The prescription for healthy communities: Investing in housing
Bukata Hayes, Dr. Rahshana Price-Isuk and Diane Tran · MinnPost · 1 April 2022
By providing access to stable housing, we would not only leverage better health outcomes, but also reduce health care costs.
Rents reach ‘insane’ levels across US with no end in sight
R.J. Rico · AP News · 20 February 2022
ents have exploded across the country, causing many to dig deep into their savings, downsize to subpar units or fall behind on payments and risk eviction now that a federal moratorium has ended.
When Private Equity Becomes Your Landlord
Heather Vogell · ProPublica · 7 February 2022
Amid a national housing crisis, giant private equity firms have been buying up apartment buildings en masse to squeeze them for profit, with the help of government-backed Freddie Mac. Meanwhile, tenants say they’re the ones paying the price.
St. Paul zoning changes pave the way for smaller homes, cottage clusters
Katie Galioto · StarTribune · 20 January 2022
“People have talked about ‘missing middle housing’ as being something that American cities could provide more of or support,” St. Paul Planning Director Luis Pereira said in a presentation to the St. Paul city council. “We’re talking about the lower-density scale of that — duplexes, triplexes, townhomes, cottage or courtyard housing options.”
More and more Twin Cities suburbs are creating programs to help people of color buy homes
Solomon Gustavo · MinnPost · 14 Jan 2022
Woodbury, St. Louis Park and Edina have launched programs, and Minnetonka is considering one.
Cities Need More Robust Data and Analysis to Better Address the Eviction Crisis
Andre Claudio · Route Fifty · 6 December 2021
A new report says that localities should build partnerships with courts and organizations to capture more types of data to spot and stop evictions.
County advancing plans to grow single room occupancy housing
Julia Welle Ayres · Hennepin County · 7 December 2021
The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners recently adopted the Single Room Occupancy Taskforce Report, which lays the groundwork for an aggressive strategy to provide affordable housing for people in the lowest income categories.
When you look at these neighborhoods, what do you see?
MaryJo Webster and Michael Corey · StarTribune · 7 August 2021
The opposition to multifamily housing — and to the people who need to live there — stems in part from decades of local government land-use rules that prioritize single-family housing. Today, however, these rules are increasingly viewed as a major reason that Black and Latino families are essentially shut out of the vast majority of the Twin Cities.
Rent escrow requirement prevents tenants from challenging poor living conditions, lawyers say
Randy Furst · StarTribune · 26 November 2021
The practice of making tenants post back rent with the court to challenge an eviction on habitability issues is “draconian” and unconstitutional, according to an article in Bench & Bar Magazine, the publication of the Minnesota State Bar Association.
Accessory Dwelling Units could make a big difference for veteran homelessness in the Twin Cities — if we just allow them to
Bill Lindeke · MinnPost · 18 November 2021
YardHomes, a new public benefit corporation, hopes to boost production of ADUs, and for the time being are specifically building them to house homeless veterans.