Star Tribune
Hennepin County recently helped fund its 10,000th affordable housing unit
Hennepin County hit a historical landmark this spring in its two-decade campaign to help pay for a diverse stock of affordable housing.
The county has now helped fund more than 10,000 affordable rental and ownership housing units since 2000, spending $78 million during that time. The county’s aid also allowed it to leverage another $1.9 billion from other sources to complete the projects.
It would be hard to find a place in the county without an affordable housing complex the county has played a role in developing. The most recent project, the Amber Apartments on Hiawatha Avenue in south Minneapolis, opened in September. RS Eden was awarded $300,000 for the 81-unit project designated for people earning less than 30% to 50% of the area median income.
When the county started its Affordable Housing Incentive Fund (AHIF) two decades ago, it consisted of $2 million and leaned hard on matching grants from foundations and other groups. Many of the projects built from Rogers to Edina to Minneapolis include units set aside for people experiencing long-term homelessness.
“The fund gives the county a specific voice on what affordable housing will look like,” said Julia Welle Ayres, the county’s director of housing development and finance. “The fund has been like the little train that could and keeps chugging along.”
The incentive fund provides financial assistance to municipalities, private and nonprofit housing developers typically in the form of a deferred low-interest loan. Projects include rental, new construction and transitional housing serving families, individuals, seniors and the special needs population, she said.
One of the first developments funded by the county was The Lindquist Apartments, a 24-unit complex in north Minneapolis that provides housing and services for youth between 16 and 24 who are experiencing homelessness. In 2014, the 50-unit Bottineau Ridge Apartments was constructed in Maple Grove with a $265,000 county award. Project For Pride in Living received $700,000 to develop Maya Commons in southeast Minneapolis, which incorporated a historic grain elevator as the building lobby.
“When we started the fund, there was definitely a shortage of affordable housing for people receiving public assistance,” Welle Ayres said. “While most of the projects are in the core cities because of more available financing, we are always looking to fund developments in the suburbs.”
When approving a project, the county looks beyond just affordability. County officials consider its proximity to transit and jobs, the community’s livability and if the project will contribute to neighborhood development, she said.
CommonBond Communities worked with the county on a five-story, 120-unit redevelopment project on the former Prince of Peace Lutheran Church site in St. Louis Park. Called Rise on 7, the complex will also have a 6,600-square-foot day care. Besides nearly $1 million from the incentive fund, the county is adding another $1.7 million to ensure that 19 units have rents affordable to households that earn less than 30% of the area median income for 15 years.
“We loved working with Hennepin County,” said Cecile Bedor, executive vice president of real estate for CommonBond Communities. “They’re pretty innovative on how they deploy funds and flexible on project needs. The staff is professional, very supportive and really engaged. If they think a project won’t work, they tell you and give clear reasons why.”
The incentive fund was originally conceived as a public-private partnership to demonstrate if would work.
“And the answer is yes, yes and yes,” said Anne Mavity, executive director of the Minnesota Housing Partnership, which advocates for affordable housing. “The impact is notable. Their ability to be on the front end of funding these projects gives them a role of influence and can be responsive to local needs.”
Counties need investments to solve the housing challenges because a place to live is fundamental to a whole community’s health, Mavity said. The housing crisis during the pandemic illuminated the continuing issue, she said.
Hennepin County has helped subsidize 280 “deeply affordable units” in Minneapolis developed by Alliance Housing Inc., including a $16.3 million project at 3301 Nicollet Av. in Minneapolis that will open next month. It will include 50 studio and 14 single-bedroom apartments, and the property rent levels will provide a housing option for workers earning $10-$15 an hour.
“Local funding like Hennepin County’s AHIF program is so important in leveraging other funding sources like Minnesota Housing,” said Jessie Hendel, executive director of Alliance Housing Inc. “Hennepin County’s willingness to commit AHIF funds early in a project’s development demonstrates local support, which is an important step in securing other funding sources.”
The incentive funds are flexible and can be used for construction and related costs, with fewer restrictions than come with some other funding sources, Hendel said. The organization received $700,000 of incentive money for the Nicollet project.
Star Tribune
On the Wisconsin-Iowa border, the Mississippi River is eroding sacred Indigenous mounds
Bear and other members of her tribe are serving as consultants on the project, as is William Quackenbush, the tribal historic preservation officer for the Ho-Chunk Nation in Wisconsin, and his tribe. They also lead teams of volunteers to help care for the mounds, which includes removing invasive European plants and replacing them with native plants that reduce soil erosion.
Some are skeptical of this manmade solution to a manmade problem. There are some tribal partners who’ve expressed that the river should be allowed to keep flowing as it wants to, Oberreuter said. Snow also acknowledged that people have been hesitant about making such a change to the natural bank.
But, she pointed out, “The bank is (already) no longer what it was.”
When the berm is complete, Snow said, there’ll be a trail atop it that visitors can walk. That may help protect the mounds better than the current way to see them, which is to walk among them, she said.
The Sny Magill Unit has been part of Effigy Mounds National Monument since 1962, Snow said, but it’s not advertised like the rest of the park. That’s in part because there are no staff stationed there to properly guide people through the mounds. But if people visit respectfully, she believes it’s one of the best places to take in the mounds because it’s on a flat, walkable surface, unlike the rest of the park, which is on a blufftop.
Priore criticized his opponents’ stance on TCAAP. “On the one hand, you have two candidates, Kurt Weber and me, with a forward-thinking, fresh perspective and strategic vision,” he said, arguing others want to defer and delay the city’s long-term needs.
Priore listed his other priorities for the city as public safety, and comprehensive planning for more and better trails.
The most recent campaign finance reports do not cover the fall and show little raising or spending for any candidate. Priore’s report indicates he received $600 from Fabel’s campaign fund.
David Radziej was appointed to the Arden Hills City Council in 2022, and has been involved with the city for more than a decade through work on its Economic Development and Finance councils, as well as TCAAP planning groups. He lost a reelection bid in 2022.
In an interview, Radziej raised concerns that the new density limit for TCAAP is out of character for Arden Hills and said he fears adding housing units at the expense of commercial development will harm the city’s tax base.
“I’d like it to be developed. I’d like to hold harmless the current taxpayers,” he said in an interview.
Two months after getting a ticket for being on her phone while driving, a woman was on her phone again when struck a motorcyclist at an Anoka county intersection and killed him, according to a newly filed search warrant affidavit.
The crash occurred on Oct. 5 in Oak Grove at the intersection of Viking and Lake George boulevards NW., the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office said.
The Sheriff’s Office identified the motorcyclist who died at the scene as Kelly Matthew Linder, 49, of Albert Lea, Minn., and the SUV driver as Jessica Marie Pietrzak, 31, of St. Francis. Court records show that Pietrzak was ticketed in August by a St. Francis police officer for driving while on her phone.
According to state Department of Public Safety statistics, distracted driving was a factor in 132 traffic deaths in Minnesota from 2019 through 2023.
Linder was stopped shortly before noon on eastbound Viking Boulevard and waiting to turn left onto Lake George Boulevard when Pietrzak hit the motorcycle from behind, the Sheriff’s Office said.
A search warrant affidavit this week from the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office disclosed that a witness who stopped to help Pietrzak after the crash told law enforcement that Pietrzak said “she was not paying attention and had been on her phone.”
Then as more people stopped to help, Pietrzak “began telling people that the sun was in her eyes, and she did not see the motorcycle,” read the filing, which led to the court allowing investigators to collect data from her cellphone.
The filing pointed out that the sun at that time of the day was not in a position for it to affect her vision. Also, the filing continued, Pietrzak’s entire front windshield has a dark tint. She’s been ticketed twice for that dark windshield in recent years, according to court records.
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