News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (MINNEAPOLIS – October 31, 2017) Today Aeon, the NOAH Impact Fund of Greater Minnesota Housing Fund (GMHF), and Enterprise Community Investment, Inc. completed the purchase of 768 apartment homes across 10 properties in Bloomington, Brooklyn Center, New Hope, and St. Paul. Other key partners in the project include Bellwether Enterprise Real Estate Capital, LLC, ...

As reported by Matthew Liedke in the Bemidji Pioneer on Oct. 27, 2017. The atmosphere in downtown Bemidji was charged and optimistic Friday morning, as government officials, organization personnel and business leaders celebrated the opening of Park Place Apartments. The complex, managed by the Duluth-based Center City Housing Corp., includes 60 units, with 40 dedicated to single-room ...

It’s a record award of its kind in nation, housing advocates say. Star Tribune reporter Miguel Otárola reported on Oct. 19, 2017 that former tenants of a 698-unit apartment complex in Richfield and their landlords reached what affordable-housing advocates are calling the largest settlement of its kind in the nation. The settlement resolves a housing discrimination lawsuit ...

Randy Petersen reports in the Post-Bulletin that group of 40 to 50 local residents asked Mayo Clinic to lead in an effort to raise $60 million during the next five years to help create affordable housing in Rochester. In a letter to Dr. John Noseworthy, CURE — Communities United for Rochester Empowerment — also asked for ...

An important milestone was reached today in helping end homelessness among military veterans in Minnesota with the opening of Veterans East, a new 100-unit apartment community adjacent to the Veterans Hospital near Fort Snelling. During a ribbon-cutting ceremony, newly moved-in veterans, many of whom have struggled with homelessness, thanked community leaders and development partners for helping ...

For the second time, small to midsized lenders, with total assets as low as $28 million, are participating in the U.S. Treasury Department’s CDFI Bond Guarantee Program, an innovative financing program that provides long-term, fixed rate loan capital to lenders serving underserved areas of the country. Opportunity Finance Network’s (OFN) $145 million bond issue involving eight ...

The seduction of the brogrammers has begun. Across the Twin Cities, from Arden Hills to Shakopee, city planners are huddling with developers and Mad Men to put together the biggest “welcome basket’’ the state has ever seen. The basket will include “incentives to offset initial capital outlay and ongoing operational costs,” or as a favorite Minnesota Viking, ...

Three Rivers has been invited to investigate a solution to address the Medford housing shortage, reports Annie Harman in the Owatonna People’s Press. Sandwiched in between two large, workforce cities, the City of Medford is for many workers an appealing option in which to settle down. But, despite the quiet neighborhoods and stress-free commute, the city ...

Market-rate housing is needed in Albert Lea, so the city has committed to provide incentives for construction of new owner-occupied and rental residential housing units within the City of Albert Lea. There is a shortage of housing options available for current residents and those being recruited to come to Albert Lea. Under the new program, any person who ...

Beacon Hill grew from a partnership between Itasca County Health and Human Services, Itasca County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, GRACE House shelter, Northland Counseling Center Inc., the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Itasca County Probation and KOOTASCA Community Action. With 20 apartments and 28 townhouses, Beacon Hill serves a diverse mix of more than 120 tenants in ...

Two apartment complexes in Richfield tell the story of one way local governments are trying to maintain the region’s supply of privately owned affordable housing. One of those complexes, Crossroads — which is now called the Concierge — has been undergoing a significant renovation since being purchased in 2015 by new owners. Many tenants, along with ...

The early reviews are rolling in on the what’s-old-is-new-again Gateway Tower apartments on West Superior Street in downtown Duluth, and tenants say the renovations are a hit. “It couldn’t look better,” said 62-year-old Jan Nash, an 11-year resident of the 14-story tower. “New cabinets, new toilet and shower, new floors.” “Huge bathroom,” said Pam Blommer, 55, who ...

UnitedHealthcare is investing $18.3 million to help build two new affordable-housing communities in Hart and Oak Park, Michigan. The announcement was made at a groundbreaking ceremony for Jefferson Oaks in Oak Park, where community leaders and investment partners celebrated the start of construction for the 60-unit mixed-income community. UnitedHealthcare is investing $14.6 million in the Oak ...

On Tuesday, officials with UnitedHealthcare will announce their investment to build Jefferson Oaks, a 60-unit mixed-income project in Oak Park at the site of a vacant school near Nine Mile and Rosewood Street. The project developer, Community Housing Network, will transform the former school into 20 apartments and build eight townhome buildings on the school campus, ...

The new community will be built on the site of the vacant Thomas Jefferson School building and campus. It will include 20 apartments and eight townhome-style buildings with 40 homes. Dennis Mouras, CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Michigan, announced in a press release, that UnitedHealthcare is investing $14.6 million in the Oak Park development. This ...

From a June 22, 2017 editorial in the Pioneer Press. Not all affordable housing is government-supported or subsidized. Across the nation and in the Twin Cities, there’s also so-called “naturally occurring” affordable housing — by acronym, NOAH. Much of it includes modest but good-quality apartment complexes built between the World War II era and the 1980s. We see such ...

If not for the San Marco Apartments, Lisa Ronnquist, 60, said she’d probably have died homeless on the streets of Duluth by now. “This place saved my life,” she said. Ronnquist was a chronic alcoholic when she came to the newly constructed San Marco 10 years ago as one of its first residents. “Before we had this place, ...

The Rochester Area Foundation, regional chambers of commerce, and other Southeast Minnesota regional initiatives hosted a workforce housing summit in Rochester in May 2017. Television station KTTC produced a short video featuring interviews with local workers struggling to make rent and stay in their homes to help set the stage for the discussion and show what’s ...

Produced by Twin Cities PBS, in partnership with local advocates and funders, “Sold Out: Affordable Housing at Risk” reveals the price we all pay when families are pushed out of our communities as modestly priced units are replaced with upscale developments. In 2015, an ultimatum was given to hundreds of tenants at the Crossroads at Penn: ...

Peter Callaghan of MinnPost covered the “Sold Out” screening and panel discussion with displaced tenants, organizers, nonprofit developer, and GMHF’s Founding President & CEO, Warren Hanson. “Crossroads” was the name of a large, almost-50-year-old apartment complex in Richfield that, in 2015, was purchased, renamed and “upscaled” to bring in higher rents in a tight market. Because of ...