Re: [Mpls] Affordable Housing - Other Ideas
An interesting article. Bashes SUV's, but more important shows what streets should be like. Fits into the West Broadway and Lake Street re-building. http://pps.org/newsletter/Mar2003_Guest -- DeWayne Townsend Cooper TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
Re: [Mpls] Affordable Housing - Other Ideas/Wanted:Skilled Repair Person
In a message dated 3/16/03 4:48:22 PM Pacific Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > So what else is there? One thought I had was whether it would be possible > to create a voluntary program for businesses located in Minneapolis. The > business pays a living wage to employees who are Minneapolis residents > (maybe leave out teenagers that are working the after-school or summer job) > and get a tax credit of some kind. I'm guessing it would probably have to > be a property tax credit, since I don't know what other taxes business pay > specifically to Minneapolis. > > Obviously, there would be folks who say we cannot afford to do something > like this with the deficits we're facing, but I wonder. > > If our residents are earning a paycheck they can thrive on, how much would > we save in not having to subsidize housing as much? Keith says; Your heart is in the right place; improving peoples' lives. And your mind is open; listening to the ideas of professional problem solvers called "landlord". It is the conditioned response, your knee jerk response, that needs to be checked. You, and others, say city dwelling heads of families, in poverty, need better pay. Let us promote the individual; not subsidize the market place. Let us determine, and promote, learning the skill sets needed to earn more in the market. Let us promote the individual's marketability. Let us not set up an arcane, labyrinthine system to subsidize burger flipping, or whatever else in a low orbit, with government money. It is a dead end with a huge price tag. Recommendation: Train a person to repair older dwellings. Replace door knobs, change a lock, refit a door. Also fix, and unplug, toilets, and other minor plumbing. Replace a smoke detector is common. Paint a wall, or a room. Rescreen, or reglaze a window, is often essential. Some knowledge, an alarm clock, a couple buckets of tools, sobriety, a drivers license, and a small PU. Good to go. Subsidy over. I just wrote the job description of the guy, or gail, that could come to work for me tomorrow. If you qualify, please E-mail me. Keith Reitman NearNorth TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
Re: [Mpls] Affordable Housing - Other Ideas
OK, so I was cleaning out my inbox and came across this message I'd planned to respond to. Even though it's two weeks old, I'm pretty sure we didn't solve the affordable housing crisis during that time, so hopefully this will still be pertinent. On 3/2/03 11:08 AM, "Craig Miller" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > There are least a thousand of these unit types open in the city of Mpls > right now. Someone mentioned earlier that if we have 8-10,000 units in the > metro open right now. Why so many people without stable housing? That is > a great question with a long answer. Now's not the time. We've heard some comments about why there are so many people without stable housing. Some have poor credit and cannot pass a landlord screening. Some have kids and cannot afford a place big enough for their needs. There plenty of other reasons besides. > Residents paid electricity & telephone. I paid the big bills garbage,gas, > heat, water. Residents paid elec and phone. The minimum housing cost was > about $700. Almost any single person with a $10 hour job could squeeze by > in a 1br. But that is all they would do, is squeeze by. Get a roommate, > bump up to a 2br, and the savings are readily apparent. Savings of almost > $300 per month. Take that times 36 months and you have $10,800. Come to > think about it, that's how I got the scratch together to buy my first house. > > The $10,800 gets you a down payment in many areas of Mpls. Oh BTW. To > anyone who asks. Your not supposed to raise a family and save for a house > on $5.15 an hour. If you are, teach your younger brothers and sisters how > tough that is and encourage them not to try. I agree with what Craig says here. I just finished Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed" recently and that was a strategy that came up often - find a roomie and split the costs. I did that as well while I was in college and the first year afterwards. I also agree with Craig that you're not supposed to raise a family on minimum wage. So now the question becomes how do we help get our Minneapolis neighbors better wages so we're not asked to subsidize housing so much? It appears we don't really have the money for it anymore and based on the statistics we see from Vicky Heller and others, the approach of subsidizing housing has not been very cost-effective anyway. > WAGE LEVELS > > If housing is out of reach for the entry level worker, and the government > refuses to ease the cost of housing through regulation and legal reform, > then we need to make the employer pay their employees more. While I'm still a little shocked to see this line of thinking coming from Craig, I agree with it completely. Now, how do we do that? We know from the Nicollet Ave. Target that requirements for businesses to pay livable wages are just going to get skirted by employers with enough friends on City Council to get exempted. So what else is there? One thought I had was whether it would be possible to create a voluntary program for businesses located in Minneapolis. The business pays a living wage to employees who are Minneapolis residents (maybe leave out teenagers that are working the after-school or summer job) and get a tax credit of some kind. I'm guessing it would probably have to be a property tax credit, since I don't know what other taxes business pay specifically to Minneapolis. Obviously, there would be folks who say we cannot afford to do something like this with the deficits we're facing, but I wonder. If our residents are earning a paycheck they can thrive on, how much would we save in not having to subsidize housing as much? Or not having as many social service needs to take care of? Or giving people a big reason to move into Minneapolis and fill some of those thousand vacant units Craig mentioned, which would presumably bring some additional sales tax revenues. And wouldn't it also bring in some property tax revenues since a commercial property such as an apartment building is valued in part by the income it brings in? Maybe we might even have businesses that would move into Minneapolis to take advantage of the program because they'd rather pay employees than property taxes? I realize there's a lot that would need to be worked out - what would a living wage be set at, for example. Would there be any legal impediments to such a program, for another. But that's what the smart folks downtown like John Moir and Patrick Born are for, right? I can also see folks arguing that this would be nothing more than a handout to businesses, and I'll admit that aspect doesn't really sit well with me either but I think it's apparent that we need to approach the affordable housing problem from another perspective than subsidies for developers or tenants. If something like this would actually help solve the problem better than what's been tried so far, I think that should be more important than who gets what. Mark Snyder Windom Park TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send
Re: [Mpls] Affordable Housing - Other Ideas
Ms. Taylor, It appears that you forgot the child support - it probably is at least $500 per month. Maybe that can be increased also. Steve Meldahl Jordan (work) - Original Message - From: "Pamela Taylor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Anderson & Turpin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, March 03, 2003 10:54 AM Subject: RE: [Mpls] Affordable Housing - Other Ideas > > Vicky, can you sharpen your pencil for an analysis of people with children > also? Make sure you include the EITC, Working Family Credit, food stamps, > etc. (and day care costs should also be included... wow this gets really > complicated, but it's worth doing even if we leave off some categories of > people at first). > > Mark V Anderson > Bancroft Neighborhood > > I would like to know this, too. My daughter was one of a large number of > people recently laid off from a bank in Minneapolis. She is a single > parent, with a five and a two year old. She has daycare costs to contend > with as well. Sharing a apartment with someone is not a real option as, > most single people without kids don't want to room with a mom. The kids > need their own space. > She was making $10 an hour, but now that she is laid off, her subsidized > daycare will be taken away. She was not on Section 8, she was cutting > corners and doing all the right things, but the system doesn't look at that. > They don't allow you any time to regroup. You lose your job, you get cut > off at the knees all at once. This contributes to the homeless issues. My > daughter neither smokes nor drinks nor has loud parties or wild friends. We > have family in the city but I come from a large family. They do not have > space. > Anyone know of a good boarding house (not a shelter) and/or kindly landlord > who will take in a women with kids that is safe? I don't want them in a > dump. Thanks. > Pamela Taylor (Tampa) > > > > > > TEMPORARY REMINDER: > 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. > 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. > > > > Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy > Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
RE: [Mpls] Affordable Housing - Other Ideas
Vicky, can you sharpen your pencil for an analysis of people with children also? Make sure you include the EITC, Working Family Credit, food stamps, etc. (and day care costs should also be included... wow this gets really complicated, but it's worth doing even if we leave off some categories of people at first). Mark V Anderson Bancroft Neighborhood I would like to know this, too. My daughter was one of a large number of people recently laid off from a bank in Minneapolis. She is a single parent, with a five and a two year old. She has daycare costs to contend with as well. Sharing a apartment with someone is not a real option as, most single people without kids don't want to room with a mom. The kids need their own space. She was making $10 an hour, but now that she is laid off, her subsidized daycare will be taken away. She was not on Section 8, she was cutting corners and doing all the right things, but the system doesn't look at that. They don't allow you any time to regroup. You lose your job, you get cut off at the knees all at once. This contributes to the homeless issues. My daughter neither smokes nor drinks nor has loud parties or wild friends. We have family in the city but I come from a large family. They do not have space. Anyone know of a good boarding house (not a shelter) and/or kindly landlord who will take in a women with kids that is safe? I don't want them in a dump. Thanks. Pamela Taylor (Tampa) TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
Re: [Mpls] Affordable Housing - Other Ideas
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] asks: Why so many people with out stable housing? That is a great question with a long answer. SAM here: Here's a guess: spotty credit reports and rental histories, inability to come up with move-in expenses. Craig says: Get a roommate, bump up to a 2br, and the savings are readily apparent. Savings of almost > $300 per month. Take that times 36 months and you have $10,800. SAM here: I agree. I also feel that not everyone has the living skills to live with a roommate. When we rented to two single women they were regularly calling the police to settle their conflicts. When I volunteered with People Serving People I received a hysterical call at midnight from a woman whose roommate had thrown her out. As for Vicky's meticulous post about how much a minimum-wage worker can afford, those calculations are based on a perfect world: no catastrophic illnesses, no transmission overhauls, not one unforeseen expense. One such expense can send me into a tailspin, and I'm not a minimum-wage worker. I am not making excuses for why people are unable to find housing, just pointing out reasons why since people are asking why. A good book to read is Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Susan Maricle another former rental property owner in Folwell now of Bruno MN __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
Re: [Mpls] Affordable Housing - Other Ideas
Cathy Leighton wrote: > > Another option whould be to allow boarding and/or rooming houses again. > > This is a very efficient means of sharing space. It offers a home owner, > > with extra space, the opportunity to get some extra income and provides > the > > renter (especially single people) with a truly affordable option. I lived > > in a boarding house some years ago and absolutely loved it. Craig Miller replied: > This becomes risky business in our modern crime apologetic city. Can't tell > you how many senior,severely limited income ladies I've advised over the > years. Some were physically injured by their tenants. Just terrible to see > that happen. They still had to go through the torturous legal process to > get the bad guy out. Boarding houses should have instant eviction power. > No bones about it. They call a cop and out goes the tenant. Ageing widows > should not be excluded from rental income by violence. Mark Anderson here: Hey great ideas, both of you. I presume the reason Boarding Houses don't exist anymore is because of the rules against having too many unrelated people in one house? But as another person wrote, I too remember when I was in college at the U of M, when I lived in houses with innumerable unrelated people. Were we breaking the law, or maybe zoning is different around the U, or maybe the rules have changed since the '70's? We may be getting to part of the true reasons for affordable housing problems these days. On a related note, I've been waiting for someone to respond to Vicky's fascinating post on how much poor people can afford for housing. No one has responded yet, so I'll ask the key question. Are apartments for $600/month available? If so, she makes a very good point. No full-time worker, if single, should then be homeless, except in extraordinary circumstances. Vicky, can you sharpen your pencil for an analysis of people with children also? Make sure you include the EITC, Working Family Credit, food stamps, etc. (and day care costs should also be included... wow this gets really complicated, but it's worth doing even if we leave off some categories of people at first). Mark V Anderson Bancroft Neighborhood TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
Re: [Mpls] Affordable Housing - Other Ideas
There may be some misunderstanding about the proposed "Affordable Homeownership Program" coming out of the NRP Policy Board this week. Cathy, the program would make it so that a down payment would not be necessary or would be small. Since the program would guarantee a certain portion of the loan, the down payment would not be necessary, mortgage insurance would not be necessary, and the interest would be lower. Here is the best part - the City NRP dollars would not be spent to do this. It would be a guarantee NOT a grant or subsidy! Approximately 20% of the loan would be guaranteed if it were to go into default. This reduces the Lenders exposure to loss and as such people who would not normally qualify for a loan would now be able to buy a home. The City does not spend the 20%; it merely guarantees it in case of loan default. Only about 10% of that guarantee would be necessary in escrow. That amount would be freed to guarantee the loan for another poor family as the loan was paid down. The City is able to recycle that money over and over without using it up, that is why it is "sustainable" affordable housing. Even if every one of these loans were foreclosed on it would be cheaper than the 50,000 to 100,000 dollar subsidies taxpayers presently pay for "affordable" rental housing. (Of course this raises the issue of "affordable to who"?) It is a matter of priorities. Is it a higher priority to put money in a developers pocket for each unit built or is the priority to use 10% of that amount to put three times as many families in houses of their own. Is it a priority to sustain large developers or a priority to sustain and give economic opportunity to poor people? Is it priority to improve the quality of profit for the developer or the quality of life for poor people? My answer of course is that the highest priority is to assist poor people to help themselves to be self-sustaining for their future housing. Craig Miller says, >"(CM) This better be a pilot program. What happens if everyone with who gets turned down for a loan elsewhere moves into your city? Do it by lottery by >those who have been pre-qualified. Impacted neighborhoods first. >This is > substantially less expensive than the per unit costs of rehab or new > construction under the name of affordable housing." Jim Graham: Gosh Craig, you got it right of the bat. Those are some of the elements of such a NRP program. Craig does have a point about people moving into the City to take advantage of the program. Though the program is for those who qualify for "Affordable Housing", perhaps we should make an exception for Police Officers who wish to move into the City. Or perhaps we, (Minneapolis), should just set up a similar program for employees who we wish to have living inside the City where they work. >"(CM) AMEN! The city is spending something over 100k per affordable unit. The city could even put > a lien against the property for the amount of the down payment. At any > point that the title is transferred; refinancing, sale, gift, whatever, the > money would be returned to the city and used again to help someone else. >(CM) >Make sure the house is worth something before purchase. Over the years the >various government agencies have held mortgages worth in excess of the >house." Jim Graham: The beauty of this program is that other than the guarantee, the rest of the transaction is between the Mortgage Lender and the "Individual Homeowner". Just like in other transactions. The City would not hold the Mortgage; it would merely guarantee the first 20% of the mortgage. We probably should keep the City out of the housing business, given the history of housing controlled by the City through MCDA! For those concerned with taxes here are some things to think of: 1) Setting money aside in an account as a guarantee on many housing units, rather than spending it all on a few. 2) Each guaranteed loan creates two affordable units - (the one the mortgage is on and the rental apartment freed up when the family moves to their new home) 3) Increased tax base on Real Estate, (also stability means a greater potential for the person to earn and pay other taxes.) 4) Stability of family means greatly reduced social service and infrastructure costs during the entire life of the individual family members. Including less cost to educate each individual child, and lower police and criminal justice system costs. (Do any of the readers have any idea what the social service and criminal justice costs can be for just one person from an unstable family?) 5) One time guarantee rather than a lifetime of subsidy The very best thing is that it gives poor people a chance to enjoy the same quality of life as most more-affluent people take for granted. Poor people' s dreams are not that much different. Quality housing, quality education, and QUALITY OF LIFE! Sort of what I want for my children, how about you? Jim Graham, Ventura Village >There is no fi
