Letter to Mayor Jacob Frey: Emerson Village
Asking for Emerson Village to be added to projects receiving funding from the City of Minneapolis.
Dear Mayor Frey:
Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative requests that the resolution for allocation of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) be amended to include funding for Emerson Village. This resolution will be on the agenda of the December 18 City Council meeting.
It is exciting that the City of Minneapolis is allocating $14 million of federal and city resources to increase affordable housing in the city. As a housing developer, we understand that this is a complex task. CPED has a scoring process that is designed to capture the complexity of the many factors that the city wishes to weigh. However, this scoring process doesn’t seem to actually determine who gets funded.
It is on this basis that we wish to bring to your attention that Emerson Village had the fourth highest score and yet is not one of the ten projects recommended for funding this year.
It is our understanding that you and many of your colleagues have stated that deeply affordable housing for those that are the lowest income (at or below 30% Area Median Income) should be the priority for the investment of public resources. Emerson Village fits squarely in this policy priority.
We also wish to bring to your attention that Emerson Village has the most units with 30% AMI income restriction of all 18 projects considered for funding – both in absolute units with 37 and as a percentage of units with 71 percent. And, with project-based Section 8 vouchers already awarded to this project, all of the homes at Emerson Village will be affordable to people earning 30% AMI or less.
In the recommendation coming to the full Council, 170 housing units are income restricted to 30% AMI are recommended for funding. However, we wish to bring to your attention that this is only 18 percent of the units that are recommended for funding. In fact, five of the ten recommended projects have less than 10% of the units restricted to 30% AMI. (We are pleased to see that St. Stephens and Simpson Housing who do have many units at 30% AMI are recommended for funding.)
We do not understand why high-scoring projects were passed-over. Our proposal was one of five proposals whose scores were in the top ten that were passed over for funding. The request for proposals indicated how Affordable Housing Trust Fund proposals would be scored and the point value for each scoring criteria. However, in the end, the scoring clearly was not a significant factor in the awards. Staff and committee had discretion to assess the projects’ readiness without defining how readiness is measured. This subjectivity and lack of transparency creates an inequitable system for awarding funding.
The Council may not be aware that typical measures of “readiness” are biased against the policy priority of focusing resources on those with the greatest housing challenges. Developments that serve the most people at 30% AMI and/or coming out of homelessness are the most difficult to put together. It is easier to be “ready” if you focus on 50%, 60% or 80% AMI because the development does not require 9% tax credits or Housing Infrastructure Bonds. When the City allocates Affordable Housing Trust Funds (even partial funding), this makes a development “ready” for 9% tax credits or Housing Infrastructure Bonds from either the City or Minnesota Housing. Without this funding in 2020, Emerson Village, the project with the most 30% AMI units, might not be “ready” again next year!
We also want to express our concern about the practice of making agendas with staff recommendations public less than 24 hours prior to the Business, Inspections, Housing and Zoning Committee meeting. The timing does not provide committee members time to have a thoughtful review and hear from constituents about important policy and funding decisions.
We ask you to prioritize using public resources for a high-scoring housing development with the most units for those at 30% AMI and amend the resolution to allocate Affordable Housing Trust Funding to Emerson Village.
We welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you in person prior to the Council meeting on December 18.
Sincerely,
Lee Blons
CC: Andrea Brennan, City Council Members
