Mayor Frey announces multi-jurisdictional public housing push for Minneapolis, Surrounding Region

Mayors Jacob Frey | City of Minneapolis

By Minneapolis Review reports

Mar 10, 2023

Today, Mayor Jacob Frey convened top housing leaders that will work to address the affordable housing deficit in Minneapolis and surrounding region. The Public Housing Preservation and Expansion Convening will be comprised of private partners and local, regional, state, and federal officials focused on finding new strategies to preserve and expand public and deeply affordable housing.

“Our residents need and deserve permanent, safe, and stable affordable housing,” said Mayor Frey. “Beyond the record number of deeply affordable units the City is producing, we need to focus our attention and energy on the preservation and expansion of our public housing stock. The best way to tackle this head on is to bring elected officials, community leaders, and housing experts together. I look forward to partnering with colleagues from across the region to come up with innovative and sustainable strategies for the future of our public housing.”

“Maintaining public housing is a critical part of the affordable housing matrix,” said City Council President Andrea Jenkins. “I look forward to partnering with other policy makers, foundation leaders, and housing partners on bringing solutions that will change the trajectory of our available, deeply affordable housing stock.”

Since taking office, Mayor Frey has remained committed to expanding affordable housing in Minneapolis, with a focus on public and deeply affordable housing. In 2022, the City of Minneapolis closed on a historic 919 affordable rental housing units, nearly three times the total number of closings between 2011-2018. Of these 919 units, 264 are deeply affordable – meaning they are for households with incomes at or below 30% Area Median Income (AMI). That is nearly 6 and a half times more than the number of 30% AMI units closed compared to the previous seven years.

Even with this record-setting affordable housing production, there is still an affordable public housing deficit in Minneapolis. The Convening will meet this need through collaboration and partnership to find ways to meet public and deeply affordable housing needs in a sustainable way. This important work requires local, regional, state, and federal partners to identify and align the resources necessary to create and preserve the housing our current and future residents need.

The goal of this Convening is to coalesce around key focus areas, develop new and better aligned strategies that leverage existing and unlock new resources, and turn them into recommended action plans.

“I commend Mayor Frey for convening this cross-jurisdictional group of leaders to help MPHA both preserve and produce public and deeply affordable housing in Minneapolis,” said Minneapolis Public Housing Authority Executive Director/CEO, Abdi Warsame. “Solving our region’s affordability crisis in all its facets is going to take an all-of-the-above approach, and it is going to take the bold action of elected leaders at every level of government. Whether its championing $3.7 million in the City of Minneapolis’ 2023 budget for capital needs in the agency’s deeply affordable family housing portfolio or the $5.8 million in city funding to support the agency building 84 new units of deeply affordable housing, Mayor Frey is making those bold investments. I look forward to continuing to build on this powerful partnership to change the face of public and deeply affordable housing in Minneapolis for a generation.”

Jurisdictions and organizations invited to participate include: