Just when you thought the discussion had ended some pipsqueak sounds off!!!!!
I do not doubt Victoria's search of Strib ads saying there are 394 apartments in the range of $500 to.... Let us talk definitions here. What is affordable? At one time I recall that affordable rent was thought to be 1/4 of a person's net income. If that were true today a person would need $2000/mo net plus. We have changed definitions though, haven't we? Now people are expected to pay 1/3, 1/2 or even more of their take home pay for housing leaving little else for a car or buspass, auto insurance or renters insurance, food, an occasional movie or a restaurant meal, etc. Not to mention ridiculous deposits of two and three times the monthly rental fee. Two or three years ago the Strib ran a story saying that a living wage was $10.50/hr at the same time the City of Minneapolis pegged a livable wage at $9.02/hr. Let's say a person makes $10.50/hr even now; that will be a gross of $1480/mo or about, let's say, $1125/mo net. So now a person pays 1/2 their pay on rent. Throw in that person is HIV-positive and likely faces limitations in earning capacity especially if their condition deteriorates. Now please tell me a project like Clare Housing and others like it are not necessary. And not just for those unlucky enough to be HIV positive but for those taking orders in fast food joints, swamping bars at night, cooking on a kitchen line, laying sod in the suburbs, cashiering at Target, ...I could go on but you get the point. Another point might be the anticipated growth in our community. Admittedly with the economy in the tank and layoffs rather than hirings the order of the day it is hard to imagine that those 394 apartments could be rented quickly but it is not beyond the realm of possibility if things heat up. I hate the word proactive. I hate all jargonese in fact but it seems to me that this project may be proactive. YECH! A bit of disclosure here: I am a member of the Board of Directors of CCHT which will have a considerable hand in this development. Part of the problem is there is little or no affordable housing being built in this city by private developers. They are qite happy to build market rate but not housing for low income folks. When the legislature acted this past session to offer incentives to builders of multi-unit housing they did not specify for whom to build it so guess what: we have projects like Grant Park going up while building housing of a more affordable nature is left to non-profits. Even with all I've said I have empathy for Ms Heller and the people in PRAC. They get squeezed from both ends. That's my take on this issue. Tim Connolly DT Resident P.S. Another disclosure: I live in supportive housing and thank god I do. __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New DSL Internet Access from SBC & Yahoo! http://sbc.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
