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In this Issue
I am honored to serve District 7 (Robbinsdale and several Minneapolis neighborhoods) as a member of the Metropolitan Council.
It has been a busy fall at the Met Council, and I am excited to share the work we are doing around affordable housing and unsheltered homelessness issues. The Council plays several important roles with regards to housing. We establish regional housing policies and then review the housing element of local comprehensive plans to see how the local plans work within our regional framework. We fund housing developments through the Livable Communities Act program. Two housing projects from District 7 have recently received recommendations for funding through the Livable Communities grant program:
- $1.6 million for the Bloom Lake project that would help provide 42 units of affordable housing for residents living with HIV/AIDS. Supportive services would be provided onsite.
- $1 million for the Bimosedaa project, which would adapt the former Film Exchange building in the North Loop of Minneapolis to provide 48 units of supportive housing for people experiencing homelessness.
Funding authorization for the Bloom Lake Project is expected by the end of the year, and funding for the Bimosedaa project was authorized in November. I am excited to see housing projects such as this be proposed in District 7.
In addition to funding housing developments, the Council also administers the state’s largest federal Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program through the Metro Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA). There’s more information about changes that we recently approved for the Metro HRA later in this newsletter.
I have been working on unsheltered homeless issues in my capacity as a Council member and I have been attending meetings on this topic with the Minnesota Interagency Council on Homelessness. Although it can be challenging to work on this issue and I know we have more work to do, I am heartened to see so many leaders who are coming to the table to address unsheltered homelessness issues. The Met Council is helping to lead this work. We have a dedicated Homeless Action Team (HAT) working within the Metro Transit Police Department that helps people sheltering on transit access services. The Metro HRA was awarded 89 new federal housing vouchers to provide assistance to homeless transit riders.
Recently, the Metropolitan Council awarded a total of nearly $500,000 in stormwater management grants to five cities, one county, and one watershed district. The grants will support projects at redevelopment sites. Local governments submitted 15 applications requesting a total of more than $1 million.
Two transit-oriented development projects in Minneapolis earned a total of $1.4 million in Livable Communities grants from the Met Council in November. The grants support moderate- to high-density development that is more affordable and walkable, and is near transit. Learn about the developments. A rendering of one of the buildings, Bimosedaa, is to the right. |
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