![Brian Schaffer, assistant director of planning and development, says: “We have not added this many units since the early-2000s around work we did for Heritage Park [above].”](https://www.minnpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/HeritagePark940.jpg)
Minneapolis will soon see one of the largest public housing construction projects in nearly 20 years, with the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority planning to build 84 units at 16 separate sites spread across the city starting next year.
In all, MPHA currently has a little more than 900 housing units. The new projects would increase that total by roughly 10 percent while also adding 17 units designated for people now staying in Hennepin County homeless shelters.
“This kind of undertaking … is a big deal for MPHA,” said Brian Schaffer, assistant director of planning and development. “We have not added this many units since the early-2000s around work we did for Heritage Park.” That project, which has over 400 units, was constructed in 2003.
In recent years, MPHA has tried to add new housing units in response to Minneapolis’ growing need for affordable housing. The agency’s waitlist for family housing — public housing for adults with dependents — now has more than 8,000 applicants on it. In early November, MPHA briefly reopened the waitlist for family housing, and saw another 2,900 applications come in.
“The staggering statistic was that a little over 30 percent identified as being homeless or displaced,” MPHA deputy executive director Jennifer Keogh said of the new applicants. “You see the tents driving around. It’s staggering to know that these are kids, these are families.”
The new buildings, which include two and three-bedroom units, will “provide housing and opportunity and stability” for families, including upwards of 400 children, said Keogh.
The 16 buildings will be spread across the city in what MPHA calls “scattered sites,” a strategy that fulfills two goals, said MPHA development manager and project lead Juan Torres. “It provides an increase in the amount of affordable housing in areas where it’s typically not present, and, in addition to that, continues to invest in areas where we do have affordable housing.”
The project is currently estimated to cost around $34 million, which includes all development, land and construction costs. A chunk of funding was provided by Minneapolis, which in July allocated $4.6 million of federal pandemic relief money from the American Rescue Plan for the project. To come up with the rest of the money, MPHA will use low income housing tax credits and bonds. It has also applied for additional funding from the Met Council, the Federal Home Loan Bank’s Affordable Housing Program and Minneapolis’ Community Planning & Economic Development.
MPHA currently owns 14 of the 16 lots where the buildings will be located, sites that currently have single-family homes and duplexes. For the last two sites, the City of Minneapolis owns part of the land on one, and all the land on the other. In the meantime, in anticipation of MPHA and the city being able to finalize a deal for the land next year, the city has given MPHA permission to do site due diligence.
Of the 16 sites, five are in north Minneapolis; two are in northeast Minneapolis; one is in southwest Minneapolis; and eight are in south and southeast Minneapolis; the Minneapolis Planning Commission approved eight of the buildings in November; it also signed off on rezoning requests for the sites.
“All of these are properties that would be rezoned in the next year or so anyway, as part of the implementation of Minneapolis 2040,” said senior city planner Andrew Frenz.
Each of the 16 properties will be in districts that currently allow for a maximum of three units per building. The zoning changes, which still have to be finalized by the City Council, would allow for more than three units per building.
The proposal currently comes with two building types: three-story buildings with six units, and two-story buildings with four units.
When available, eligible families, who will be drawn from MPHA’s housing waitlist, will pay 30 percent of their adjusted income in rent. For the 17 homelessness units, MPHA will pick among candidates referred to them by Hennepin County’s homeless assistance program.
We need to talk about what is behind people being unsheltered; yes there is the high cost of housing, but there we also need higher wages; you know when some people have jobs with the government and large profit earning corporations and still need subsidized housing, something is amiss. Also Hennepin County has a robust shelter system, especially for families, if families are in tents we need to look at what rules at the shelters may be barriers. Then there is the issue of possibly having a residency requirement, many complain they fall to the end of a waiting list when others come from other towns or states and it is a lottery draw. Successful housing programs usually have strong support systems–education and jobs. Minneapolis Public Housing is also one of the largest evictors, again we need to look at why.
Lisa, I’ve been saying and saying and saying for years and years and years that: 1) wages are too low to afford market-rate housing; 2) market rate housing is too expensive for wages being earned by working folks; 3) the “low income, affordable” housing model simply doesn’t work and cannot be applied fairly to working folk. The 30% of income model begins at gross wages; if I earn $40,000 a year, my net income will be about $30,000. 30% of that is $10,000. There’s no way a wage earner can find livable housing in Minneapolis for $800/month or $9600 a year. So the model is not working and must be re-worked to reflect current housing costs AND wages. You can imagine how impossible this rent/wage model works for a worker earning $20,000. I’ve struggled with a reasonable solution for decades; what I’ve come to believe is that government subsidies in the form of cash toward verifiable rent payments is the only viable one. Developers will contort their proposals to the nth degree to show “affordable housing” is being built. In the end, it’s never affordable. Private developers must not be allowed to offer rental housing for the shelter-insecure, food-insecure, low-wage-worker populations of our great city. The top 1% will — hopefully — locate into those private, high-rent developments offered now on almost every block. I won’t be among them. And the sooner the top 1% say “enough,” the sooner our housing market will be more fair, equitable, and prosperous.
I hope whoever is choosing the families to move into public supported housing, looks closely at why the family is currently on the street living. 70-90% of homeless are drug addicts or mentally ill. Minneapolis Public Housing evicts so many folks because of neglect of the property they are given. Job training, drug treatment, mental health treatment, basic living skills courses need to be introduced also. There are different folks homeless for different reasons, getting families to use this tax funded resource as a springboard to a better life, should be top priority.
This 70%-90% figure is bogus.
The left leaning LA times calls it 50-70 percent of homeless are either drug addicts or mentally ill. Most other studies show it higher. Vetting the homeless to make sure they will use tax dollars wisely is something every agency should do… Unfortunately most do not.
The LA times is talking about the homeless population in… LA Joe. California has a far more catastrophic scenario than the Twin Cities. The demographics here significantly different.
84 units costing “around $34 million.” That’s a little over $400,000 per unit of housing. Why is it costing so much? We are never going to solve our housing problem if we have to spend that kind of money.
We have to solve that problem first.
My thoughts exactly.
This is crazy. Why would it cost $400K to build a low income apartment, when you can buy a house for $200K? 84 units, when you have 8,000 people on the waiting list????
I too have to question the price tag here, 34 million for 84 units? Doesn’t any ever audit this stuff? So long as we try to rely on market based solutions this crisis will continue. I was just discussing this with a friend who lives out by San Francisco and she was saying now have what they call a: “homelessnes industry” that’s making gobs of money pretending to provide housing. I hate to say but that’s what this looks like.
This isn’t a market-based solution. This is public housing.
And maybe this answers your questions about builders’ lack of transparency. Even publicly funded projects, where all the information is public, housing is really expensive to build.
I will admit, though, that these numbers do sound crazy.
By “market” I’m referring to the “homeless” industry that has emerged in this country. A lot of money is being made by a lot of people who are producing far less housing and shelter than they could because it’s a for profit business model masquerading as public works. I think it’s safe to assume that there is significant “skimming”, embezzlement, kick-backs, whatever you want to call it associated with some of these projects. Henn Co. in particular seems to have a difficult time auditing these budgets and spending.
On another hand what I mean by “market” solutions is the fact that despite having 8k people on the wait list, we’re still hoping the “market” will build the housing… 84 units is hardly a robust public response.
What is truly crazy is seeing all the apartments that have vacancies that are Section 8. Why don’t we fill those first? And 400k/apartment, that is truly insane.
When the typical cost is about 90k/apt and these are 400k (and the land is already owned). Wow.
https://www.multifamily.loans/apartment-finance-blog/multifamily-construction-costs-an-investor-guide#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20most%20recent,%2464%2C500%20to%20%2486%2C000%20per%20unit.
If there are so many Section 8 vacancies, why has the waiting list for vouchers been closed?
Crazy.
I’m not sure we actually have that many section 8 vacancies. And if we do have a lot of section 8 vacancies I would look at the landlords and find out how their keeping those units vacant.