchers the Met Council, and other public housing agencies, provide. And where do you think affordable housing is being built? In Minneapolis and St Paul. Why? Because they have their own housing agencies that disburses vouchers.
The Met Council is the largest distributor of vouchers for most of the suburban cities. Yet, last year they chose to allocate Zero project-based vouchers. So, virtually no development of affordable housing in the suburbs is happening. And when we applied for vouchers for Prairie Pointe in Shakopee (pictured left), those vouchers expired and then we were not allowed to reapply. With project-based vouchers for Prairie Point, we could realize over 40 families being housed within a couple of years. The council could start meeting the dire need for affordable homes in the suburbs.
So, we are keeping the pressure on the Met Council. We need vouchers for Prairie Pointe to be funded. And we have made an intentional decision to develop our next 100 homes in the eastern and western suburbs rather than in Minneapolis or St Paul.
Did you hear me folks? We are launching two new developments! 100 homes! Right now! Beacon’s housing team has begun to focus in on specific locations in two suburban communities with hopes to secure purchase agreements early next year.
With Prairie Point in Shakopee and these two new developments, we are putting nearly 150 homes at risk fighting for project based vouchers.
This is how important they are! We are doing this because the need is in the whole metro area and not just Minneapolis and St Paul. We are doing this because we believe quality affordable homes belong in all communities. We are doing this because we believe it is a matter of equity that people get to choose where they want to live and where they want their kids to go to school! This is bigger than just Beacon. We are addressing a long-standing systemic injustice that the Met Council continues to perpetuate by not awarding project-based vouchers.
But to win this fight we need you to share in both the urgency and joy of the moment. The entire collaborative of Beacon with ALL of our congregations – those in the East, the South, the West and North metro areas, as well as those in Minneapolis and St Paul. Join me as together we take steps toward more homes and greater equity by engaging with this Met Council campaign.
Learn more on how you can get involved with our efforts to create new homes at Prairie Pointe by contacting Info@beaconinterfaith.org
