The Cities Category Archive: Housing

Project Homeless Connect prepares to help nearly 2,000 people today

Posted at 6:00 AM on May 14, 2012 by Madeleine Baran (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis

If you're homeless and living in Minneapolis, you probably spend a lot of time traveling from one social services agency to another. There's the building where you apply for public housing, the clinic where you get your blood pressure checked, the welfare office where you drop off paperwork, the workforce center where you get help with a resume.

Navigating between all of those services can be exhausting, but twice a year, there's another option -- Project Homeless Connect.

The event opens today at 10:30 a.m. at the Minneapolis Convention Center. More than a thousand volunteers will be on hand to provide everything from dental exams to haircuts.

Organizers expect to serve nearly 2,000 people in less than six hours.

(The last Project Homeless Connect event at the Minneapolis Convention Center attracted nearly 1,800 guests and more than 1,000 volunteers. Photo courtesy of Project Homeless Connect.)

Matthew Ayres, project manager for the Office to End Homelessness, coordinates the event. His favorite moment, he told me, happens right when the doors open.

As hundreds of people enter, each one is greeted by a different volunteer who serves as a day-long guide through 300,000 square feet of services.

"It's like a treasure hunt," Ayres said. "People are just excited, and they're running, and they're doing stuff, and every time, I look around and I see people crying. It's just such an emotional thing to make this huge massive connection all at once."

Housing referrals, job search and training assistance, dental care, and state I.D. replacement are among the most popular services, he said.

Nearly one-third of participants walk in the door without an official I.D., he said. Volunteers can replace I.D.s on-site, and they offer vouchers to cover the cost of replacing birth certificates.

"It's folks that were escaping domestic violence and lost all their stuff, or their landlord evicted them and threw away all their stuff, or it just got lost or stolen," Ayres said.

(A man applies for a new I.D. at a Project Homeless Connect event in Dec. 2010 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Photo courtesy of Project Homeless Connect.)

A complete list of the services offered is available here.

Similar events are held throughout the state on different days throughout the year. The next St. Paul Homeless Connect is scheduled for June 19 at the St. Paul RiverCentre from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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St. Paul goofed in awarding lofts contract, court says

Posted at 4:13 PM on May 7, 2012 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Housing, St. Paul

The city of St. Paul illegally awarded a contract to a construction firm when it allowed the contractor to change its bid, a violation of the city's own competitive bidding laws, a state appellate court ruled today.

The three-judge panel says the city's contract with Shaw-Lundquist Associates on Lowertown's Lofts at Farmers Market project is void. That part of the ruling reverses a lower court's decision in a lawsuit filed last year by Rochon Corp., one of the losing bidders.

But at this point, it's more complicated than just switching contractors. The five-story lofts project is finished, and all 58 units are rented out, says City Attorney Sara Grewing. The city plans to appeal the decision.

"We don't believe the Court of Appeals got the law exactly right," Grewing says.

In issuing the ruling, Judge Kevin Ross noted that Shaw-Lundquist appeared to be the clear winner when St. Paul opened the sealed bids to construct the lofts project in late 2010. Shaw bid at $7.3 million. The second-lowest bid went to Rochon Corp., at $8.7 million.

But the next day, Shaw informed the city it had discovered a mathematical error in its spreadsheet and asked to withdraw the bid. For one of the items, it meant to type in the correct amount of $688,000, but left off a zero, and indicated only $68,800 -- a difference of $619,200. Oops. If you were to add that $688,000 to the rest of the bid, it would raise the total to around $7.9 million.

The city asked Shaw if it would would submit a modified bid. The city refused to hold a rebid, saying a delay would jeopardize funding, according to court documents.

Shaw-Lundquist replaced its old bid with one for $8 million -- some $89,000 higher than what the original bid would have been without the clerical error -- but still lower than the Rochon bid.

"The city allowed Shaw-Lundquist to change its bid not only to fix its error but also to add another $89,211, giving it both cake and icing," Ross wrote. "The appearance of both folly and favortism arise."

Ross also said when Shaw-Lundquist modified the bid, it knew the next lowest bid, "allowing it to make its correction fully aware of how much it could increase its bid while yet retaining its place in the ranking."

The court ruled that Rochon was entitled to declaratory judgment. The city has already paid the firm about $34,000 to cover the costs to prepare the bid.

Attorney Dean Thomson, who is representing Rochon, said the appellate court's decision preserves the integrity of the public bidding process.

"The court made it quite clear you can't play games with bids after the fact," he said. "You can't let illegal conduct go forward, under the theory it's somehow good for the citizens. It's not."

Legal squabbling over the Lowertown site, across from the downtown farmers market, is nothing new. For years, the site languished as a hole in the ground while contractors, the developers and the city bickered over the contract. In 2011, Mayor Chris Coleman singled out the project as part of a new initiative called "Rebuild St. Paul."

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Dorothy Day shelter marks 31st anniversary with 'mixed emotions'

Posted at 1:00 PM on May 1, 2012 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, St. Paul

What does it mean to "commemorate" the 31st anniversary of a homeless shelter?

That's the question the staff at the Dorothy Day Center in St. Paul have been trying to answer. When the homeless shelter opened in 1981, organizers thought homelessness was a temporary problem in the Twin Cities. They were wrong.

(Dorothy Day Center, St. Paul, MPR Photo/Tim Nelson)

Every night, about two hundred people sleep on mats on the shelter floor. Another 42 people sleep upstairs in bunk beds in the shelter's women's program. Demand has increased so dramatically that Catholic Charities, which operates the Dorothy Day Center, converted an unused office building into an overflow shelter two years ago. The overflow shelter, which can fit up to 50 people each night, sits next to the main shelter and is only open during the winter months. It closed on Monday.

There isn't any funding to keep the overflow shelter open, said Dorothy Day Center director Gerry Lauer. (Catholic Charities received about $50,000 to fund the shelter this winter from the city of St. Paul, Ramsey County, and community members.) Also, he said, if the shelter stayed open year-round, it would need to undergo $650,000 worth of renovations to meet building code regulations.

That means the main Dorothy Day shelter will probably have to start turning people away this month, Lauer said. Last year, during the months the overflow shelter was closed, Dorothy Day turned away 218 people because it didn't have enough room. Shelter employees also counted 1,164 people from July to December who were sleeping on the grass and concrete outside of the shelter or in a car parked nearby when the shelter was full.

Many of the people sleeping right outside the shelter are easy targets for people looking for someone to rob, Lauer said. Last summer, he said, police responded to several stabbings outside the shelter.

Catholic Charities hopes to call attention to these problems at a community breakfast to "commemorate" the shelter's 31st anniversary, Lauer said.

The event, he said, "is being held with mixed emotions."

In a way, it's a recognition of the failure to end homelessness, but it's also important to recognize the efforts of community members, volunteers, employees, and others, he said.

"By no means is it a celebration," Lauer said. "This is not where we thought we'd be 31 years ago."

The community breakfast will be held at the Dorothy Day Center, at 183 Old 6th St. West, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. May 2.

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Who lived in your house in 1940?

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 5, 2012 by Brandt Williams (2 Comments)
Filed under: History, Housing, Minneapolis

When the 1940 Census data came online this week, the first address I went looking for was the house where I used to live in north Minneapolis. I knew that the house was built in the '20s, so I hoped it wasn't vacant when the Census takers knocked on the door.

It turns out there was a family living there, Harry, 55, and Anna Buck, 52. Both were born in Pennsylvania. Harry was a vacuum cleaner salesman, though he listed his usual occupation as "Presbyterian minister." He worked 48 hrs a week. He earned $1,200 in 1939. The Bucks paid $38/mo. rent. Harry had five years of college, Anna had four years of high school education.

The Bucks had two daughters -- Lucy, 20 and Margaret, 17. Both single. Lucy was born in Ohio, Margaret in Minnesota. Lucy worked as a file clerk and labeler at a school library and earned $33 in 1939. Margaret made $15, but how she earned that money was not specified.

I found a telephone listing for a Margaret Buck who was born in 1922 - which would have put her at 17 years of age around Census time. The number I called was disconnected.

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Legal decision has attorneys talking

Posted at 5:14 PM on March 30, 2012 by Jessica Mador (33 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Housing, Minneapolis

MPR News received a tip about a complicated story involving an attorney, a judge and the state's foreclosure laws.

U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz has taken the unusual step of sanctioning Minneapolis attorney William Butler for filing what the judge calls frivolous show-me-the-note actions. That's where a homeowner facing foreclosure argues that because the mortgage and note are held by different entities, the home's mortgage or foreclosure on that mortgage is invalid.

Separating the note from the mortgage contributed to the practice of mortgage securitization, one culprit in the housing bubble and crash.

Some courts in other states have ruled in favor of homeowners in cases like these. But here, Judge Schiltz says it's been established under Minnesota law (he references Jackson v. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.) that the entity that holds the mortgage can foreclose on the mortgage even if that entity does not also hold the note. Showing the note is not necessary under foreclosure by advertisement, which is how most of Minnesota's foreclosures are processed.

Butler, of Butler Liberty Law, LLC, brought nearly 30 of such cases on behalf of several hundred people and apparently never won.

Among other things, Judge Schiltz alleges Butler solicited homeowners facing foreclosure for frivolous cases and then "judge shopped" for sympathetic judges while his cases dragged on for months, allowing him to collect fees from clients and allowing those clients to continue living in their homes rent-free.

As punishment, the court ordered Butler to pay a $50,000 penalty and cover attorneys fees for some of the largest firms representing clients like GMAC Mortgage, Deutsche Bank, The Bank of New York and others. People familiar with the case expect these penalties to rise well into the six figures. Butler also risks losing his license to practice law.

Minneapolis attorney Daniel Tyson has been handling real estate and foreclosure cases for decades. He declined to comment on the specifics of Butler's cases mentioned in the judge's order. But he says it's clear the judge's ruling was intended to send a message.

"The amount of the sanction is high and the judge wanted to teach this attorney a lesson that his behavior wasn't appropriate and if he's going to start a lawsuit and bring it into federal court or any court it has to be based upon proper claims, and in this case the judge determined that the show-me-the-note claim was not appropriate for this particular matter before him."

Other attorneys I spoke to about this case agreed the judge's order is severe.
Judge Schiltz is known for being conservative but fair-minded.

Tyson says he hopes the decision won't deter other attorneys from bringing foreclosure cases forward.

"I'd hope that the decision does not have a chilling effect on bringing claims which are properly brought by consumers and their attorneys. That would be an unfortunate result of this claim because there are many appropriate claims and appropriate situations - in particular in this foreclosure area - where bad things were done. That is what the robo-signing cases were all about, that is why there are sanctions and that is why we've got a nationwide settlement with the major banks, because things were not done properly," said Tyson. "I'm hoping it doesn't have a chilling effect on the ability to bring these. And I don't think it will because this was a very limited situation where this individual attorney was using wrong methods and for those clients out there and those attorneys out there who have right claims and good claims to try to prevent foreclosures, that should be brought they should be able to bring them. That is our system."

Butler didn't provide a comment in time for this post, but says he plans to appeal the judge's decision.

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Minnesota rated the least affordable state for housing in the Midwest

Posted at 4:30 PM on March 14, 2012 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

A new national report shows someone earning minimum wage would have to work 86 hours a week to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in Minnesota -- that's more than two full-time jobs.

The report, Out of Reach 2012, was jointly released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a Washington, D.C.-based housing policy organization, the Minnesota Housing Partnership and the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless. The report provides rental affordability data for every state, metro area, and county in the country.

Of the twelve states in the Midwest, Minnesota ranked the worst for affordability for minimum wage workers. According to the report:

In order to afford the rent and utilities for a safe, modest 2-bedroom apartment in the private housing market, a Minnesota worker must earn $15.50 per hour, 40 hours a week, all year long. By contrast, the typical renter in Minnesota earns $12.17 per hour. Minimum wage pays only $7.25 per hour.

"The gap between what most renters make and the cost of housing is a problem facing the entire state," said Chip Halbach, Executive Director of Minnesota Housing Partnership. "Families are forced to move because they cannot keep up their rent payments. This kind of instability jeopardizes the future of Minnesota's children."

Numbers:

-An estimated 54% renters in Minnesota do not earn enough to afford a two-bedroom unit at the "fair market rent" where they live.
-Twin Cities metro rents are most expensive. A modest two-bedroom apartment requires a full time worker to earn $17.38 per hour year-round -- the most expensive in the state.
-The counties least affordable to renters, given the incomes they earn, are distributed throughout the both Metro and Greater Minnesota Counties. The top 5 least affordable counties with the highest estimated percent of renters unable to afford a modest two-bedroom apartment are Wadena (67% unable to afford), Carlton (62%), Winona (62%), Chisago (61%), and Ramsey (61%) Counties.

See MHP's additional Minnesota maps based on Out of Reach data here.

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Two new council members back downtown development

Posted at 9:53 AM on February 23, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, St. Paul

The St. Paul City Council on Wednesday approved a key piece of financing for the downtown apartment complex and grocery store development known as the Penfield. The vote was 4-3, with the council's two new members, Chris Tolbert and Amy Brendmoen, supporting it.

Rendition of the Penfield

The vote cemented about a quarter of the $62 million project's funding by earmarking future property tax revenue generated by the development to finance it. The council approved the overall plan in December, but that was before Tolbert and Brendmoen took office.

Council member Dave Thune, who represents downtown, told the Pioneer Press the vote was the project's "final hurdle."

Council members Russ Stark, Melvin Carter and Kathy Lantry maintained their opposition to the project. The building, which will be located on 10th St. & Minnesota St., is expected to be completed by July of 2014.

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$459,000 in housing grants for St. Paul

Posted at 3:09 PM on February 13, 2012 by Jessica Mador (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, St. Paul

Congresswoman Betty McCollum today announced $459,000 in grants for St. Paul housing groups.

Community Neighborhood Housing Services and BankCherokee were awarded $159,000 to rehabilitate 30 homes and help struggling homeowners with home repairs, including roof replacement, structural repairs or landscaping and energy efficiency improvements with $5,000 in forgivable, no-payment loans.

"Between declining family incomes, the foreclosure crisis and aging housing stock, there is a growing need for a project like this in St. Paul," said Jason Peterson, executive director, Community Neighborhood Housing Services. "The grant provides an incredible incentive for homeowners to complete needed maintenance work on their homes."

And St. Paul-based South Metro Human Services will use its $300,000 grant to remodel a vacant building into a residential and therapeutic treatment facility for mentally ill adults. Officials say the project will provide 16 units of transitional housing and help residents with stabilization and recovery.

The grants, from the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines Affordable Housing Program, are intended to assist in the development of affordable owner-occupied and rental housing for very low-to-moderate income households. During its most recent round of Affordable Housing Program grants, the bank awarded $15 million through its member institutions, including Bremer Bank and BankCherokee, to fund 45 housing projects, which will help create or renovate 1,800 housing units across five states. Over $4 million was committed to projects in Minnesota.

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Minneapolis touts housing program

Posted at 4:17 PM on February 7, 2012 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

As states' attorneys general discuss a proposed settlement with five banks over their foreclosure practices, Minneapolis is touting its foreclosure recovery strategy.

The city today says its Minneapolis Advantage Program has helped nearly 350 homebuyers purchase homes in neighborhoods stressed by foreclosure since 2008.

The forgivable loan program assists homebuyers with down payment and closing costs. Officials say the city's investment of $1.2 million in the program has leveraged an additional $3.2 million from Wells Fargo, Minnesota Housing, Federal Home Loan Bank Des Moines and through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

"This financial assistance enables a buyer to purchase a house, and that helps to rebuild the neighborhoods," said council member Elizabeth Glidden, who represents Ward 8.

Stats on the Minneapolis Advantage Program:

• All homes had to be foreclosed, vacant, or in a high foreclosure-impacted neighborhood.
• Loan recipients purchased homes in 30 Minneapolis neighborhoods.
• Nearly 350 homes have been purchased.
• Nearly 60% of the home buyers moved to Minneapolis from elsewhere.
• 89% of the recipients are first time home buyers.
• 48% of the home buyers are between the ages of 31-50.
• Average household size is two.
• 49% of the homes' purchase prices are less than $100,000; 39% of purchase prices are between $100,000-$150,000.

More funds are available in 2012. Approximately $400,000, or around 25 loans, is available to help potential buyers purchase a foreclosed home in eligible neighborhoods. Based on income eligibility requirements, buyers within 80% of the area median income (approximately $64,000 for a four-member household) can receive up to $20,000 and buyers within 120% of the area median income (approximately $100,700 for a four-member household) can receive up to $10,000. These funds can be used to pay for closing costs and down payment assistance.

For more information, call the Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation, program administrator, at (612) 588-3033.

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Embattled St. Paul landlord is a social worker

Posted at 3:23 PM on January 12, 2012 by Curtis Gilbert (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Housing, Livability, St. Paul

A court has ruled Peggy Chun can't manage two St. Paul apartment buildings. But is she qualified to be a social worker?

Until today, Chun was listed on the website of New Brighton-based Nystrom & Associates as "a social worker in the ARMHS [Adult Rehabilitative Mental Health Services] department with a background of working Serious and Persistent Mental Health diagnosis."

Chun and her husband Randall own a pair of run-down buildings that house some 60 low-income families.

One of the Chuns' buildings. (MPR Photo/Jeff Thompson)

Ramsey County Judge John Guthmann ruled yesterday that he would appoint a receiver to take over managing the properties, which city inspectors have cited with about 600 housing code violations. The ruling was part of a foreclosure lawsuit against the Chuns.

Peggy Chun did not respond to an interview request. Neither did Nystrom & Associates, but Chun's profile on the site disappeared today. Luckily I printed a copy earlier in the week.

Chun was listed as joining the private, Christian counseling firm in 2010. The page said she holds a Master of Social Work degree from the University of St. Thomas.

One thing Chun doesn't have is a license to practice social work in the state on Minnesota. She has applied for a license, but does not currently hold one, according to the Minnesota Board of Social Work.

In general, you can't even call yourself a social worker in Minnesota, unless you have a license, although there's an exception for social workers employed by government agencies.

Our NewsCut blog had a fascinating discussion yesterday about whether Chun's husband Randall should be held to a higher standard because he works as a researcher for the Minnesota House of Representatives. But what are the ethics rules for social workers?

"Social workers should advocate for living conditions conducive to the fulfillment of basic human needs and should promote social, economic, political, and cultural values and institutions that are compatible with the realization of social justice,"according to the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics

Linda Jones, who teaches ethics at the University of Minnesota School of Social Work, says social workers are should hold themselves to those standards, even outside of their professional practice.

"It's very hard to behave unethically in your business and turn around and behave ethically with people in your professional life," Jones said.

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Grant puts Mpls Jaguar site on track for redevelopment

Posted at 8:45 PM on January 11, 2012 by Rupa Shenoy (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul

The downtown Minneapolis Jaguar dealership that's sat vacant for several years will be cleaned up to make way for a new mixed-use development of housing and retail space.

That announcement came from the Metropolitan Council today. The organization approved $2.4 million dollars in grants as part of the Livable Communities program, which funds affordable housing, mixed-use development, and brownfield cleanups. This latest round of grants will help clean up 49 acres, the Met Council said in a release.

The grants include one for nearly $442,900 to do an environmental investigation at the Jaguar site, along with soil remediation and asbestos and PCB abatement. The 2.5 acres along Hennepin Avenue has been empty since 2007. The Met Council says plans include 286 apartments and about 40,000 square feet of retail grocery space.

Another grant goes to the Schmidt Brew House in St. Paul. Nearly $248,200 funds for asbestos and lead paint abatement. The building was home to an ethanol plant from 2000 to 2004. Before that it was vacant for many years.

The Met Council says existing brew house buildings will be renovated into 130 affordable apartments.

Other plans have included a rathskeller, restaurants and offices.

The Council received 24 applications totaling more than $5 million for brownfield cleanup awards this funding round. It awarded 12 grants.

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Minnesota Sounds and Voices: Margaret Lovejoy's Family Place

Posted at 2:16 PM on January 5, 2012 by MPR News Staff (3 Comments)
Filed under: Housing

By Dan Olson, Minnesota Public Radio News

The Family Place founder and executive director Margaret Lovejoy said her service provides community roots for families, both when they are there and after they leave. (MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson)

"I heard a child one cold January morning say to his mother, 'How will I find you after school?'" Margaret Lovejoy remembers.

The child was homeless. The words were jarring. And Lovejoy was spurred to look beyond sadness and pity. Today, The Family Place, a St. Paul daytime drop in center for the homeless, stands as a testament to how she strives to help those who often don't have anyone else in the community to turn to.

"Some of them have lost all their possessions. They've lost connections with relatives because they've moved away to a different part of the country. Sometimes they've lost almost everything except what they can carry," she says.

Even though the center's kitchen, dining room and common areas are open, clean and welcoming, with staff and computers in place to help families find jobs and housing, Lovejoy says that, at first, many of the homeless families she sees are angry and sad.

The Family Place director of parent and childrens' programs Kimmeth Jackson conducts a weekly gathering with clients in St. Paul, Minn. Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2011. (MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson)

"I cried and cried and cried, like, I don't know what I'm going to do, I don't have any money," says one of the center's visitors, Tywanda Stewart.

The 41-year-old mother of four lost one of her two part-time jobs last summer, couldn't afford to pay rent, didn't have any family or friends who could help, and couldn't find room at a shelter.

"It got down to the last 30 minutes that the sheriff was going to come and remove me from my home," she says. But that's when space for five opened up at The Family Place, allowing her family to spend their daytime hours there, and nights in Ramsey County's emergency shelter system.

That was six months ago. Since then, with help from The Family Place community, Stewart and her children found a rent-subsidized apartment in Fridley. The kids are in school, the youngest may have a daycare slot soon, and Stewart is taking classes to get her GED while working part time.

Tracy Spann, 19, reviews for a drivers permit test during quiet time at The Family Place in St. Paul, Minn. Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. The Family Place is the only day shelter in Ramsey County for families who don't have permanent housing. (MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson)

Lovejoy's own community was torn apart by bulldozers when she was a child -- Interstate 94 construction ripped through Rondo, her St. Paul neighborhood, knocking down homes, and closing businesses. She says that before the destruction, the sense of community was so strong neighbors called parents to report any shenanigans.

"And by the time I got home my mother would say, "Well, what were you doing?'"

Lovejoy moved back to the area as an adult, and joined with others repairing the community fabric -- to the point where, if she were in need, she could knock on a neighbor's door for help.

Rebuilding community is part of her solution for ending homelessness. It's a strategy that's easy to put into words but fraught with complications and hobbled by lack of money.

"It's tedious the way I think it about it, but you pretty much have to do it one person at a time, and then once you get one person on their feet, then they help someone else," she says. Then the recession hit, and homelessness, led by a sharp rise in the number of homeless children, is up. Wilder Research puts the number of homeless in Minnesota at 13,000 people - and thousands of children -- on any given night. A third of them are children.

Breana and her husband James, who declined to provide last names, pack up to leave The Family Place in St. Paul, Minn. Monday, Oct. 31, 2011. The couple spent six days at The Family Place. (MPR Photo/Jeffrey Thompson)

It's as though babies keep floating down a stream, Lovejoy says. She and others serving the homeless pull them out, but that's not solving the problem.

"We need to go upstream and see what's happening in our economy, what's happening in our society," she says. "Why are these babies being put in the water in the first place?"

In the meantime, Lovejoy says the number of homeless babies she's seeing is growing.

"Ten years ago, you'd find a baby every six months, and now you're finding one every six hours."

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Building homes in the Central Corridor

Posted at 4:50 PM on December 20, 2011 by Laura Yuen (3 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Transportation

Light-rail planners say a housing renaissance is already afoot along the Central Corridor, about three years before the first trains begin to roll. More than 5,100 housing units are on the way or have been completed, the Metropolitan Council announced today.

That figure is a bit misleading, though. Included in that calculation are about 1,800 units that make up Riverside Plaza and The Cedars, two existing housing developments on the West Bank of Minneapolis that were part of a large-scale rehab.

The tally also includes "upcoming development projects" that are still in the design phase. One example is the long delayed Penfield grocery-and-housing project that has been on St. Paul's drawing board for years.

Still, there are plenty of recent projects, from university student apartments to senior housing in St. Paul's Frogtown, that make a formidable list when you lump them all together. The corridor encompasses both downtowns, the University of Minnesota and everything in between.

It's not hard to see why developers are eyeing the land around the 11-mile stretch. Light-rail advocates have long seen the transit option as a tool to redevelop urban neighborhoods.

One example of new development is the Chittenden & Eastman building, which housed artist work space, near Raymond and University avenues. The former mattress warehouse and store is poised to reopen in October 2012 as 104 market-rate apartments.

"We would not be there trying to do something with that property had it not been for the light rail line," said developer Jim Stolpestad of Exeter Realty, in a statement today. "University had to be redone."

The question for many neighbors is how to reshape the corridor while preserving what makes it unique. Are you having conversations now in your communities on how to accomplish that?

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Downtown St. Paul Lunds project still breathing

Posted at 7:00 AM on December 16, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, St. Paul

Just when my colleague Bob Collins declared St. Paul's Penfield development all but dead, the grocery-and-housing project spurts back to life.

The heartbeat we heard comes in the form of a new financing plan that on Wednesday will go before the city's Housing and Redevelopment Authority. The city, which last year became the official developer, envisions a $62 million project including a Lunds grocery topped by 253 market-rate apartments.

You can't blame folks for being skeptical about the Penfield. Initially proposed as a luxury skyscraper during the condo craze of the mid-2000s, the concept has been sliced, diced, and diminished into a box-like apartment building. But Lunds has signed a 10-year lease, bringing hope to downtown denizens and the workaday crowd yearning for fresh produce and gourmet-to-go.

And city planners believe its focus on market-rate rentals (averages ranging from $1,055 to $1,890) will fill a growing demand for "moderate-income" people who want to live downtown. Still, one wonders if a city-led development should include at least some affordable housing.

It's clear St. Paul has a lot riding on this project, situated at 10th and Minnesota streets. According to a staff report:

"This project has the potential to be both transformative and catalytic for downtown. It is transformative in that it will put downtown 'on the map' in a way it has never been before. In particular, a Lunds grocery store puts downtown in a 'tier of livability' that says downtown is a 'real neighborhood' with a broad range of retail and services. The project is catalytic in that having a Lunds store with housing above sends a signal to other developers, future residents, and prospective businesses that downtown Saint Paul is a vibrant place and a solid investment opportunity -- downtown has 'arrived.'"

According to the report, the financing package includes a sizable loan insured by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and calls for the creation of a Penfield tax-increment financing district. Lunds would finance most of its own improvements for the grocery store.

The city received multiple bids on the project. All came back substantially over budget.

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Minneapolis: An ever-changing skyline

Posted at 9:15 PM on December 14, 2011 by Sasha Aslanian (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, Transportation

Sometime in the 1970s my mom signed me up for a drawing class for kids at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. They lined us up in a glass hallway looking out toward downtown Minneapolis and taught us to draw the skyline.

We drew the IDS and the Foshay.

I thought of my modest little drawing today as news cameras filled the foyer of the Hennepin County Central Library-- one of downtown's recent treasures-- and downtown business leaders unveiled their vision for the city in 2025.

They used words like thriving, liveable, green, connected, exciting and welcoming.

We reported on the sports district that would include a new Vikings stadium. The plan also includes building Gateway Park and transforming Nicollet into a "must-see" destination stretching from the Walker Art Center to the Mississippi River. You can read the 10 point plan here.

Downtown Council President and CEO Sam Grabarski reminded the crowd of the city's track record for delivering on its dreams: a new Twins stadium, LRT, and residential housing downtown. Even in a down economy, the city continues to think big, even pledging to end street homelessness.

I'm pretty sure I can't draw the skyline anymore.

Photo credits:
Archival image of Minneapolis Skyline photographed by Forest J. Sorenson in 1972 courtesy of the Minnesota History Center.
Vision from Intersections: Downtown 2025 Plan, courtesy of the Minneapolis Downtown Council.

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Homeless shelter gets makeover

Posted at 1:00 PM on December 2, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis

Life has improved ever so slightly for the 130 men who sleep at the Salvation Army's Safe Bay shelter every night.

(It's part of the larger Harbor Light shelter operated by Salvation Army in downtown Minneapolis.)

Here's what Safe Bay looked like before:

Here's what it looks like now, after a recent renovation led by a team of volunteer architects and construction workers:

The old layout led to frequent fights and thefts, said shelter operations director Dominick Bouza.

"There was just no room," he said.

Men slept on thin mats pressed up against each other. If someone got up at night to go to the bathroom, it was hard to avoid stepping on someone else.

"Then you've got a verbal altercation, then you've got a fight, and then you've got a third guy who sees all this and reaches over and steals one of the guy's cell phones. That's just the way it goes," Bouza said.

Bouza said that he used to get two or three reports of theft each week from the men sleeping at Safe Bay. He hasn't received a single report since the bunk beds were installed in late October.

It's not just the layout, he said. People are more likely to respect each other when they aren't sleeping on the ground.

"As soon as you raise that dignity level, people have a greater sense of self worth," Bouza said.

That's what the design team hoped would happen. They spent two days visiting the site and drafting plans as part of an annual Search for Shelter project organized by the American Institute of Architects.

Interior designer Rena Feldman, one of the team members, blogged about the effort:

We studied some precedents such as airports, boats and hostels, where space is tight but the sleeping arrangement is still comfortable and adequate. Our solution was to build quad bunk beds with dividers and small storage bins and space them out about two feet apart. It would comfortably fit one hundred and thirty sleeping beds plus a small lounge area.

In a few hours, the bunk beds will be full. They're full every night - as is the entire shelter, which holds upwards of 500 people.

As Bouza puts it, "Basically, this is a small town in one building."

(Photos courtesy of the Salvation Army)

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U of M documentary traces history of North Minneapolis

Posted at 4:30 PM on November 3, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Housing, Immigration, Minneapolis, Race

A new documentary uses north Minneapolis buildings and historic spaces as the backdrop for an exploration of the power of place and community.

Cornerstones: Stories of Place on the North Side premiers statewide at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 13, on Twin Cities Public Television's Minnesota Channel.



The hour-long documentary was co-produced by the University of Minnesota's Urban Research and Outreach/Engagement Center and TPT, and written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Daniel Pierce Bergin, who won an Emmy award for his 2004 TPT documentary North Star: Minnesota's Black Pioneers. Cornerstones is narrated by veteran Twin Cities performer Jearlyn Steele.



Check out the website for additional interviews with Northside residents on the importance of place and memory. The site will also include interactive storytelling features and content from TPT, university researchers and community historians.

Rebroadcasts of Cornerstones are scheduled for 2 a.m., 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. Nov. 14 and noon Nov. 20 on TPT's Life Channel. Viewers should check with their local PBS affiliates for airing dates and times.


.

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North Minneapolis sidewalk repairs complete

Posted at 5:19 PM on October 19, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Five months after a tornado ripped through north Minneapolis, officials say they've repaired about 1,600 sidewalk panels damaged by the storm. A Public Works department survey found that around 600 feet of curb were also damaged by the tornado and needed to be replaced. Most of the sidewalk and curb damage was caused by uprooted trees.

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board first had to remove tree stumps and roots before city crews could repair the broken sidewalks.

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St. Paul property tax burden shifts west

Posted at 5:26 PM on October 14, 2011 by Curtis Gilbert (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, St. Paul

If you own a typical home in the western third of St. Paul, it looks like your property taxes are headed up. But typical homeowners in Frogtown, Downtown or neighborhoods east of there can expect a property tax break next year.

Those calculations come from Ramsey County, and they're based on the proposed levies for the city, the county and the St. Paul School District. The levies could be reduced when budgets are finalized later this year, but for now, all three taxing authorities are proposing increases.

This map shows what would happen to the median home in each of St. Paul's 17 neighborhoods, with the largest increase expected in Merriam Park/Lex-Ham (up 9.5 percent) and the biggest drop expected in Payne/Phalen (down 6.1 percent).

Neighborhood boundaries courtesy of Zillow.com. Data from Ramsey County.

The city's lower-income neighborhoods will shoulder a smaller percentage of the tax burden, because they've seen a much steeper decline in value than homes in more affluent neighborhoods.

Lower value homes throughout St. Paul will also see their tax bills decline because of a change in the way the state gives tax relief to homeowners. But that program will lead to increases in taxes on commercial and rental property in the city. The average apartment building in St. Paul could see a 16 percent tax increase next year because of the new system.

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Wilder Foundation launches caregiver campaign

Posted at 5:25 PM on October 12, 2011 by Jessica Mador (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

By 2030, twenty percent of Minnesota's population will be over the age of 65. In Minnesota, more than 90 percent of all care for elders is provided by family members and close friends.

But the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation reports that more than 80 percent of family members who actively care for a loved one don't self-identify as a "caregiver." This may prevent them from accessing helpful resources. Wilder notes:

Many caregivers suffer from high levels of stress, which can impact their immune system for up to three years after their caregiving ends, thus increasing their chances of developing a chronic illness themselves. More than 40 percent of caregivers have clinically significant symptoms of depression. And women caregivers are more than twice as likely to live in poverty, and caregiving families have median incomes 15 percent lower than non-caregiving families.

To help this population, the Wilder Foundation is launching an awareness campaign. The new "Capacity to Care" campaign is a series of public service advertisements and a website that provides valuable resources and information for people who help care for older adults.

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Judith Martin told us what really happened

Posted at 2:55 PM on October 5, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Environment, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

The late Judith Martin, a University of Minnesota geography and urban studies professor, was one of our "go to" people when we needed help understanding Twin Cities development.

Here she is in 1998, explaining to former MPR reporter William Wilcoxen how riverfront development happened the way it did in the Twin Cities:

"If you look at a place like Minneapolis where, y'know, the first people that came here looked at those falls, and nobody said, "Parkland!" - everybody said, "Opportunity to make money!" That's what you do there. You park your flour mills and sawmills along the riverfront, and nobody thinks twice about it because it's obvious, in the context of 19th-century thinking, that this is how you build a city."

Martin, as the picture above illustrates, was a riverfront partisan, an advocate for helping people rediscover the river's many attractions beyond being a place to park mills.

Judith Martin, 63, wasn't just a favorite with Minnesota Public Radio reporters. She was respected by academic peers and students.

An excerpt from the obituary prepared by Martin's family explains why:

"Among the many classes she taught was a survey course on the geography of the Twin Cities, which hundreds of students took each year--many learning to their chagrin that understanding the cities and their region was far more complex than they expected. Martin's brusque but cheery style inspired many to get out into the city and see what they could learn from close observation of the city and the people in it. One of her favorite exercises was to assign students to ride an unfamiliar bus route and describe the ridership patterns, landscape, and social relations that they observed."

Her family says Judith Martin, a native of Chicago, died this week from complications due to a recurrence of breast cancer.

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Lead-based paint still poisoning Twin Cities kids

Posted at 5:30 PM on September 27, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Melisa Illies, a lead hazard reduction worker for Hennepin county is pointing to a north Minneapolis home window from about the 1940's that is likely painted with a lead based paint and will soon be replaced.

The homeowner heard about the lead paint hazard at a community event, applied for and won a grant of about $5,500. The money will go to replace all the windows in her home.

Her two-year-old daughter has an elevated blood lead level.

The grant may be new, but worries over lead paint poisoning have been around for decades here.

St. Paul native Howard Mielke, now a Louisiana-based scientist, was a pioneer in bringing the hazard to public attention.

He'd likely be interested to know that even after all these years and the millions spent to reduce the hazard, Hennepin county officials estimate there are still a thousand kids in Hennepin county with elevated lead levels in their blood.

The heavy metal harms neurological development in children.

Until 1978 when it was banned, lead was commonly used in house paint as a pigment and to make it tougher, more opaque and washable.

Windows with aging, peeling, flaking lead-based paint are a common source of poisoning as kids playing with or near the windows get the powdery residue from the paint on their fingers that go into their mouths.

The $7 million federal grant will go to lead abatement window replacement in hundreds of homes, many of the them in Minneapolis.

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Our home is our (foreclosed, lower value) castle

Posted at 8:15 PM on September 23, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, Race, St. Paul , Suburbs

New Census (officially dubbed American Community Survey) numbers show overall Minnesota home ownership rates remain among the highest in the country, nearly 75%.

But because of the recession - people losing their jobs, foreclosures - the rate is declining and is especially sharp for minorities.

The details paint a troubling picture.

Most of the revelatory details come from Minnesota Housing officials who track the home ownership picture.

The bad news: Home values are down. Lots of homeowners are underwater with mortgages that are bigger than the value of their homes. Add to that persistent unemployment which is causing more homeowners to fall into foreclosure.

The good news: Home values are down. Borrowing rates are low and likely to remain at record lows for some time.

Minnesota Housing commissioner Mary Tingerthall boils all the numbers down to one for people thinking of buying a home.

Given everything that's happened, the average monthly payment for an average value house purchased now including principle, interest, taxes will be $900 a month less than the average monthly payment five years ago.

The worst of times. The best of times. Depending on your situation.

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It's only (our) money

Posted at 3:32 PM on September 14, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability

Love those triple A ratings.

Hate the ratings agencies.

That's not a totally unfair characterization of the attitude held by many toward Fitch, Moody's and Standard and Poor's.

Win a high rating, as the Metropolitan Council did today, from any of them and you get a better deal on borrowing money.

The Met Council is trumpeting its highest, and nearly highest, rankings from Moody's and S and P.

S and P, for example, likes the Twin Cities' economic "stability" and the Met Council's strong financial position.

The reason for the love/hate relationship some have is that these ratings agencies are some of the same folks who rated what we now know were exceedingly toxic home mortgage products as perfectly safe and secure for investors.

That was before the Great Recession and the mortgage meltdown.

Let bygones be bygones, all is forgiven. After all, someone has to take on the messy job of poking around in national, state and local financial laundry to uncover stains that can mean risk.

Take the budget impasse that led to the Minnesota government shutdown this summer. Fitch was not amused and downgraded the state's bond rating.

Take the federal government debt limit brouhaha and continuing budget stalemate. It didn't put smiles on the faces of the ratings bosses at S and P who downgraded U. S. debt.

Taxpayers will be paying the higher cost of borrowing money.

To end this doleful blog entry on bond ratings and borrowing, it's always fun to quote the "candy is dandy, liquor is quicker" thinker, Ogden Nash, who is reputed to have said, "Some debts are fun when you are acquiring them, but none are fun when you set about retiring them."

Although my favorite debt quote, if just a tad off the main point, is, "Another way to solve the traffic problems of this country is to pass a law that only paid-for cars be allowed to use the highways."

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Better late than never for foreclosed Twin Cities folks?

Posted at 6:15 PM on September 7, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

What a difference from two months ago.

That's when we reported what appeared to be a truly anemic federal response to going after the bad actors at the top in the mortgage meltdown.

State regulators and prosecutors and some local officials have been going after mortgage originators, title companies and others involved in fraudulent mortgages. And they've had some success.

But the fraud we've seen in Minnesota is a small part of the picture, compared to the risky mortgage-backed securities deals that consumed the industry at the beginning of the recession.

In the last 10 days the U. S. attorney general has launched a fusilade of lawsuits aimed at the big banks and another set at individuals.

Enough to keep armies of attorneys tied up in legal warfare for years.

Seems a safe assumption that any lawsuit settlements will come too late for the more than 100,000 Minnesotans foreclosed on since 2007.

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Where did Twin Cities sprawl go?

Posted at 3:45 PM on August 30, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

Don't panic.

There's still plenty to go around.

However, some fun new numbers from Metropolitan Council research manager Libby Starling show the rate appears to be slowing.

"The most recent land-use data, interpreted from aerial photography conducted in spring 2010, show the region added 23,000 developed acres from 2005 to 2010, which compares in geographic size to the City of Plymouth."

Having more fun with numbers, Starling points to this:

"This is an average rate of 4,500 acres per year, compared to an average rate of 7,500 acres per year during the first half of the decade, 2000-2005. During the 1990s, the region added developed land at an average rate of 9,200 acres per year."

So, we're still sprawled out but probably the recession and slower population growth have slowed the rate.

And finally, a bit of fuel for your next happy hour or dinner party conversation:

"The seven-county geographic area is 1.9 million acres--1.78 million acres of land and 125,000 acres of open water. Thirty percent of the geographic area, or 575,000 acres, is developed as of 2010 (including residential, commercial, industrial and major highways). Twenty-two percent of the region, 411,000 acres, is devoted to residential development. Just over one million acres are agricultural and undeveloped land."

Didn't I say these numbers are fun?

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Deadline to apply for SBA loans to repair tornado damage approaching

Posted at 7:00 AM on August 29, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

People affected by the May 22nd tornado in Minneapolis have until September 6th to apply for a Small Business Administration loan to help pay for storm repairs. The loans are available for homeowners, renters and businesses. The loans have credit and income qualifications. The city suggests applying for a loan even if you're not sure you qualify because an SBA denial is required to apply for many other types of assistance.

SBA Disaster loans have rates as low as 2.6 percent interest for homeowners and renters, and 4 percent for businesses that meet credit and income qualifications. The amount the SBA will lend depends on the cost of repairing or replacing the structure and/or contents, minus any insurance settlements or grants. To apply, call the SBA's Customer Service Center at (800) 659-2955 Monday - Friday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Loan applications are available for download from www.sba.gov. Completed applications should be mailed to: U.S. Small Business Administration, Processing and Disbursement Center, 14925 Kingsport Road, Fort Worth, TX 76155. Those affected by the disaster may also apply for loans electronically from SBA's website.

More information from the city of Minneapolis:

-Private insurance: What if my insurance doesn't cover the cost of repairing tornado damage to my home or property?
You can negotiate with your insurance company about your claim. Homeowners and property owners affected by the tornado with questions about insurance claims, repair contracts, other real estate matters, or other legal issues can call Volunteer Lawyers Network at (612) 752-6677.

-Other resources: What if my insurance coverage isn't enough to make repairs and I am not eligible for an SBA Loan?
When private insurance and SBA loans do not meet tornado repair needs, other resources may be available. An SBA denial is required to access most other disaster funds. The Minnesota Housing Quick Start Disaster Recovery Program will provide assistance as a last resort to return a damaged home to its pre-disaster condition.

Property owners who need additional financial assistance for home repair can contact these organizations to learn about available loans and grants:
Center for Energy & Environment, (612) 335-5884
Housing Resource Center - North, (612) 588-3033
Neighborhood Housing Services, (612) 521-3581

If your property did not receive substantial damage but you still need help, you may be eligible for assistance from volunteers through these organizations:
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity, (612) 788-8169
Rebuilding Together, (651) 776-4273

The Northside Community Response Team Hotline is available to help people with questions on housing and legal issues, dealing with landlords, support for businesses and more at

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Annual StandDown for veterans this week

Posted at 4:29 PM on August 1, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Crime, Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Veterans

An annual event designed to help homeless and at-risk military veterans happens this week at Fort Snelling. The Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans' StandDown offers free assistance with VA and other benefits, psychological counseling, legal assistance, and help with housing, employment, and chemical dependency. Veterans can meet one-on-one with attorneys who specialize in child support, social security, consumer law, tickets, DMV, federal and state tax assistance and other issues. Free meals, clothing and haircuts will also be available. And there's a free shuttle from the Fort Snelling Light Rail Station.

WHEN: Tuesday, Aug. 2 and Wednesday, Aug. 3 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Welcome Ceremony will take place Aug. 2 at 11 a.m.
WHERE: Scout Base Camp, 201 Bloomington Road, Fort Snelling, Minn.

The Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans estimates that about one percent of Minnesota veterans - that's nearly 4,100 veterans -- will experience homelessness this year. Last year's StandDown drew about 700 veterans.

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Minneapolis electrical union donates to north Minneapolis

Posted at 11:58 AM on July 11, 2011 by Jessica Mador (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 292 is giving away $20,000 in free electrical service and repairs to homeowners affected by the the May 22 tornado. The union says certified and licensed IBEW professionals will restore power and make repairs for homeowners who received storm damage, but have little or no insurance coverage. That's up to $1,000 in free electrical service for a maximum of 20 homes. To qualify, homes must be located in the north Minneapolis tornado zone, be owner-occupied and have limited coverage from any type of insurance for the electrical damage.

Qualified homeowners should contact Betsy Hunter at the Minneapolis AFL-CIO Community Services Office at 612-379-8130, extension 112. Or call 311.

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KRS-One to headline concert for tornado victims

Posted at 4:05 PM on July 6, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis

The Facebook guy apparently knows how to put on a good show.

Peter Kerre, the Harlem-based man who set up a virtual one-stop shop for resources following the north Minneapolis tornado, is hosting a benefit concert July 19 at First Avenue.

Kerre is known to hip-hop fans as promoter and turntablist DJ Xpect. His website says he used to DJ for the Minneapolis radio station KMOJ.

Rapper KRS-One is headlining the concert, which Kerre promises will be the first of many shows to raise money for relief efforts on the north side. Other acts include Detroit-based Slum Village and Toki Wright.

Tickets went on sale at noon today.

(Photo by MPR's Nikki Tundel)

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Still waiting for a tornado fix

Posted at 10:32 AM on June 29, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Earlier this week we broadcast a story on Maurice Dixon, a north Minneapolis renter who complained that his landlord was not fixing his tornado-damaged duplex.

The building suffered roof damage and water was leaking into Dixon's bedroom. And, more than a month after the storm, a broken window was still not fixed. Dixon showed me the crumbling board he applied as a temporary patch, but it kept falling over every time the wind blew on it.

I called Dixon back to see if any progress was being made. He told me the company that owns the building, St. Paul-based Aims Realty, sent a guy out to fix the window and repair the plumbing. Dixon said his bathtub had recently started filling up with brown, smelly water. He said the repairman came by to take a look and then told Dixon he'd come back to start work later in the day. But the repairman has yet to come back to start work.

Stay tuned.

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A flurry of Twin Cities mortgage fraud prosecutions

Posted at 2:28 PM on June 22, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul

The enforcers are turning up the heat on mortgage foreclosure scammers.

The latest is the announcement by the feds, the state and Hennepin County charging four people.

Minnesota Department of Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman is flanked by Barry McLaughlin, on the left, a HUD special investigative agent, and Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman on the right.

They laid out for reporters Tuesday their allegations that a Hudson, Wisconsin couple and a couple of Twin Cities guys went to some unusual lengths to steal mortgage money.

The charge is that the four made a batch of bogus documents including college transcripts, employment records, even a divorce decree signed by an honest-to-goodness Twin Cities judge whose John Hancock, the investigators allege, was forged.

There's much more.

The four allegedly recruited people to pose as buyers of 65 foreclosed Twin Cities homes, then the alleged scammers used the fake documents to win federally-insured FHA mortgages.

And walked away with cash from mortgages totaling $10 million.

They face racketeering charges because they conspired with each other.

That's a heavy wrap if convicted - up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine per person.

That's not all.

The Commerce Department will chase the four in civil action to revoke their various licenses to ever do business again in Minnesota, and will also seek some money.

Authorities say this is the latest wrinkle in the frantic mess caused by the financial crisis, the mortgage meltdown, the foreclosure crisis - you choose the term.

This comes on the heals of a batch of other developments.

Two fraudsters were convicted last week of racketeering in a big Hennepin County mortgage fraud scheme involving 133 homes and about $20 million in losses to lenders (Yes, I know, the idea of banks losing money doesn't generate a lot of sympathy given their profits. Just bear in mind, those losses likely end up somehow costing bank stockholders...who are very likely people including you and me whose retirement or pension fund portfolios include bank stocks).

This week at the federal level, the enforcers who went after J.P. Morgan Chase and RBS for misstating the risk of investments based on mortgages had a partial victory. J.P. Morgan Chase threw in the towel for its part, and is coughing up more than $150 million to settle.

The Cities readers no doubt have much more financial savvy than yours truly and realize that while $150 million sounds like a lot, it is literally a single digit percent of that company's net worth.

Ok, this has gone on way too long.

The point, and I do have one, is there's still lots of action out there among enforcers to try to bring a measure of justice to those who may have accrued ill-gotten gains from the financial crisis.

Sadly, to some, the enforcers are not at the moment snaring many big fish at the national level on criminal charges. Mostly fines.

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Tickets still available for north Minneapolis tornado relief benefit

Posted at 2:15 PM on June 10, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Organizers have sold just several hundred tickets so far for this Sunday's tornado relief benefit concert, "Northside: A Twin Cities Community Benefit." They say they're hoping last-minute ticket sales will help them fill the State Theatre in Minneapolis, a venue that seats about 2,000 people.

The show's lineup features prominent Twin Cities recording artists and emcees, and aims to raise at least $100,000 for people who lost homes or businesses in the May 22 tornado.

Organizer Martin Keller says all talent, space and staffing for the event was donated. He says many people who have not personally seen the storm's aftermath up close may not realize the scale of the devastation residents of north Minneapolis are facing.

The need is great. I don't think people really understand the extent of the damage and the impact on a community that generally can't afford to suffer this kind of natural disaster. We've got hip-hop we've got R&B, we've got gospel choirs, we've got rock bands like Soul Asylum, Billy McLaughlin, who is well-known, a now legendary musician here. It is going to blow people away and we have some new faces as well.

The lineup also includes Brother Ali, The new Standards, Prudence Johnson, Paris and Jamecia Bennett, The Peterson Family, Toki Wright, TC Jammers and many more. All proceeds will go to the Hennepin Theater, which plans to distribute the funds to local north Minneapolis groups to pay for an emergency fund, food and neighborhood rebuilding.

The concert starts at 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 12 at Hennepin Theatre Trust's State Theatre. Ticket info can be found here.

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What is HUD doing in Brooklyn Center?

Posted at 3:29 PM on June 9, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Suburbs

They're trying to sell this building.

The 122-unit Shingle Creek Towers is in foreclosure.

The owners stopped making payments on the HUD-backed mortgage, so the federal agency headed by Shaun Donovan is unloading the property.

Is that the same Shaun Donovan who was the crusading New York City housing commissioner before President Obama tapped him for the cabinet job?

Yes, it is.

Well, then, why is the federal agency headed by Donovan off loading HUD-foreclosed properties to problem property owners?

That's the question being asked by Jack Cann, the attorney for the St. Paul-based Housing Preservation Project, who is suing HUD.

Cann is upset that HUD is considering a bid by Emmanuel Ku, described by New York City housing activists as a notorious problem property owner.

The numbers tell the story. Ku has been sued more than 20 times by NYC for life-threatening (heat and water) code violations, and cited for thousands of other minor to major code problems. He currently owes $98,000 for emergency fixes to his buildings performed by the city.

Ku's record inspired then-Gotham housing watchdog Donovan and other officials to successfully ban him in the state of New York from buying any more HUD-foreclosed properties. These are the buildings, like Shingle Creek Towers in Brooklyn Center, that are affordable housing. Rents are subsidized and the tenants are poor people of all ages, but with a preponderance of older folks with health problems living on a fixed income.

HUD officials aren't talking about the deal except to say a decision is pending.

Meantime, Ku confirms he's also bidding on a foreclosed affordable housing property in Granite Falls, the 40-unit HUD-subsidized Riverview apartment building.

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A new home for the families of injured veterans to be dedicated

Posted at 5:20 PM on June 3, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, Veterans

The Minneapolis VA Medical Center will officially open Fisher House II, a new 20-room facility designed to be a "home away from home" for families of veterans receiving care at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. Each family gets a private room and access to a shared kitchen and living area.

Here's a story I did on the project.

The dedication ceremony will be Thursday, June 9th at 10 a.m. at east 54th Avenue and Minnehaha, across from the VA.

Speakers will include Robert Petzel, VA Undersecretary of Health; Tom McDonough, Chair of the Bryan McDonough Military Heroes Foundation; Steve Kleinglass, Director of the Minneapolis VA Health Care System; Janet Murphy, Director of the VA Midwest Health Care Network; and Ken Fisher, Chairman of the Fisher House Foundation, Inc. Also attending will be about 400 veterans, families, and VA staff.

Parking near the Fisher House is limited. There will be reserved parking in Lot 11 on the Minneapolis VA Medical Center grounds. Look for signage on East 54th Avenue.

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Minneapolis damage map shows tornado's path

Posted at 3:15 PM on May 26, 2011 by Madeleine Baran (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis

A map released by the city of Minneapolis today offers a striking look at the damage caused by Sunday's tornado and severe weather. Click here for the full map.

The tornado's path is shown with a thick diagonal line across north Minneapolis. Here's a quick guide to what the different map colors means.

Red is for major damage. The city says these buildings sustained serious structural damage that requires extensive repairs. Officials have placarded many of these buildings, meaning they cannot be occupied.

Yellow is for minor damage. The city says these buildings were damaged and may have some structural damage, but none of these buildings have been placarded.
Minor - these buildings were damaged and may have some structural damage. None of these addresses have been placarded.

Pink is for affected buildings. The city says these buildings sustained minimal damage.

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Free legal clinic for veterans coming to Minneapolis VA Medical Center

Posted at 1:49 PM on May 26, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Crime, Housing, Veterans

Veterans of any war who need legal assistance or advice are invited to a free clinic at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center. The event is part of a series of similar clinics organized by the Minnesota Justice Foundation in partnership with
Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans.

Veterans can speak with attorneys, law students, veterans service officers, child support officers, and VA Mental Health Homeless Program intake folks and get help with questions, legal forms, and counsel in the areas of child support, family, employment and Social Security law.

Tuesday, June 14 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

VA Medical Center

Flag Atrium Balcony Room 2B 114 (ask information desk for directions)

1 Veterans Drive, Minneapolis

FREE Parking at the VA Medical Center

For more information, contact Nathaniel Saltz at MACV: 612-726-1327 or nsaltz@mac-v.org.

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A disaster on top of a crisis

Posted at 11:45 AM on May 26, 2011 by Brandt Williams (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, Race, Transportation

Yesterday, I walked with a group of volunteers who were going door-to-door on Knox Ave. N, talking to residents who may need assistance. The women spoke with people who were either going to repair, rebuild or move. During an off-the-mic chat, one of the volunteers told me she was in a similar predicament -- except she was being forced out of her north Minneapolis home because of a foreclosure. Her foreclosure story is one of the thousands across the city, especially on the city's north side.

It is a reminder that the tornado is a disaster on top of a crisis.

One of the other things I was struck by this week as I walked around the storm-ravaged areas of the north side was the block by block distribution of destruction. Knox Ave. from Lowry down to 27th is a mess. Since I used to live on the 2600 block of Knox, I had to pay my old neighborhood a visit to see how it fared. The block and my old house were relatively untouched by the storm.

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Zillow: The good, the bad, and the ugly

Posted at 4:10 PM on May 10, 2011 by MPR News Staff (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul

By MPR's Bill Catlin

Zillow.com reports that nearly half of Twin Cities homeowners are under water on their mortgages. In other words, they owe more on their house than their home is worth. The first quarter ratio of 46.2 percent was quite a bit worse than the national average of 28.4 percent of homes being under water.

Zillow has been reporting how many homes are under water, or have "negative equity" for a year or more.

Earlier this year Zillow reported that in the final three months of last year 42.3 percent of single-family homes in the Twin Cities had negative equity. Again, that was much worse than the national average of 27 percent.

But only this past March, another real estate number-crunching firm, CoreLogic, reported that for the same fourth quarter period, just 15.9 percent of Minnesota homes were under water with another 5 percent "near" having negative equity. That was better than the U.S. numbers of 23.1 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

So, given the apparently conflicting findings, what's a Minnesotan to believe?

Zillow certainly knows how to get ink. The website's latest quarterly report was the subject of front page stories in the Wall Street Journal Monday and the Star Tribune today.

But how accurate are Zillow's estimates of the market value of a home?

For the Minneapolis St. Paul Metro area Zillow gives its own system an accuracy ranking of just two out of four stars. Zillow labels two stars as "fair;" three as "good;" four stars as "best."

For all 50 states, Zillow rates its accuracy at four stars, with a median error rate of 12.3 percent.

That means half of Zillow's home value estimates are within 12.3 percent of the actual selling price. Half of Zillow's estimates are wrong by more than 12.3 percent.

Zillow's median error rate for Twin Cities homes is 15.4 percent. That means half of Zillow's market value estimates are off by more than 15.4 percent. How much money is that? Here's a gauge: the median sales price of Twin Cities homes in March was $140,000; 15.4 percent of that is $21,560.

The Twin Cities has the third highest median error rate among the top 30 metro areas. Only Detroit, Michigan at 17.2 percent and Kansas City, Missouri at 16.1 percent have a higher median error rate.

Here's another way to look at Zillow's numbers.

Zillow says its market value estimates for homes in the Twin Cities are within 10 percent of the actual sale price for only 36 percent of the sale transactions in the area. So, let's put that in perspective.

In March, the most recent month available, there were 3,154 closed sales in the Twin Cities. By its own reckoning, Zillow's estimate of the value of those homes was off by more than 10 percent in 64 percent, or 2019 of those homes.

A 10 percent error can add up to a lot of money. The median sales price of a traditional Twin Cities home (one not in foreclosure or a short sale) in March was $192,000. Ten percent of that is $19,200. That amount certainly could make the difference between being under water or not.

Now, here's the double-whammy:

Despite the depth and duration of the foreclosure crisis, the vast majority of homes are not in foreclosure or up for a short sale. At the same time, nearly two thirds of Zillow's home value estimates are off by more than 10 percent. The combination of those two facts suggests that Zillow's numbers for many homes are off by thousands and thousands of dollars.

So, when Zillow reports that 46.2 percent of Twin Cities homeowners are under water, is that a trustworthy number? Does it even stand to reason?

You decide.

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Housing for homeless Twin Cities teens on Nicollet Avenue

Posted at 12:19 PM on May 4, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

Nearly everyone knows a teenager who for whatever reason decided he or she had to get out of Dodge and head for. . . who knows where?

St. Paul-based Wilder Center in its regular homeless surveys has found more than 1,000 teens on any given night in Minnesota don't have permanent shelter.

That picture changes today for up to 42 homeless teens.

Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation opens the doors to its brand new development at 3700 Nicollet Avenue in south Minneapolis.

No, 42 units doesn't solve the homeless teen problem. But measured in human potential harnessed and money saved, it's a huge deal.

Think of it this way.

If the PCNF 3700 Nicollet project helps even one teen find his or her course to a productive and fulfilling life, the project is a win.

And in a more extreme case, if 3700 Nicollet helps even one teen stay out of jail or avoid some other calamity, well, that's tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars saved.

I consider that a win, win.

PCNF, by the way, is emerging as a significant player in the Twin Cities affordable housing market. They opened the doors not too long ago on their south Minneapolis Creek Commons project.

Then, later this year, they will likely break ground in cooperation with CommonBond Communities on 42 units of affordable housing in Minneapolis' Minnehaha neighborhood.

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Yes, Twin Cities renters, you are paying a lot

Posted at 3:50 PM on May 3, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

The bad news comes from the Minnesota Housing Partnership. Every year, the partnership and the National Low Income Housing Coalition release a renting affordability report.

Minnesota's dubious distinction is that we are the least affordable rental state in the Midwest.

How big a deal is that?

The U.S. Census and Department of Housing and Urban Development statistics show about a fourth of Minnesota's households - nearly 540,000 - are rental households.

Those renters, the numbers show, need to earn more than $15 an hour to afford a modest two bedroom apartment and utilities which can range from $800 to $900 a month.

The numbers show Minnesota's typical renter earns just over $11 an hour.

The result is a troublingly high number of state residents - about a fifth - pay half or more of their income for shelter.

Doesn't leave much for food, medical care, transportation or anything else.

So, yes, Twin Cities rent is high and rising in a very tight market with a vacancy rate hovering around three percent.

But save a measure of sympathy for our outstate cousins. Their rents are rising faster in relation to income.

The Minnesota Housing Partnership points out, "The Minnesota counties with the highest increase in rents since 2000 are outside of the Twin Cities Metro, particularly in southwest Minnesota. Rents in Martin, Faribault, Cottonwood, Pipestone, Murray, Rock, Watonwan and Jackson Counties have increased by 56% or more since 2000, compared to 32% statewide since 2000."

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More foreclosure fighting muscle for Minnesota?

Posted at 10:24 AM on April 28, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Housing

Days turn to weeks, then into months and even years of waiting, as people facing foreclosure try to work with their lenders for some sort of loan modification that will help them stay in their home.

Fannie Mae flew into Gopherland yesterday to say they'll apply their muscle to the process.

Minneapolis launches rehab loan program

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 25, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

The city is urging residents of neighborhoods hit hard by foreclosure to apply for loans of up to $20,000 at zero-percent interest through its new Rehab Support pilot program, which provides $750,000 in financing to homeowners and buyers to complete improvements and potentially increase their home's market value. Homeowners and buyers can apply for the program starting today. According to the city:

"Funding the City received from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency will be matched dollar for dollar by the homeowner from any other source they choose; around 50 loans are available."

The program is available to qualified homeowners and buyers in neighborhoods where 10 percent of the housing stock is in foreclosure. Eligible neighborhoods are: Shingle Creek, Lind-Bohanon, Webber-Camden, Cleveland, Folwell, McKinley, Jordan, Hawthorne, Willard-Hay, Harrison and Near North on the city's northside and Central and Bryant neighborhoods on the southside. From the city's press release:

Eligible Improvements:

• Outstanding code orders and health and safety hazards
• Floor covering or refinishing
• Kitchen remodeling
• Bathroom remodeling
• New siding
• New or expanded garage, not to exceed 24 ft. x 24 ft.
• Permanent functional landscaping
• Replacement of doors and windows
• Insulation and weather stripping
• Addition to home
• Central air conditioning
• Finishing an unfinished basement or attic
• Replacing a furnace
• Repair or replacement of a deck or patio

Loan Guidelines:

Purchasers must have an income of less than 115% of the area median income ($96,600) and the property must be the owner's or purchaser's primary place of residence.

A maximum loan of $20,000 at zero-percent interest.

For every dollar put into the project by the homeowner or purchaser, the City will match with one dollar of funding.

Improvements must be made to a single family dwelling or a duplex within an eligible neighborhood.

New construction properties are not eligible.

The loan is repaid when the buyer sells, ceases to occupy the home, or in 30 years, whichever comes first.

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How bad is the Twin Cities housing market?

Posted at 12:00 PM on April 12, 2011 by Jennifer Ehrlich (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul

Are you out there buying or selling a house? The Twin Cities housing market must look very different depending on your perspective.

As an economic indicator, last month's housing numbers for the Twin Cities are pretty bleak. Minnesota Public Radio's Annie Baxter is reporting that foreclosures made up 43 percent of sales in March. Those properties often sell at fire-sale prices, which drove down the median Twin Cities sales price by 12 percent to $143,000, compared to the same period the previous year.

The number of signed purchase agreements in March dropped nearly 18 percent from the prior year.

Realtors say they're getting a lot of interest in homes under $100,000 that are getting resold or rented out.

Buyers or sellers...Do these numbers reflect the reality of what you're seeing in the Twin Cities?

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2010 census shows big changes in the Twin Cities metro

Posted at 6:00 AM on April 9, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Education, Housing, Immigration, Livability, Race, Suburbs

Census Bureau data confirm what many researchers already knew: some second and third ring suburbs made big gains between 2000 and 2010, while some older and first-ring suburbs saw declines. And the state as a whole got more racially diverse.

Here's my story about it.

One big winner in the suburbs was Shakopee, which added more than 16,500 new residents. The schools there are brimming with new children and the local hospital continues to expand to keep pace with demand.

Officials at St. Francis Regional Medical Center say since 1996, in-patient admissions are up 125 percent, and surgeries are up more than 90 percent. Births doubled from 600 to 1,200, emergency admissions went from 10,000 to 30,000 and urgent care visits went from 1,200 to 9,000 -- a 550 percent increase. The hospital has also doubled its staff and added additional language translators.

Check out these stats from the Met Council on the last decade's demographic shifts.

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Households may lose rental assistance

Posted at 6:50 PM on March 24, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

At least 300 Minnesota households won't get state rental assistance under current budget proposals. Minnesota Housing Thursday announced a freeze on new admissions to some rental assistance programs as a reaction to anticipated budget cuts. House and Senate proposals are at least $2 million below Governor Mark Dayton's recommendation for the program.

The programs help people who have been homeless for months move into stable housing. Participants typically pay 30 percent of their income towards rent. Rental vouchers make up the difference. The program last year assisted more than 2,100 households in 53 counties across the state.

Executive Director of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless Liz Kuoppala says she'll be telling lawmakers that the rental assistance programs keep people from using more expensive emergency services.

If they are trying to get to a place where we are saving money, instead of cycling people through shelters and then through detox and police and all of the things that happen when we force people to live on the streets. We have documented that we save money when we are able to stably house people and that is what this program does.

The freeze on new rental assistance applications takes effect April 1st.

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Johnny Northside wants to enlist Courtney Love in free speech fight

Posted at 6:10 PM on March 17, 2011 by Laura Yuen (3 Comments)
Filed under: Courts, Housing, Minneapolis

Johnny Northside is hoping to get some Love in his First Amendment fight.

Blogger John Hoff says he'll try to enlist rocker Courtney Love in his appeal against last week's jury decision ordering him to pay up $60,000 in a defamation suit against him.

Love ran into her own free-speech troubles after ranting on Twitter against a clothing designer, who sued Love for defamation. The same week Hoff's case went to trial, news broke that Love was settling out of court for $430,000.

Hoff apparently sees a kindred spirit in the Hole frontwoman, and plans to ask Love to help support his defense fund.

"She found it more expedient to settle," Hoff tells me today. "If she threw some money our way, we'll fight the battle for free speech."

I ran into the boisterous blogger at Hennepin County Government Center while digging around for some unrelated court documents. Turns out Hoff was doing his own digging, searching for more evidence to bolster his claims against former Jordan neighborhood leader Jerry Moore. Moore sued Hoff after the blogger accused him of being involved in a major mortgage-fraud case in an online posting.

While Moore was never charged, the jury believed Hoff's statement against Moore was true. But the jury still decided he should pay damages to Moore, who was fired from his job after the blog item ran.

Hoff says it's not like he has $60,000 lying around.

"You can't get blood out of a turnip," he says.

The jury's decision, Hoff says, has energized a half-dozen organizations that are lining up to write amicus briefs out of concerns about free speech.

The attention is coming from coast to coast, Hoff says. A California attorney is weighing the possibility of becoming a co-counsel in his case.

"The more, the merrier," he says.

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Haiti to Frogtown, Twin Cities builders lend a hand

Posted at 7:30 PM on March 8, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, St. Paul

It's wheels up Wednesday for a group of volunteers on their way to Haiti to help build a home for families affected by the earthquake.

This is the third trip for the group affiliated with the Builders Association of the Twin Cities, BATC, working with World Wide Village, a Twin Cities non-profit.

Parade of Homes visitors to the Dream Homes event sponsored by BATC are helping underwrite the home building with their admission fee.

The Builders Outreach Foundation is kicking in some help. It may lead to as many as five homes over the course of time.

These are some of the same folks who've been doing the same kind of work here in the Twin Cities, mostly in the Frogtown neighborhood of St. Paul since 1994.

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Gazing into the Central Corridor crystal ball

Posted at 5:07 PM on March 4, 2011 by Dan Olson (1 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, Race, St. Paul , Transportation

ISAIAH, the interfaith advocacy group, and a coalition of nearly two dozen community organizations, have been analyzing what life is like along Central Corridor, aka University and Washington Avenues in St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Their results help paint a picture of what life may be like when the light rail line is running.

Their findings raise interesting questions: 86 percent of the enterprises along the corridor are small businesses, collectively employing more than 4,000 people. Do those businesses have the resilience to survive light rail construction and the loss of 1,000 on- street parking spaces?

Their study finds that the educational attainment of people living on and near Central Corridor is slightly less than the rest of the Twin Cities, that the diversity rate is higher, that a fourth of the residents don't have a personal vehicle. How will the rail line affect their education, job and earnings prospects?

One of the most interesting findings is that gentrification of the area has already begun, it started a decade ago. Housing costs are on the rise, and in fact, the study finds that some of the poorer residents are paying as much as half their income or more for shelter.

Among the recommendations: Government should make plans now for preserving and creating affordable housing, rezoning of property should be done with utmost care to preserve housing and business opportunities for the people living there.

All of the findings will be on the table at a community meeting Saturday morning, March 5, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at Lutheran Church of the Redeemer on Dale street North in St. Paul.

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The big picture of Minnesota's foreclosure crisis

Posted at 11:40 AM on March 4, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing

The metro-centric Twin Cities media have a tendency (although not so much here at MPR) to ignore the effects of the foreclosure crisis around the rest of the state.

A new foreclosure report from Minnesota Housing describes the impact, and the maps contained in the document below demonstrate how the crisis has spread out from the urban core.

The report finds that the overall pace of foreclosures continues nearly unabated, and will stretch out at least another year.

The exceptions are north Minneapolis and east St. Paul. The epidemic ravaged those areas early, and is now taking a toll in the outer ring suburbs and across the state.

The report comes as events at the national level hold out some hope for modest reparations. The negotiaters for all 50 states' attorneys general are reportedly close to agreement with the big lenders involved in the robo-document signing scandal.

There may be up to $20 billion available for some form of remediation if a settlement is reached. But it's too little, too late for millions of homeowners foreclosed on.

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Not the Oscars, but the (Met Council) winners are....

Posted at 5:04 PM on March 2, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs, Transportation

The Dayton administration's list of appointees to the Metropolitan Council is out, and their collective resumes are replete with other public sector service, including transportation, housing and natural resources.

Roxanne Smith from Champlin, Gary Van Eyll from Carver County, Gary Cunningham from Hennepin County, and Steven Chavez from Eagan all have experience with housing issues.

Jon Commers and Richard Kramer from St. Paul, Jim Brimeyer from St. Louis Park and Harry Melander from Mahtomedi have experience with urban planning issues.

Jennifer Munt from Minnetonka, Steve Elkins from Bloomington, Edward Reynoso from Ham Lake, Adam Duininck from Minneapolis and John Doan from Blaine know about transportation issues.

Sandra Rummel, a former state Senator from White Bear Lake, and Wendy Wulff from Lakeville, the lone Met Council holdover from the Pawlenty administration, know about environment and resource issues.

Lona Schreiber from Brooklyn Park is a former state lawmaker who follows issues related to the region's older residents.

Dayton appointed five women and eleven men. Make that six women when you add his earlier appointment of Susan Haigh as Met Council chair.

The Met Council is the Twin Cities' 40 year old regional governance agency that manages waste water treatment, transit, parks and planning.

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Obama plan to shrink the government's role in housing fuels debate

Posted at 7:00 AM on February 28, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing

Members of Minnesota's congressional delegation and housing advocates are reacting to proposals by the Obama administration to scale back the government's role in the housing market. The Obama administration is calling for major reforms to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which together own or guarantee about half of all mortgages in the U.S. The reforms aim to shift more of the risk of losses- like those we've seen during the housing crisis - to the private sector.

Minneapolis Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison says he supports making changes to Fannie and Freddie. But he says it's important that homeownership remains an option for well-qualified buyers.

"The right thing to do is to put some things in place to make sure that Fannie and Freddie have to only accept well-underwritten loans where there is evidence and proof that the people can repay those mortgages."

Some House Republicans - including Congresswoman Michele Bachmann - would like to see the government get out of the housing business.

The list of ideas for how to reform the government's role in housing includes requirements for bigger down payments on home loans, and more support for affordable single family and rental housing.

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Transitions for two controversial Twin Cities developers

Posted at 7:00 AM on February 23, 2011 by Dan Olson (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul

The recent death of Robert Boisclair recalls the arrival in Minneapolis of deep-pocketed investors from Japan.

Boisclair's wooing in the 1970's of a Japanese bank and construction company led to Lake Point on Lake Calhoun. The 20 story condo raised a ruckus with neighborhood residents but became a luxury destination and an enormous source of property tax revenue.

Two other Boisclair ventures, Riverplace, the so-called festive retailing project along Mainstreet across the Mississippi river from downtown Minneapolis and the Galtier high rise development in Lowertown St. Paul, were bold and big and apparently ahead of their time.

St. Paul developer Jerry Trooien had hoped to make such a mark with the $1.5 billion Las Vegas-style The Bridges of St. Paul, but the riverside development never got out of the starting gate. He's currently awaiting word along with the rest of us as to why the Feds raided his St. Paul offices last week looking for evidence of fraud as one FBI spokesman put it.

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Minneapolis lists problem landlords online

Posted at 7:00 AM on February 17, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Crime, Housing, Livability, Minneapolis

The city of Minneapolis has launched a new website aimed at protecting residents from irresponsible landlords.

The new site posts the names of owners who've had properties condemned or demolished, or had their rental licenses revoked. The site is part of an ongoing campaign of stepped up enforcement aimed at cracking down on problem landlords.

Henry Reimer from the city of Minneapolis says poorly maintained rentals affect the livability of the entire community. He says they hurt property values.

Properties that are not well-maintained - that tends to set a standard that drags down the rest of the neighborhood in terms of maintenance.

Since 2005 the city revoked about 200 rental licenses - that's compared to just 11 revocations in the five years prior. City officials say the number of violations for irresponsible landlords skyrocketed during the housing crisis of the last decade. They say there has also been an increase in the number of single family rental conversions.

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More Minnesota roofs cave to snow

Posted at 12:55 PM on February 4, 2011 by Laura Yuen (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Suburbs

Roofing contractors in Minnesota say they've noticed an uptick in roofs collapsing this winter because of the record amounts of snow -- and we're not just talking about the Metrodome.

Investigators and Apple Valley say it's too early to say what caused a church's two-year-old roof over its gymnasium to cave early Friday. Earlier this week, a hardware store's roof in Glenwood gave way to snow.

James Kirby of with the National Roofing Contractors Association says many of the cases he's heard about this winter nationally can be explained by simple physics.

"I don't think there's too much question about the coincidence of really heavy snow and roof collapses," he said.

Even light and fluffy snow can build up, especially along corners and parapets, Kirby said, and continuous snowfalls makes the situation even worse.

"If you get one bad snow a year, and a foot of snow up on your roof, that's one thing," he said. "If you get these one-foot snows a week apart -- three, four, five times, -- then you get to the point where you're potentially overloading the capacity of the roof. We're just not used to these heavy snowfalls, and so many of them."

In Apple Valley, investigators say the church staff noticed cracks in the drywall and ceiling a week ago, and closed the gym. A general contractor was supposed to examine the building today, but it was too late.

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U of M exhibit looks at making old age more livable

Posted at 11:12 AM on February 2, 2011 by Jessica Mador (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Livability, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

The first wave of the nation's 70 million baby boomers hit age 65 this year. With this generation predicted to live longer - and live longer at home - planners are looking at ways to make homes and communities more senior-friendly.

Glenn Ruffenach wrote about this trend for the The Wall Street Journal's September 19, 2009 Personal Finance blog.

The University of Minnesota's Goldstein Museum of Design has built what they're calling a Smart House, where visitors can experience what the home of the future might look like. The house belongs to fictional senior couple Jim and Sarah, who renovated their traditional home with stuff designed to make life a little more accessible as they age - like special showers and kitchens. Where do you want to spend your old age?

Smart House, Livable Community, Your Future

The exhibit runs Feb. 5 to May 22. Opening Reception Feb. 4, 6-8 p.m.

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Everything you wanted to know about ice dams

Posted at 7:51 AM on February 1, 2011 by Jennifer Ehrlich (0 Comments)
Filed under: Housing, Minneapolis, St. Paul , Suburbs

It's been a particularly bad winter for roof ice dams in the metro area. Homeowners seeking do-it-yourself solutions tend to receive suggestions about getting up on a ladder to apply salt to the roof or rake off snow, followed by dire warnings about the dangers of climbing ladders. Even the University of Minnesota's ice dam information page contains repair advice alongside warnings about taking action.

MPR's Midmorning is devoting its 10 a.m. hour to winter home repair, featuring experts who will try to provide some guidance on how to handle ice dams. Listen live or check it out later online.

Have you found any ice dam advice useful?

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