Edina Neighbors for Affordable Housing (ENAH) is an all-volunteer organization of Edina residents who believe that Edina should be an equitable, welcoming, and sustainable community with senior and workforce housing available for people of all income levels at all stages of life.

News

EXPLAINER: Will new CDC moratorium keep tenants housed?

StarTribune · 4 August 2021

The new ban would temporarily halt evictions in counties with “substantial and high levels” of virus transmission and is expected to cover areas where 90% of the U.S. population lives.

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Homeownership study asks, ‘Who owns the Twin Cities?’

StarTribune · 24 July 2021

Urban Institute researchers published a report titled “Who Owns the Twin Cities?” in which they investigated who owns homes across the metro area and how property ownership has changed over recent decades. They found there has been a growing number of investor landlords, or landlords who own more than three properties, and an increase in single-family rentals. As a result, poor and BIPOC residents have been displaced.

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The soaring market that threatens to derail the economic recovery

Politico · 11 July 2021

With home prices already up about 15 percent from last year and rents soaring at nearly triple their normal rate in just the first six months of 2021, there’s growing concern that housing costs could soon begin to nudge inflation higher.

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In a bid to offer more affordable housing options, Minneapolis council members propose bringing back the rooming house

MinnPost · 12 July 2021

There used to be many rooming house units in Minneapolis and cities across the country until they were deemed undesirable “blight” that were demolished during the latter half of the 20th century. But as homelessness worsened around the nation, the SRO model has resurfaced as a low-barrier way to offer housing.

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Widening homeownership gap in Twin Cities is focus of new report

MinnPost · 22 June 2021

Despite the overall wealth of the metro area, there’s no starker sign of its segregation of opportunity than the wide gulf between Black and white homeownership rates, the largest in the nation.

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Converting a former newspaper building to affordable apartments took a developer’s passion and government assistance to come together

Appleton Post-Crescent · 14 June 2021

A building on the National Register of Historic Places is being converted into affordable apartments in Appleton, Wisconsin.

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Homebuyers increasingly willing to pay above asking price

StarTribune · 27 May 2021

Home prices have rocketed to new highs and many homes are selling for more than their appraised value.

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North Minneapolis renters wage a fight with private equity landlords

StarTribune · 29 May 2021

Previously affordable homes have been bought up by private equity. Nationwide, millions of families rent from real estate investment trusts or private equity firms. Critics accuse the institutional investors-turned-landlords of trying to maximize profits through relentless rent hikes while neglecting the costly upkeep of old homes.

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New data tool estimates 53,000 households in Minnesota behind on rent

MinnPost · 10 May 2021

Of Minnesota households behind on rent, 60 percent are people of color, 43 percent report being unemployed, 75 percent earn less than $50,000 a year and 71 percent report having lost income during the pandemic.

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For affordable housing, construction needs modernization

StarTribune · 1 May 2021

The fundamental reason for the increasing cost of housing (relative to other goods) is that the construction sector employs an outdated and inefficient technology.

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The ‘New Redlining’ Is Deciding Who Lives in Your Neighborhood

New York Times · 19 April 2021

Economically discriminatory zoning policies — which say that you are not welcome in a community unless you can afford a single-family home, sometimes on a large plot of land — are not part of a distant, disgraceful past. In most American cities, zoning laws prohibit the construction of relatively affordable homes — duplexes, triplexes, quads and larger multifamily units — on three-quarters of residential land.

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In effort to preserve affordable houses, Edina program takes aim at teardowns

StarTribune · 17 April 2021

With moderately priced houses on the verge of extinction, Edina’s housing authority earlier this year sent thousands of unsolicited offers to owners of the most affordable houses in the city encouraging them to sell to a local nonprofit that then resells houses to working-class families for significantly less than they might otherwise pay.

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‘She Wants Well-Qualified People’: 88 Landlords Accused of Housing Bias

New York Times · 15 March 2021

A lawsuit by a watchdog group claims that its undercover investigation found widespread bias against tenants receiving federal housing assistance.

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Your Home’s Value Is Based on Racism

New York Times · 20 March 2021

Black Americans are often unable to build wealth from homeownership in the same way their white peers are, in large part because home prices are generally set by the people who make up the majority of buyers: white Americans.

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Is an Algorithm Less Racist Than a Loan Officer?

New York Times · 18 September 2020

Digital mortgage platforms have the potential to reduce discrimination. But automated systems provide rich opportunities to perpetuate bias, too.

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