PRESERVATION
Fighting to save affordable housing for the people who need it
Communities across the country are facing an acute shortage of affordable places to call home. Minnesota cannot afford to lose any affordable housing and so HJC has led the charge for 20 years to preserve every unit of subsidized affordable housing that we can. We also work to develop legal and financial strategies and policies to save unsubsidized affordable housing opportunities. Our work has saved over 5,000 affordable places to call home and resulted in changes to federal, state, and local laws and regulations.
We do this by working to preserve:
- federally subsidized affordable housing
- unsubsidized affordable housing
- manufactured home communities
- policy advocacy on the state, local and national level
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Our Work in this Area
Unsubsidized Affordable Housing
In 2005, HJC began developing strategies to address the unique challenges of preserving this housing, including tracking and monitoring privately owned properties, developing programs to finance rehabilitation and preservation purchases, increasing the nonprofit capacity, and urging the adoption of government policies to preserve this often overlooked supply of low cost housing. We will continue to represent the current residents of threatened properties, using leverage provided by existing laws and negotiation with owners and developers.
HJC’s Work Featured in Documentary Sold Out: Affordable Housing At Risk
HJC's work with Crossroads tenants has been featured in the TPT documentary Sold Out: Affordable Housing At Risk. Affordable housing is under constant threat from changing economic forces and urban development that break up vital communities. Low-income residents have...
Responding to the Threat to the Twin Cities Region’s Supply of Naturally Affordable Rental Housing
The region’s supply of naturally occurring affordable rental housing (unsubsidized) is at risk. National investment companies have turned to the Twin Cities market seeking investment opportunities and are increasingly buying up Class C apartment properties. In many of...
Court Refuses to Dismiss Fair Housing Challenge to Owner’s Wholesale Displacement of Tenants
In a potential landmark case watched by many locally and around the country, the federal district court on July 5, 2016 denied defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint in CROSSRDS v. MSP Crossroads Apartments, LLC. In September 2015, the defendants purchased the...
Manufactured Home Communities
Manufactured Home Parks constitute the largest single source of affordable housing in the state, and without any public subsidy. However, with increasing property values and development pressures, parks are at risk of closure or conversion resulting in the displacement of the low income resident households, particularly in the Twin Cities suburbs. When parks close, residents are forced to find comparable housing in markets with affordable housing shortages, a situation likely to be exacerbated as housing programs shrink and costs rise.
Now available: Best practices report on reducing costs of affordable housing production
In 2016, the Housing Justice Center (HJC), together with the University of Minnesota's Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) and Becker Consulting, completed a study on policies which metro cities can, and should, adopt in order to reduce the cost of producing...
Manufactured Home Park Residents Finally Get Their Due
Fundamental fairness suggests that when government forces people out of their homes for redevelopment projects, people ought to be compensated. That was the impetus behind the federal Uniform Relocation Act (URA), and the Minnesota Uniform Relocation Act. In...
HPP Continues to Protect Manufactured Home Park Residents
When residents of manufactured home parks scattered throughout Greater Minnesota encounter threats to their housing, they often turn to HPP for help. Residents of Northern Terrace MH Park in Ely found themselves faced with the closure of their park at Christmas...
Federally Subsidized Housing
Affordable housing that serves the lowest income households is subsidized by the federal government, through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and to a lesser extent, the Rural Development Division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Within HUD, the major programs are Public Housing, Multifamily Subsidized Housing, Project-Based Section 8, and the Section 8 voucher program. A substantial portion of these projects and units are at risk of loss, either because the units may be lost or, more commonly, the private owners of these units seek to convert their buildings to market rate rents.
HJC convinces HUD to release funds to Redwood Falls Housing Authority
Several years ago a fire destroyed a 50 unit public housing building in Redwood Falls, Minnesota. The Redwood Falls HRA applied to HUD for funds to rebuild the project but was denied. As a result, the building remained untouched and the former residents...
HUD turns to HJC for help in resolving Fair Housing complaints
Like many other regions around the country, the Twin Cities has seen a debate for years on where best to place new affordable housing resources, in low income communities where the greatest numbers of needy households reside, or in higher income suburban areas, often...
HJC and HOME Line Highlight Risks for Low Income Tenants due to RD Maturing Mortgages
Throughout Rural America, low income tenants depend on Rural Development (RD) Section 515 apartment buildings, often as the only affordable apartment buildings in many small towns. Minnesota was aggressive in the early years of the program in building Section 515...