“Since 2008, homes have lost 20 percent or more of their value in many places, which put many hard-working families upside-down on their brand-new mortgages,” Hanson said. “For every borrower that spent beyond their means, there are probably a hundred more who were victims of economic circumstances beyond their control.”

According to Hanson, it was predatory lending to naïve borrowers that truly tipped the scales. Economic recession and high unemployment meant many families couldn’t refinance or sell, which forced their homes into foreclosure. IQ

At least 9,200 people are homeless in Minnesota each night, according the 2006 Wilder Research homeless count. About one-third of them live in greater Minnesota. Minnesota is the only state in the nation that routinely collects information about rural homelessness. In rural communities, homeless people are less likely to be in shelters or sleeping Let’s Renovate the Conventional Wisdom… outdoors, and more likely to be in temporary arrangements with family or friends, in a church or abandoned building, or living in a car.

“People have this image of the worst-looking house and think it’s some sort of substandard, subsidized housing,” says Rosemary Dolata, project manager for Aeon, a nonprofit developer of high-quality affordable housing with 1,760 units in the Twin Cities. She urges people to dismiss the images of poorly designed affordable housing built in the 1950s and 60s.

Maxfield Research, a private real estate research firm, studied home sales in neighborhoods in 11 Twin Cities suburbs and found that prices of homes located near affordable housing maintained the same or higher values in 98 percent of the cases. These Minnesota results are consistent with a series of studies conducted nationwide over the last 20 years.

A 2006 study by Wilder Research showed that 28 percent of all homeless adults were employed, and 12 percent were working full-time. Of homeless parents, 33 percent were working. Sixty-one percent of employed homeless adults say they could afford to pay $500 a month in rent, but a one- or two-bedroom apartment was still out of reach.

For those not working, the most frequent barrier to employment was lack of transportation. A quarter of rural homeless and a third of urban homeless report that they could not keep their last housing because they lost their job or had their hours cut.

“Individuals who buy a home through our homeownership program often stay seven or eight years, similar to other homeowners who buy their first homes without our financing,” Hanson said.

Ripley Gardens, a mixed housing development in Minneapolis, had a 2009 turnover rate of 35 percent in its 52 rental and 8 home ownership units. “There are people who moved in the day we opened and are there today,” Dolata said. A U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development study showed an annual turnover rate of less than 10 percent on some affordable rental projects.

Affordable housing residents invest in their neighborhood and community just as much as other residents and sometimes more, added Janne Flisrand, coordinator of Minnesota Green Communities.