Housing Matters! - Archived News
A city like St. Paul is always being re-imagined and, sometimes, rebuilt. On Wednesday, Mayor Chris Coleman, St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce President Matt Kramer, building trades officials and City Council members announced a set of government-assisted projects that aim to turn artists' renderings into real apartments, stores, transportation improvements and park facilities.
St. Paul, Minn. — The median sales price for a home in the Twin Cities was up slightly in July, but pending sales during the month were down more than 37 percent from a year ago, the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors said Wednesday.
Housing is typically the largest family expense. In 2008, almost 13 percent of Minnesota households were paying more than half of their income for housing, which consitutes a "severe cost burden", according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
This report provides a summary of findings from an evaluation of the foreclosure prevention counseling program supported by the Minnesota Home Ownership Center. The program delivers local foreclosure counseling services to consumers through 25 agencies throughout Minnesota. The report summarizes household and loan characteristics, service usage, and outcomes for homeowners receiving foreclosure counseling during 2009.
Last week, HBO began airing an eye-opening documentary about families living in motels within walking distance of Disneyland. The program, Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County, follows several families and examines motel living from the perspective of young children.
This fact sheet discusses the dimensions, causes, and consequences of homelessness among youth. An overview of program and policy issues and a list of resources for further study are also provided.
A soccer program is an important safety net for a growing number of young people who are homeless or on the brink of it.
We challenged readers a couple weeks ago to sum up in six words what's happened to their housing during the recession.We're getting some good responses. I wanted to highlight a couple today and give you another chance to weigh in. I'm also going to tell you my six word story.
Despite steady declines in housing prices and mortgage interest rates, many Minnesotans -- even those with jobs -- still face formidable challenges when it comes to paying for a home.
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Thriving communities require a range of housing opportunities. Minnesota is recognized as a national leader for its commitment to helping families with affordable ownership and rental homes. Nevertheless, housing has become too costly for growing numbers of low- and moderate-income Minnesotans. All Minnesotans are affected when low- and moderate-income families cannot find affordable homes.
Nearly six months after a massive earthquake leveled Port-au-Prince and much of Haiti, millions of Haitians still struggle to survive. Aid groups and the Haitian government continue relief efforts but some 1.5 million Haitians remain homeless and the hurricane season is underway.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Hundreds of displaced families live perilously in a single file of flimsy shanties planted along the median strip of a heavily congested coastal road here called the Route des Rails.
Homebuyers would get an extra three months to complete their purchases and qualify for a generous tax credit under a bill overwhelmingly passed by the House on Tuesday. The bill passed 409-5. It now goes to the Senate.
Hammering at foreclosed homes
Female Habitat for Humanity crews here and around the country are rebuilding houses and aiding neighborhoods.
There are many different opinions about reforming the mortgage interest deduction debate. Read here for one opinion from the Urban Institute.
Minneapolis — Elected officials and community groups will gather Monday to celebrate a benchmark for Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. The group will dedicate its 800th home in the metro area.
On June 22, 2010, the US Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) delivered Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness 2010, the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness to President Obama and Congress
SEATTLE — John Stoeck is building a one-bedroom, 437-square-foot cottage on the spot where his garage stood before a tree fell on it. Construction costs: about $50,000. When the cottage is finished this summer, he plans to rent it for at least $900 a month, which will make a nice dent in his mortgage payments.
A year-long class gave students a hands-on experience in building and selling a house. It was built by about two dozen students at Watertown-Mayer High School.
Foreclosures are still a drag on the Twin Cities housing market and new data suggest we'll be seeing the foreclosure tide rising again. But there are a few differences between now and when the crisis began that may ease the next round of foreclosure pain.
Peggy Larkin is a court clerk living in low-income housing in Maple Grove, Minn. Brian Peterson is a recenteconomics and urban studies graduate of the University of Minnesota. Despite their different backgrounds, both Larkin and Peterson played roles in the passage of what Peterson calls “landmark legislation.”
Was it worth the money? It's a question with no easy answer when it comes to the federal home buyer credits. The credits ($8,000 for first time buyers, $6,500 for repeat buyers) ended on Friday. The Congressional Budget Office expects the taxpayer cost to run about $14 billion.
Although the Twin Cities area is a leader in responding to the foreclosure crisis, it needs more tools for dealing with the neighborhood challenges created by some new investor landlords who don't manage their properties well, according to a report to be released Wednesday.
On May 11th, Governor Pawlenty signed HF 2668, making the Tenant Bill of Rights the law in Minnesota. The measures in this year’s Tenant Bill of Rights will make Minnesota law more tenant-friendly and save tenants millions of dollars through revisions to policies on tenant screening fees, late fees, attorney fees, and security deposits.
Suitable housing for all stages of life helps keep families, planners say.
Money is available to help families post-foreclosure, but many don't know about it.
On an infant mattress in a barren bedroom, Brittni Jones, 18, and her daughter Alissa, 21 months, seemed to marvel at their good fortune. They were no longer homeless. Jones and her daughter had been “couch hopping” for the past few months and had stayed in five different places with friends or relatives. Lately, Jones had been calling around to homeless shelters, looking for a bed. “I started getting stressed out,” she said. “I felt nothing was going right."
Concerned about home values and safety, some neighbors aren't waiting for the housing market to recover. They're buying up the houses themselves.
Stonemill Farms is a placid enclave in Woodbury with a community pool, picturesque brick bridges, parks and a community center that looks like a barn. Ersatz corn silos make it seem like an idyllic small town.
Check out the foreclosure rate in your Minnesotan county in this new HousingLink report.
Although the Twin Cities area is a leader in responding to the foreclosure crisis, it needs more tools for dealing with the neighborhood challenges created by some new investor landlords who don't manage their properties well, according to a report to be released Wednesday.
Stonemill Farms is a placid enclave in Woodbury with a community pool, picturesque brick bridges, parks and a community center that looks like a barn. Ersatz corn silos make it seem like an idyllic small town.
Learn more about the hourly wage a worker must earn in order to afford a two-bedroom apartment in your city, county or state. Spending no more than 30% of a household income is the generally accepted amount that makes housing affordable.
St. Paul sold eight properties in struggling neighborhoods to Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity. Five of them will be rehabbed or built new during Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project this fall.
The number of homeless young adults doubled last year in one suburban county, and youth homelessness has risen statewide. The ailing economy hasn't helped.
New study takes in-depth look at housing challenges of “green economy” workers and others, comparing and ranking costs in more than 200 U.S. metro areas with the wages of over 60 occupations
Homelessness in Minnesota rose 22 percent in the past three years, reaching the highest level in at least two decades, according to initial findings from a statewide survey by Wilder Research of St. Paul. Analysts blamed the weak economy.
LOS ANGELES — Housing has become more affordable for police officers, teachers and other workers, but homeownership remains out of their reach in many major markets, according to a new study.
St. Paul, Minn. — About 1,500 homeless people are expected to attend an biannual event Monday in Minneapolis that connects homeless people to social and medical services.
Once again, the federal government is adding to its arsenal of programs for troubled homeowners, seeking to help those who urgently need it while neither angering nor creating perverse incentives for those who do not.
Posted on the Home Line Policy Blog, check out a summary of the new tenant bill of rights recently passed in the Minnesota Senate.
The Obama administration on Friday will announce broad new initiatives to help troubled homeowners, potentially refinancing several million of them into fresh government-backed mortgages with lower payments.
St. Paul, Minn. — The number of homeless people in Minnesota has risen sharply over the past three years, according to a study released Wednesday by the Wilder Foundation.
Rental vacancies and homelessness rose in the fourth quarter, as would-be renters moved in with family, friends.
Check out Minnesota Housing Partnership’s 4th quarter report with updates on the current situation on the rental and owner’s markets as well as numbers on homelessness and the housing industry.
Authorities report a handful of cases where empty houses are used for drug deliveries or pot growing.
Rental vacancies and homelessness rose in the fourth quarter, as would-be renters moved in with family, friends.
Check out Minnesota Housing Partnership’s 4th quarter report with updates on the current situation on the rental and owner’s markets as well as numbers on homelessness and the housing industry.
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — Even though more than 50 years have passed since Sallie Sanders was a confused little girl wondering why her family was kicked out of their house for being on the wrong side of the color line here, the pain seems fresh.
More cities are adopting registration programs and annual fees to maintain neighborhood safety and stability.
Cardboard on the windows kept out the cold on a star-filled night. You could hear trucks roaring by on the highway not far away. A small camp stove was used to heat up some soup earlier in the evening, and after the 10 p.m. news, John might fire up his van for a little more heat, then settle onto a sleeping bag atop a plywood platform padded with cushions.
The loss of a home through foreclosure is no doubt a traumatic experience. In their groundbreaking work, The National Council of La Raza and Center for Community Capital look at the social, emotional, and economic effects of foreclosure on Latino families.
Check out the March issue of the Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP) bulletin. Particularly interesting under the News section is the summary on the U.N. report on U.S. housing as well as the article entitles Economic Benefits of Short-term Rental Assistance under the Resources section.
explains how reauthorization of the federal transportation bill can incent the improved coordination of transportation, housing and land use policy to ensure that families across a range of incomes have access to affordable housing as well as efficient, accessible transportation options.
An article by the Center for Housing Policy takes a look at housing costs compared to income levels in U.S. households. It found that Minnesota was one of only 13 states where the proportion of severly cost burdened households (those paying more than half of their income on housing) increased from 2005 to 2008. The article examines reasons for the increase and looks at working households where members work more than 20 hours per week.
Research by Children’s HealthWatch shows that it is not only government food programs that will help end child hunger in the U.S., but that subsidized housing is also a major component. When families have a secure housing subsidy, more of their income is available to provide for other resources such as food.
Visit the Home Line Policy blog for more on this powerful story of two Twin Cities renters who brought their stories to the Minnesota state legislature. "Peggy Larkin and Melissa Lenart, two tenants trying to maintain safe, decent, affordable housing, did an amazing job describing struggles they’ve had with their landlords. They made an amazing case for why State law should have been stronger to help them. Peggy had been falsely accused of not paying her rent several times; a simple receipt for rent paid would have resolved the matter. Her neighbors had lived in homes with furnaces that did not work for weeks; a number of provisions in the Tenant Bill of Rights would have helped them. And Melissa and her family were living with no water and backed-up sewage for nearly a month; again, several portions of the Minnesota Tenant Bill of Rights would have helped her out...."
Bastions of the middle class, Twin Cities suburbs are seeing financial pain spreading quietly among their residents. They now have more poor people than the core cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The economic recession made homelessness a hot topic in 2009. It seemed every day there was a story about shelter bed shortages, record numbers of school children, or a new tent city popping up. But which stories stood out the most? Change.org has scoured the headlines and trends to compile the 10 most notable homelessness stories of 2009.
a Blog by Kim Skobba
After her husband left her, Jennifer Santana lost her job. When she was evicted from her apartment, Santana, 37, held her family together by living with a friend and then in her van. But as the nights grew cold in early December, she stood huddled with her three children in front of the Orange County cold-weather shelter in Santa Ana, Calif. "There were long lines of men and women, and the people were laying out mats on the floor. It was scary. I could not believe I was standing there with my kids."
Housing is more than shelter. Our communities need stable neighborhoods where families can put down roots. Children need safe, stable homes and neighborhoods to flourish. Having affordable housing available throughout the metro area is important to a strong economy. It reduces worker shortages for employers, and transportation problems for workers. Concentrations of poverty in neighborhoods make them less stable, decreases property values and makes the area less desirable for businesses.
Lewis House in Eagan was launched 30 years ago, as stigma around domestic abuse faded.
St. Paul, Minn. — More and more Twin Cities families are spending a lot of their income on housing, and that's forcing some of them out of their homes.
With the foreclosure crisis overstaying its welcome in neighborhoods across Minnesota, advocates are trying again to get a foreclosure mediation bill on the books.
There are many aspects to the foreclosure crisis and a growing number of articles and resources about this issue. Listed here are several articles which offer a little more insight into foreclosure.
Confused about the mortgage crisis? Want to learn more about what caused it to happen? This story follows people involved in different aspects of the crisis and shines a clearer picture of the causes and effects of events which lead to the housing market crash.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services has distributed nearly $11 million of federal funds to 31 state organizations that help individuals, families and unaccompanied youth find and stay in affordable housing, the department said Tuesday.
If you think the cost of living is bad now, just wait a couple of years. Today’s development dearth will likely make affordable housing unattainable to an entire generation.
Minneapolis Public Housing Authority hopes to put dent in its repair list and save money down the line, too.
PRIOR LAKE, Minn -- The term 'moving day' takes on a new meaning when it's not the stuff in it, changing locations. The quaint little house in Prior Lake is considered out-of-date in the neighborhoods' standards. But it sure has meaning to the Schrank family. It used to be the lone house back when it was built. The Schranks even named a couple streets in the neighborhood.
More than 400 mourners marched from the Hennepin County Government Center to Simpson United Methodist Church, many carrying white signs bearing a name of one of the 119 people who died: "Gary, 54, St. Paul," "Latrisha, 31, Minneapolis," or simply, "Unknown man, Minneapolis."
The agency that coordinates affordable housing for low-income residents in Washington County is fielding hard questions from some county commissioners who are unhappy that the county helps finance the program.
MHP’s “2 x 4” Report tracks two timely and important trends in each of four key housing areas: the rental market, the owners’ market, homelessness and the housing industry.
For 2009, the county profiles paint a picture of continuing housing need, especially for lower-paid occupations.
3-minute Egg's Matt Peiken explores the show "Housed and Homeless (From the Very Same Cup)" being produced by the zAmya Theater Project of Minneapolis.
Mortgage delinquencies reach an all-time high in the state and the nation. Experts doubt the trend will turn around until jobs are created.
Minneapolis, Brooklyn Center offer up to $10,000 for closing costs or down payments; loans are forgiven if the buyer stays five years.
With two emergency housing aid programs slated to end this week, officials are worried that homelessness figures, especially among single adults, will rise.
Many nonprofit organizations have been in survival mode since the economy went sour and donations began shrinking. But some are doing more than just getting by—they're finding ways to take advantage of the situation.
Under the extended, expanded tax credit, people will now have until April 30 to buy a first home or trade up.