Spotlight on affordable housing October 24, 2007

The Metropolitan Council recently announced that the Twin Cities will need to add 51,000 units of affordable housing by the year 2020 and the issue is understandably getting a lot of media attention right now. The Star Tribune picked up the story on October 19th and Kerri Miller (host of Midmorning on MPR) recently invited the Mayor of Brooklyn Park, the executive director of the Minnesota Housing Partnership, and the Chairman of the Metropolitan Council in to discuss affordable housing and the publics perception thereof.

The piece in the Star Tribune and some of the callers on Midmorning demonstrate that many people still associate affordable housing with increasing crime rates, falling property values, and "problems for the community." We at Cermak Rhoades believe this mode of thinking is outdated. As cities across the Metro region plan for more affordable housing, we urge them to consider providing quality housing at a spectrum of costs that people can afford.

One interesting piece of research that is new to us comes from the Maxfield Research Group in Minneapolis. The report compared property values of 12 Twin Cities neighborhoods where an affordable housing development had recently been built to neighborhoods without such a development. They concluded that "there is little or no evidence to support the claim that the tax-credit family rental developments in our study eroded surrounding home values."

You can find that report here.
"Low-income homes must be built, but where?" - Star Trib 10.19.07
Midmorning debate on affordable housing 10.23.07

 

Healthy housing October 05, 2007

While we always suspected and hoped that high-quality, safe, attractive, and well-managed housing had a positive effect on overall health, now we have real data to back up that claim.

As part of a study conducted by Rainbow Research, Clare Housing surveyed residents of their Clare Apartments on Central Avenue in Minneapolis. Residents were asked not only about their general emotional well-being, but also provided physical evidence in the form of T-cell counts as a measure of their bodies' fight against AIDS. (T-cells are a key player in our immune system; HIV actively targets and destroys T-cells, leaving the body susceptible to opportunistic infections.)

18 of 24 interviewees stated that the overall quality of their lives had 'greatly improved' or 'somewhat improved' since moving into Clare Apartments. As a corollary, the average T-cell count reported increased from 383 to 504 over the course of a year.

The report as a whole covers the relationship between stable and affordable housing and consistent medical care and support services. The basic finding was a resounding 'Yes,' housing can have a real, measurable impact on health!

More from Clare Housing.
CRA project page for Clare Apartments.