From Minneapolis Public Housing Authority Website
Today, Senator Tina Smith and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey joined MPHA staff, residents, and partners to celebrate the groundbreaking of 84 new deeply affordable family homes across Minneapolis. The Family Housing Expansion Project (FHEP) will bring 26 two- and 58 three-bedroom units in fourplexes and sixplexes to 16 sites across Minneapolis. These new buildings will be a part of MPHA’s deeply affordable scattered site family housing portfolio. Sixteen of the units will be disability accessible, with another 17 being high-priority homeless units with services funded through Hennepin County’s Coordinated Entry program. The agency estimates these 84 new homes will be able to serve approximately 420 families over the next 30 years. This project is the agency’s largest new-unit development in more than two decades.
“For families from MPHA’s family waiting list, today is a life-changing moment,” said Abdi Warsame, Executive Director/CEO of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. “For 84 families, and the hundreds to follow them in the years to come, the promise of stable, deeply affordable housing becomes one step closer to reality. This project demonstrates the power of partnership in addressing our region’s affordable housing crisis—local leaders making major financial investments to supplement federal financing tools accessible to MPHA. The success of this project provides a blueprint for developing new, high-quality, deeply affordable housing across Minneapolis.”
“Everyone deserves a safe, stable place to call home. Without it nothing else in your life works – not your job, your health, your family, or your education,” said U.S. Senator Tina Smith. “The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s work has been critical in providing affordable housing for families across the city. Making 84 new deeply affordable units available is going to have a ripple effect of positive impacts. This is an example of how the federal government can partner on important projects and what can be accomplished thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act and the American Rescue Plan Act.”
“Every resident in Minneapolis deserves safe, stable, and permanent housing – that is affordable to them,”said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. “Since my first term, we have invested record amounts of new affordable housing in the city, especially focusing on deeply affordable units. Year to year we have seen a 92% increase in multifamily housing unit permits, and this has an incredible impact on families in our community. Thank you to MPHA for leading this important work through the Family Housing Expansion Project, and for placing our Minneapolis families in affordable homes.”
The agency maintains more than 700 deeply affordable family homes scattered across Minneapolis through its wholly owned and controlled nonprofit, Community Housing Resources (CHR). The agency maintains a family housing waitlist of nearly 7,500 people. More than 80 percent of those waitlisted are households of color. The Family Housing Expansion Project aims to address the significant unmet demand for this kind of housing. And while the 84 new units will live in a separate legal entity, Family Housing Resources, LP, they will function identically to the agency’s CHR homes.