Affordable Housing

Parks, Minneapolis Public Schools, Density, Zoning, etc.
martykoessel
Landmark Center
Posts: 226
Joined: June 1st, 2012, 9:12 am

Affordable Housing

Postby martykoessel » January 1st, 2020, 1:22 pm

Happy New Year, everyone! It seems that there is no thread devoted solely to affordable housing. Independently of ethical concerns, making sure that there is adequate affordable housing directed toward the bottom end of Minneapolis' workforce is a key element in assuring the economic health of our urban area and is certainly a top priority of current city leadership. Given construction costs, the wider political environment, and the lack of glamour of affordable housing projects vis-a-vis more elegant structures, creating sufficient affordable housing is a difficult nut to crack. Would it be worthwhile, on this forum, to have a continuing discussion about ways to tackle this issue?

Anondson
IDS Center
Posts: 4645
Joined: July 21st, 2013, 8:57 pm
Location: Where West Minneapolis Once Was

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby Anondson » January 1st, 2020, 1:26 pm

There is a thread over in the Anything Goes forum.

martykoessel
Landmark Center
Posts: 226
Joined: June 1st, 2012, 9:12 am

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby martykoessel » January 1st, 2020, 1:36 pm

There is a thread over in the Anything Goes forum.
Thanks for directing me there. Maybe I was stuck by the extremely limited reaction to the Drake Hotel fire, which made me wonder how much avowed urbanists really care about the issue. Do we go bonkers over exterior cladding issues and push the huge issue of how to house low-income people to the sidelines? Over the holidays, I thought a lot about how to boost our empathy levels during an era when less generous thoughts appear to be on the rise.

martykoessel
Landmark Center
Posts: 226
Joined: June 1st, 2012, 9:12 am

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby martykoessel » January 1st, 2020, 1:45 pm

Ok, since I started this here, any thoughts on how to replace the last-resort-housing-for-homeless-families lost through the Drake Hotel fire?

EOst
Capella Tower
Posts: 2424
Joined: March 19th, 2014, 8:05 pm
Location: Saint Paul

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby EOst » January 2nd, 2020, 8:01 am

You can try to make it up piecemeal, but it's almost inconceivable how Hennepin will find that many units at a price the county can afford. There just aren't a lot of opportunities like the Drake Hotel that combine large numbers of units, a central location (easily busable for kids), low prices, and willingness from management.

SurlyLHT
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1262
Joined: February 21st, 2017, 3:50 pm

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby SurlyLHT » January 2nd, 2020, 10:39 am

I don't recommend it at all. But the Frenz buildings on 22nd S that are trying to turn into a COOP are over half empty. There are 4 buildings.

Hero
Landmark Center
Posts: 230
Joined: April 13th, 2019, 12:17 pm

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby Hero » March 4th, 2021, 11:47 pm

Is there still a rule limiting rentals to three unrelated people? Some houses can easily house more than three people and I'd rather live with a bunch of roommates than in a tent encampment.

MinneapBliss
Metrodome
Posts: 57
Joined: April 9th, 2020, 4:30 pm

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby MinneapBliss » June 8th, 2021, 11:17 am

Interesting info re: how Minneapolis intends to use American Rescue Plan dollars: https://lims.minneapolismn.gov/download ... ess[1].pdf
"That rug really tied the room together, did it not?" -Walter Sobchak

alexschief
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1140
Joined: November 12th, 2015, 11:35 am
Location: Minneapolis

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby alexschief » October 28th, 2022, 2:52 pm

The upcoming November 1st City Planning Commission agenda contains two excellent projects from Hennepin County.

Both are conversions of hotels into <30% AMI housing. The first project will convert 45 rooms of the former University Inn in Marcy Holmes and the second will convert 55 rooms of the former LuMINN Hotel in Downtown West.

One of the rare silver linings of the pandemic was Hennepin County's action to purchase a number of hotel properties to house people who otherwise would've had nowhere to stay. Now the County is moving to convert these properties into permanent affordable housing. In the process, the County has gained significant capacity as a governmental body and I sincerely hope that they make a priority of maintaining and expanding upon that capacity in the future. I've sent my Hennepin County Commissioner an email to that affect, and I encourage anyone reading this to do the same!

alexschief
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1140
Joined: November 12th, 2015, 11:35 am
Location: Minneapolis

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby alexschief » November 2nd, 2022, 10:45 am

The upcoming November 1st City Planning Commission agenda contains two excellent projects from Hennepin County.

Both are conversions of hotels into <30% AMI housing. The first project will convert 45 rooms of the former University Inn in Marcy Holmes and the second will convert 55 rooms of the former LuMINN Hotel in Downtown West.
I went to the planning commission meeting yesterday evening. The LuMINN Hotel conversion went onto the consent agenda without objection, but someone indicated that they wanted to speak on the University Inn/Gopher Motel project, and so that was kept on the agenda for a public hearing. It turned out to be the most wildly offensive public hearing I've ever witnessed, and I've watched a lot of planning commission meetings in a number of towns and cities!

The opponents to this project turned out to be local representatives of national fraternity and sorority organizations (these people were not students, they were adults who managed the fraternity buildings and presumably were otherwise involved in supervising or organizing the Greek life) and a nearby pastor. As often happens with opposition like this, the first person to speak made a semi-cogent argument and then subsequent speakers trying to press home the argument became further and further unmoored.

Essentially, it became clear that these organizations opposed the housing project because of an implicit but strong assumption that anyone with a qualifying income (<30% AMI) is a likely criminal. Speakers repeatedly painted Marcy Holmes as a neighborhood in the grips of an epidemic of crime, as if it should be obvious why this was relevant information to share at a zoning hearing. Eventually the pastor turned subtext into text by conceding that, while there had been no issues so far with Hennepin County using the former hotel as emergency housing, if the units were turned into low income rentals "there will be rapes."

A blow-by-blow account of the meeting from WedgeLive can be read here.

When the public testimony was closed, several planning commissioners forcefully addressed these remarks. Commissioner Campbell pointed out that the assumptions made about the future residents for this building were not relevant to the decision before the CPC. Commissioner Alper corrected the record by speaking about the types of people who would qualify for this type of housing. Roughly a third are in the workforce, a third are seniors, and a third are disabled. Commissioner Olson spoke about her personal experience coming out of college and renting a unit not too different from the kind of unit proposed here. Commissioner McGuire's remarks were the most forceful. She directly addressed the claim about rapes by saying that she had been raped—but by a fraternity brother. She urged the fraternity representatives to keep their own house in order before trying to deny housing for others.

Ultimately the CPC voted 5-4 (with the four I quoted above in opposition) on a motion made by Commissioner Rainville to continue this project one cycle to November 14th in order to ensure that the Marcy Holmes neighborhood (which had not submitted a letter) was consulted. On Twitter, the Marcy Holmes Neighborhood Association has subsequently made clear that they did review the project and there was no substantial opposition at that meeting, so they didn't bother to take a vote or submit a letter. Several of the commissioners who voted for the continuance also expressed support, so I am confident that it will pass at the November 14th meeting.

In the meantime, please email your Hennepin County Commissioners and tell them that you support this fantastic work by the county.

LakeCharles
Foshay Tower
Posts: 898
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Location: Kingfield

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby LakeCharles » November 2nd, 2022, 2:19 pm


Ultimately the CPC voted 5-4 (with the four I quoted above in opposition) on a motion made by Commissioner Rainville to continue this project one cycle to November 14th in order to ensure that the Marcy Holmes neighborhood (which had not submitted a letter) was consulted. On Twitter, the Marcy Holmes Neighborhood Association has subsequently made clear that they did review the project and there was no substantial opposition at that meeting, so they didn't bother to take a vote or submit a letter.
I had read WedgeLive's play-by-play and was appalled/baffled. But hopefully this piece you wrote here will highlight for neighborhood orgs that they should really send the letter when they approve/don't disapprove. Much of this could have been avoided had they done that!

SurlyLHT
Wells Fargo Center
Posts: 1262
Joined: February 21st, 2017, 3:50 pm

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby SurlyLHT » November 3rd, 2022, 7:57 am


Ultimately the CPC voted 5-4 (with the four I quoted above in opposition) on a motion made by Commissioner Rainville to continue this project one cycle to November 14th in order to ensure that the Marcy Holmes neighborhood (which had not submitted a letter) was consulted. On Twitter, the Marcy Holmes Neighborhood Association has subsequently made clear that they did review the project and there was no substantial opposition at that meeting, so they didn't bother to take a vote or submit a letter.
I had read WedgeLive's play-by-play and was appalled/baffled. But hopefully this piece you wrote here will highlight for neighborhood orgs that they should really send the letter when they approve/don't disapprove. Much of this could have been avoided had they done that!
A 60 unit project with a good number of affordable units in North was pulled by the developer this month. The Neighborhood Assn supported it, but neighbors didn't and then went to the Neighborhood Assn to got advice on how to stop it. We'll see if he comes back with something else.

Blaisdell Greenway
Union Depot
Posts: 326
Joined: July 12th, 2013, 8:42 am

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby Blaisdell Greenway » November 3rd, 2022, 8:06 am

Which one got pulled? One of the Satori projects?

MinneapBliss
Metrodome
Posts: 57
Joined: April 9th, 2020, 4:30 pm

Re: Affordable Housing

Postby MinneapBliss » December 23rd, 2022, 2:13 pm

Interesting article: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... ket_mylist

As hard as it is for me to give credit to Houston, kudos to that city for reducing homelessness over the past decade.
"That rug really tied the room together, did it not?" -Walter Sobchak


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