MHP Connect

Trump's defense-first budget puts need of Minnesotans last

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Created: Friday, 24 March 2017 13:54

In framing the merits of his dangerous budget, President Trump stated that “without safety, there can be no prosperity.” He’s right. Without a safe, affordable place to call home, families and communities cannot thrive. And Trump’s budget puts thousands of vulnerable Minnesotans in additional peril.  In a sense, the Trump budget provides for a wall but many fewer roofs.

Minnesota Housing Partnership’s recently released study, State of the State’s Housing, provides context for the proposed budget cuts.  We report that across Minnesota one in four households is lacking housing affordability — a percentage that will surely increase as resources for this critical need are siphoned away under Trump’s defense-first budget.

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10 Graphics that Reveal the State of the State's Housing

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Created: Monday, 13 March 2017 05:24

Minnesota is recognized as a national leader for its commitment to helping families with affordable ownership and rental homes. But while significant progress has been made in areas like homelessness, housing is still becoming too costly for growing numbers of Minnesotans — especially low- to moderate-income families and households of color.

Building on our County Profiles, released each year since 2009, MHP created the State of the State’s Housing to continue to benchmark progress at the state, region and county levels in critical areas, including cost-burdened households paying more than 30% of their income for housing; changes in rent and home values; construction of multi- and single-family homes; and trends in homelessness.

Here are 10 graphics that share the big picture on the state of housing in Minnesota.

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Public comment open: Fair Housing draft released for Twin Cities region

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Created: Tuesday, 07 March 2017 14:19

Nearly a year ago, a group of government officials and community leaders started a process to more deeply investigate the barriers to fair housing faced by communities of color in the Twin Cities region. Last month, the first draft of recommendations to address barriers to housing in the seven-county metro area was released — and, next week, the public is invited to meetings across the region to provide its feedback.

Precipitated by a legal complaint to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), local government agreed to create an Addendum to the 2014 Regional Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing. The Addendum specifically addresses housing discrimination, gentrification and displacement, barriers to housing choice, and conditions of segregation and integration in Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington counties.

Mosaic Community Planning was contracted to produce this addendum to consider additional fair housing issues not covered in that document, update some of its data, and provide greater analysis of fair housing issues. Click here to learn more and download the draft, and keep reading to view the public meeting schedule.

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MN Housing board update: HAVEN proposal, partially funded bond projects, and falling value of housing tax credits

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Created: Monday, 06 March 2017 10:22

During it's February board meeting, the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) discussed the possibility of allocating Agency resources to “top off” partially funded bond projects, the drop in value of housing tax credits, how the HAVEN proposal could change the way the state’s tax exempt bonding authority is allocated, potential administrators for the Bridges rental assistance grants, and amendments to the 2018 tax credit Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP). 

Partial bond allocations

Housing Commissioner Mary Tingerthal began by explaining that the Agency was not yet moving forward on a proposal to make available tax exempt bond financing to developers whose projects received partial allocations through MMB (the state budget office). Because a developer had obtained a temporary restraining order against MMB regarding a bond allocation, MMB was holding back on allocating the contested bond amount until the court acts. Minnesota Housing would not know whether projects need more funding until the court action has concluded and the Agency learns what MMB does with the held back allocation.

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