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http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/yourmoney/9888244.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEygyP40:DW... Page 2 of 3
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<br />housing developer, the problem is getting
<br />worse as job losses mount and homeowners
<br />who have been through. foreclosure become
<br />renters.
<br />"This is the world that I work in everyday,"
<br />said Gina Ciganik, vice president for housing
<br />development, who says almost all the
<br />residents who live in the organization's
<br />hausing have jobs and defy stereotypes
<br />about who needs affordable housing. "It's
<br />really our bus driver, teachers, police
<br />officers, janitors and people who collect
<br />tickets at baseball games," she said.
<br />To illustrate the point, MHP examined wages
<br />for five occupations, including teacher,
<br />registered nurse and retail salesperson, and.
<br />found that for .full-time workers, owning a
<br />median-priced home is affordable to all these
<br />occupations in only nine Minnesota counties,
<br />most of them in viral areas in the western
<br />part of the state. In none of th.e counties is
<br />renting a typical. two-bedroom apartment
<br />affordable to all five occupations.
<br />In the most extreme cases, MHP researcher
<br />I;egh Rosenberg said, lack of affordable
<br />housing has left thousands of Minnesotans w
<br />ifhout housing. The report show s more
<br />than 13,000 people are homeless in the state,
<br />a number that's increased more than 25
<br />percent since 2006.
<br />Kris Jacobs, director of the St. Paul-based
<br />Jobs Now Coalition that works toward better
<br />wages, said a large percentage of all jobs
<br />available pay wages that can't support a
<br />family, making it difficult for some families to
<br />meet basic needs like housing.
<br />Such shortfalls are why developers of
<br />nonprofit housing will meet this week in the
<br />Twin Cities with architects, planners and
<br />designers from around the country as part of
<br />the Affordable I-lousing Design Leadership
<br />Instihrte, sponsored by Enterprise
<br />Community Partners.
<br />Aeon, for example, will discuss its plans to
<br />add another 120 units of affordable housing
<br />to the hundreds it has already built in its
<br />Franklin-Portland Gateway project in south
<br />Mim~eapolis. The focus of the event, which
<br />will be in a different city next year and is
<br />funded in part by the McKnight Fotmdation,
<br />will be on creating rental housing that's
<br />sustainable, affordable and accessible to
<br />jobs and. transit.
<br />Aeon, i:n partnership with other Twin Cities
<br />non-profits, has already built new housing
<br />on three corners at the once-troubled.
<br />intersection for low-income renters like
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<br />http://www.startribune.com/templates/fdcp? 1279813713011 7/22/2010
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