Affordable Homes Update July 2018
Our monthly Affordable Homes Update includes links about gentrification, youth experiencing homelessness, the affordable housing shortage, a unique way to finance housing, and designing shelters for those experiencing homelessness. Let’s dig in!
- After decades of professionals choosing the suburbs over the inner city, the trend is reversing. As young professionals move in, cities that once experienced a hollowing out face new challenges: first and foremost is gentrification, the process of revitalizing urban neighborhoods by affluent newcomers who push older and poorer residents out. A neighborhood in Philadelphia tries to gentrify without displacing the older population. Closer to home in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul, the changing neighborhood brings fears that not all the change will be good for low income residents.
Rounding out the coverage on gentrification, the Detroit Free Press interviews an urban theorist concerning fears that gentrification is taking place as the Motor City experiences a renewal. The theorist says the problem isn’t gentrification, but the deepening poverty in neighborhoods where gentrification isn’t happening.
- One in ten youth in the United States has faced a night without a place to call home. A study from earlier this year highlights the growing problem in America. What’s happening in Minnesota? First off, suburban Washington County is learning there are few resources for youth in the south end of the county. A new drop-in center for homeless youth opened in June at the Maplewood Mall, serving central Washington and suburban Ramsey counties. In St. Paul a groundbreaking and blessing took place July 11 at a future home for at-risk indigenous youth. Mino Oski Ain Dah Yung, which means “Good New Home” in Ojibwe, will provide 42 homes to at-risk Native American youth when it opens in the Spring of 2019.
- The Twin Cities, like many metro areas across the United States, faces a shortage of affordable housing. For young people looking to buy a starter home, the demand is far outpacing the supply. Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity will try to step up production of affordable homes, thanks to a ten-year agreement with Minnesota Housing. But why is there a shortage? A researcher from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve thinks manufactured homes were are an answer,but such homes stopped being built because of federal housing policy.
A note of irony here: while the city is dealing with a housing shortage, the city also faces a large number of vacant and boarded homes.
In the Washington, DC suburb of Alexandria, housing authorities are looking to churches to provide affordable housing by getting them to sell part or all of their property.
- To build new housing, you have to find a way to finance new homes. One way might be cross-subsidizing, the willingness by developers to settle for a little less in profit to subsidize homes for low income residents.
- Finally, many Beacon congregations that host families during the year try to make their spaces as much like a home as possible. A designer hopes to help shelter providers learn how design can improve the life of persons experiencing homelessness.
That’s all for this month. See you at this time next month.
