News & Updates
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HJC advocacy for Inclusionary Housing policies paying off
Inclusionary housing policies, also referred to as Inclusionary Zoning or Mixed-Income Housing, are local government policies where market-rate housing developers are either required or incented to include affordable units in market-rate apartment buildings.
read moreAffordable homes through long range planning: Setting the table for success
Local governments play a critical role in setting the table for affordable housing development. This includes helping with site identification and acquisition, providing needed zoning and regulatory flexibility, and contributing to filling financial gaps. This “table setting” happens most effectively when it is part of a deliberate plan to diversify a community’s housing choices. Challenging and ambitious goals cannot be accomplished without a plan.
read moreReducing barriers to housing access
In the course of negotiating a settlement with a large property owner HJC was struck with the arbitrariness of the screening criteria being used. As we investigated further the range of screening standards used by many different landlords, several things became clear : as to the standards within those criteria (which criminal violations disqualify, what credit score is sufficient, what income level is adequate, etc) there is no recognized set of best practices, and those standards vary widely among landlords.
read moreHJC proposals to protect NOAH housing spur action
In 2016 HJC concluded that the threat to the Twin Cities’ supply of unsubsidized affordable rental housing, or NOAH as it is now known, needed greater attention. Although housing policymakers were largely focused on protecting and expanding the supply of subsidized housing, most low-income households still were (and are) relying on the supply of NOAH housing, that is, the older plain vanilla Class C and D apartment buildings. And that supply of NOAH housing was rapidly diminishing
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