Years of planning went into selecting Virginia, Minnesota, as the location for a supportive housing project to serve homeless young people.

One petition almost tore apart the project— and the community.

Dana Hiltunen, housing services director for the Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency’s (AEOA) proposed Youth Foyer, said a collaboration of area service agencies had long identified the need. The Range Mental Health Center served between 40-100 homeless youth per year in northern St. Louis County – unaccompanied youth and young adults who sleep on the streets, in cars, or in other substandard housing.

By early 2006, the group received predevelopment funding and approval for their two-story 15-unit building from the Virginia City Council. All went smoothly until the council moved the project from one city-owned site to another—without notifying neighboring residents.

“From the beginning, we wanted neighborhood involvement,” said Hiltunen. At a public meeting “we had handouts for people with information on what the Foyer was, what it would look like, and who we would serve.”

The neighbors voiced several concerns. “They were worried about having younger people in the neighborhood all in one apartment building. Twenty-four-seven oversight was another huge issue.”

Hiltunen said her agency worked to address neighborhood concerns while still meeting the needs of their clientele. They agreed to provide 24-hour on-site supervision and collaborated on house rules. But some residents just didn’t want the project on that site.

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“'Anywhere but here' and there was nothing we could do about that.”
- Dana Hiltunen, Arrowhead Economic Opportunity Agency

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The project became an issue in the 2006 city council election. As AEOA was requesting a zoning change, a neighborhood petition was presented to the council asking that the property be rezoned as parkland. In response, the council rescinded AEOA’s option agreement.

AEOA’s board decided to fight.

“It was a difficult decision to sue the community that you live and work in, but we had to fight for our clients. We felt we had a legally binding agreement, and we had over $1 million in low-income housing tax credits on the table.”

Eventually, the two sides agreed to mediation and, fortunately, the funding institutions were able to accommodate the project delays. “It took many years to get through all of this and it was tough on a lot of us,” said Hiltunen. “Once it’s built and we’re serving people and things are going well, that’s going to show people that it’s really a great project. ”

	Jodi Nelson, MICAH Executive Director: "The stereotypes that we run into often are that these are lazy people, usually minorities, who aren't working and will just be hanging around."

Organizations like Metropolitan Interfaith Council on Affordable Housing (MICAH) work to mitigate such resistance, commonly referred to as the “not in my backyard,” or NIMBY reaction. MICAH, a group of faith congregations throughout a seven-county metropolitan region, conducts outreach and education on what affordable housing is, who needs it and why.

“The stereotypes that we run into often are that these are lazy people, usually minorities, who aren’t working and will just be hanging around,” said Jodi Nelson, MICAH executive director. “People immediately picture the worst of the worst housing projects in America.” Like the AEOA project, permanent supportive housing projects for homeless families and individuals often get the strongest NIMBY reactions.

But the image persists, despite the fact that today’s affordable housing is, in reality, workforce housing for auto mechanics and health care aides, restaurant workers and retail clerks, construction and manufacturing workers, single parents and young professionals just starting their careers. The Bureau of Labor Statistics refers to them as, “essential workers … the unskilled and semi-skilled workers employed in all sectors of our economy.”

According to Randy Olson, the Initiative Foundation’s vice president for economic opportunity, the ideal economic environment for all communities, large and small, includes an affordable housing mix. “Hourly wage and parttime jobs are necessary in the economic spectrum,” he said. “If a community has affordable housing, it means that these employees can live where they work and support that community.”

Affordable housing projects are also scrutinized much more strenuously than marketrate developments. They must meet the requirements of funding agencies and thoroughly screen every tenant to ensure they meet income guidelines.

“Putting together any affordable housing deal today requires the participation of several entities that fund that type of housing—and they are all very careful about where they put their money and what kind of development is going to result,” said Jack Cann, senior staff attorney with the Housing Preservation Project.

Even so, he added, “We run into a NIMBY reaction virtually every time an

	Jack Cann, Housing Preservation Project: "We run into a NIMBY reaction virtually every time an affordable housing project is proposed.  In most cases, the city council does the right thing."

affordable housing project is proposed. In most cases, the city council does the right thing.”

But sometimes it doesn’t. In 2006, John Duffy, president of Duffy Development Company, proposed an affordable rental development in Forest Lake, Minn. An experienced developer, Duffy chose a site that was already zoned multi-family. He proposed a townhouse project that would not require rent subsidies but, instead, would be designed and built to rent at about 30 percent of the area’s median family income.

After receiving approval from city officials and awarded project funding, the November 2006 election changed the make-up of the city council—which then voted to change the zoning code to disallow townhomes.

“It seemed that they had specifically adjusted their code so that what we had proposed couldn’t go on that particular site,” said Duffy, “so we changed our proposal from townhomes to an apartment building.We didn’t ask for anything from the city, but we had to go before the city council because of the number of units.”

The council delayed, then voted the project down 3-2. Duffy sued.

“That’s the only time I’ve ever sued a city, but their actions violated so many things,” he added. “They had no legal basis to turn it down.”

In the end, Duffy’s original townhouse project received council approval. For more than two years now, the development has provided homes to families with average annual incomes of $36,000. Seventy percent of them work right in Forest Lake.

“Part of Duffy’s settlement was that the city would appoint a citizens’ task force to make recommendations about affordable housing,” said Cann. “The result of the controversy was that Forest Lake now has the best comprehensive plan in the metro area in terms of provisions for affordable housing.”

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No one suggests that residents should sit quietly if they have reservations about a proposed project. Citizens should be active and involved and know what is happening in their communities.

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There are times, however, when public questions and opinions lead to better affordable housing projects. When the City of Cloquet chose to sell a portion of a downtown parking lot to the Human Development Center (HDC) for apartments and an outreach center that would serve homeless people, Robert Nelson and other business people sued to preserve it.

“None of us were against the housing,” said Nelson, who owns Nelson Funeral Care in Cloquet. “It was just that the city was going to give them one-third of the parking lot for a dollar, and I need the parking lot.”

After they lost twice in court, city officials decided to demolish an adjacent blighted house and dedicate that property to the Outreach Center Apartments. Kim Matteen, foundation director for HDC, said the apartments and drop-in center opened in 2004 and Nelson is a supportive neighbor.

Nelson said the compromise produced a better location for the center. “That’s where it should have been all along.”

“We’re all protective of our investments and our families, as well we should be,” Olson added. “Not every development is right for every neighborhood, but we urge people to gather all the facts before they show up at the city council meeting with torches and pitchforks. Everyone deserves an affordable place to live.” IQ