Affordable Housing 5/10 notes

[Central Corridor Community Agreements Coordinating Committee]

Affordable Housing and Equitable Development
Work Group Notes


Meeting Date: May 10, 2010 — 7:00 – 8:00 pm

Attending: Anne Jalonen, convener, Adam Vetvick, Nancy Homans, Pastor
Anita Hill, Metric Giles, Steve Ficker — Carol Swenson, District
Councils Collaborative staff support to CACC.


The group began by identifying all the organizations currently working
on affordable housing and how they are engaged — providing/building
affordable housing to policy to land banking for future development.

Nancy Homans summarized two major affordable housing initiatives so
far.
 Central Corridor Housing Policy Work Group — A group of affordable
housing experts convened by Mayor Chris Coleman to assess affordable
housing policy needs and strategies for the City of Saint Paul. The
work group was chaired by Maureen Warren and generated several
recommendations. This work was completed in June 2007.
 Central Corridor Affordable Housing Partnership (CCAHP) — A group
convened by the Community Stabilization Project and Housing
Preservation Partnership. The group consisted of wide range of
community organizations, individuals, governmental entities, and other
stakeholders to identify strategies to promote affordable housing
along Central Corridor. They have prepared a series of
recommendations with a supporting background document and have
forwarded these documents to the CACC for consideration. This work
was completed in April 2010.
Saint Paul is also engaged in programs to land bank desirable parcels
for future redevelopment that includes affordable housing. Other
corridor stakeholders through the Central Corridor Funders
Collaborative are also conducting studies, which will lead to set of
investment strategies to that consider affordable housing needs.

Carol reported on two current initiatives.
 The District Councils Collaborative, with research support through
CURA’s Neighborhood Planning for Community Revitalization program, is
preparing a survey of affordable housing policies and land use
recommendations found in city and neighborhood-scale plans. The
research project also includes interviews with St. Paul district
councils and Minneapolis neighborhoods. This is intended to be
informational report and will not include recommendations.
 Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) is just beginning a
study that will generate Affordable Housing Outcomes and Policies for
Central Corridor. This study builds on CCAHP work.

The Work Group felt that among the things that they and the CACC could
do is pull what is best from various plans and take it to the
community for further input; serve as a resource and clearinghouse for
accurate information; be a place where people can have a voice.

Next Steps
 Nancy Homans offered to compare recommendations from the Housing
Policy work Group and the CCAHP to look for gaps, overlap,
consistency, etc.
 Carol offered to share findings of DCC’s research and to contact
LISC about their study.
 The group agreed to meet on June 14.