Regional Housing Impact
Nonprofit developers are leading affordable production
Quality housing is fundamental to people's well-being, especially for children and the elderly.
Having enough quality housing for people at all life stages and income levels has a powerful effect on our regional competitiveness. If workers can’t find good, affordable places to live near where they work, companies simply won't build new facilities here.
Since the 1980s, CDCs and other nonprofit developers with LISC's support have led Twin Cities’ affordable housing progress. In St Paul's recent Housing 5000 Campaign, nonprofit developers built two-thirds of the units affordable to people earning less than 30% of our area's median income, and half of the units for people earning less than 50%.
CDCs and LISC are positioned to continue that leadership as our region’s population swells. The Metropolitan Council recently mandated the construction of thousands of new affordable housing units throughout the region by 2020, stirring controversies over where and how housing should be built in suburban communities.
Over the past few years, LISC has stepped up its support of suburban affordable housing development through the Suburban Partnership Seed Fund, and more recently through the Corridor Development Initiative. As suburbs wrestle with regional housing mandates, LISC will engage in new conversations with suburban communities challenged by persistent affordable housing needs, and offer suburban leaders our financing tools and technical assistance.
