On Wednesday, November 19, 2003, at 02:42 PM, Michael Hohmann wrote:
I attended last night's session on 'Affordable Housing & Density' at Southwest High School
I think the location says it all- southwest is one of the few areas in Minneapolis where housing is still in demand and holding it's value. Here on the Northside we have plenty of available housing and it's losing value every day.
Relative to the need for building more affordable housing, questions were
raised regarding the high vacancy rates in the private rental housing
market, and the responses indicated that high vacancies were at the
upper-end of the rental market. Low-rent units were not adequately
available, we were told.
This says something of how out of touch some of the participants are- there's still 3 houses available on my block, and they've been asking $130,000 all year. I suspect that at least one would go for $100,000, so "affordability" is not the problem. Having neighbors like Mr.Porter is the problem. Mr. Porter is back in jail tonight, but one of his homegirls was out hooking again the other night and his other homies drop by from time to time to terrorize the citizenry.
It was pointed out that a study by Ron Feldman, Federal Reserve Bank of
Minneapolis, concluded that "a shortage of income is largely behind the
housing affordability problem despite the current focus on housing.
Policymakers should recognize that government financing of new housing units
is unlikely to be a cost-effective response to low household income."
["The Affordable Housing Shortage: Considering the Problems, Causes and
Solutions" by Ron Feldman, FRB of Mpls., Banking and Policy Working Paper
02-2, Aug. '02]. While panelists acknowledged the report, there was no
discussion of it's findings, or relevancy.
Or is the problem the city's attempt to jack up the tax base by making it near impossible to build affordable housing here, thusly making said overpriced housing beyond the means of the average Minneapolis working family?
It was suggested that
the use of regressive property taxes to fund affordable housing didn't seem
like a good idea-- especially for those on a fixed income. I checked, the
city portion of my property taxes (due in '04) is up nearly 17 percent,
while my overall property tax bill is up 12 percent-- and this is the
established trend, no outlier aberration. So, where will the affordable
housing money come from?
Probably from wherever the average worker at WalMart, Target, et al can get financed for the modular home on a lot at least an hours drive from Minneapolis.
It was also suggested that income supplements, on the order of Section-8
vouchers, might be used to take better advantage of existing housing stock,
or purchasing existing housing outright, rather than relying on new
construction, might offer a solution.
With Minneapolis already saturated with new housing it makes no sense to build more.
Concentration of poverty issues were raised-- low-income and/or nonwhite
populations tend to be concentrated in certain neighborhoods, and have been
for decades. We've bused school kids for decades in an effort to overcome
segregated housing patterns across the country; and, we had the Hollman
court case in Minneapolis- resulting in the Heritage Park developments, an
effort to disperse and better integrate such neighborhoods. It's important
that future development of subsidized housing (new construction or purchase
of existing units)-- both owner-occupied and rental, maintain this
integration trend. Economically distressed neighborhoods need more
market-rate housing, and land-use development strategies- in Mpls. and
surrounding communities, should facilitate that process. Our economically
distressed neighborhoods in Minneapolis need the added disposable income
that accompanies market-rate housing, to support community stability and
economic development. It was suggested that NIMBYism is too prevalent in
the development process-- be it over subsidized housing, owner-occupied vs.
rental properties, or increased density issues. Again, a lack of time
precluded a more in-depth discussion of these issues, let alone getting to
possible solutions.
Some good points, but again the participants seem to be ignoring reality- Minneapolis is increasingly the dumping ground for the metro areas poor, and "Heritage Park" et al will not change that.
Throughout the evening, the relationships between multi-modal transit
options and higher density were referenced as sound development goals worth
pursuing;
There's been no great rush of private development along the new light rail line. In actual use it will function much like one of the busier bus lines except faster and cheaper- has the 16 line even with more patronage supported a lot of new development along that corridor?
you may be interested in
reviewing the Met Council's draft '2030 Regional Development Framework'
which will replace the 'Blueprint 2030'-- the regional plan to accommodate
forecasted growth, given economic, environmental and livability concerns.
That plan may make Minneapolis irrelevent. Even under the past Met Council's better stewardship Minneapolis was disappearing in a fast growing metro area. Given the new Met Council's liking for laizze faire growth we will soon have less than 10% of the metro area's population and be politically powerless. Even Hennipen County is passing the million population mark and with the Met Council forcing the opening of the western part of the county to development that may soon be 2 million population. As the population center of Hennipen County moves to around Medina and the government center turns 50, we'll probably lose the county seat and all that entails. Business will be long gone by then. Given the much lower cost of building homes, stores, whatever in the exurbs or outstate, Minneapolis will probably have thousands of available abandoned housing units by 2030.
hanging on in Hawthorne,
Dyna Sluyter
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