The Reality
But while some people don’t like some of the administration’s policies, they can’t deny some of the successes the city has had in creating affordable housing. For example, the Phillips Partnership project is a source of great pride for the mayor and the city. The partnership is an example of corporate, community and public assistance working together, says Cramer of the Minneapolis Community Development Agency.
“In order to create affordable housing, everyone needs to be at the table,” says Jim Scheibel, executive director of Project for Pride in Living, the nonprofit community development corporation for the Phillips project.
The project is divided into two phases – Portland Place and the Joseph Selvaggio Initiative. Portland Place is a mix of 46 single-family homes and townhomes that were sold at market rate, although six of the homes are Habitat for Humanity projects. The Joseph Selvaggio Initia-tive, comprised of 30 affordable rental units, is under development and scheduled to be completed by the fall.
The project has helped to stabilize the Phillips neighborhood by providing funds for current owners to make improvements, says Scheibel. “The mayor committed to the neighborhood and to the residents, believing that [people who] work should be able to find housing in the heart of the city.”
At the time the city made the commitment to build and rehab housing in the Phillips neighborhood, many residents were underemployed or unemployed, says the mayor. So, the city made an additional commitment with its corporate partners – Abbott Northwestern Hospital and Honeywell – to provide job training and access to jobs.
Training programs were established on the campus of Abbott Northwestern Hospital, and many of the neighborhood’s residents found jobs at the hospital. The hospital made a commitment to pay living wages and benefits while mentoring the people to support them on their journey toward self-sufficiency. More than 150 people from the Phillips neighborhood have participated in the program.
“We all came together – the public sector, the private sector, the banks, the mortgage financiers – and what we’re creating is a solid, stable neighborhood where everybody’s going to thrive,” says the mayor.
Twenty-five percent of the people who moved into the new housing were from the suburbs, and provided a more mixed and stabilized environment, she says. The mayor considered this a remarkable accomplishment because in the neighborhood was previously known as a high crime area. According to the mayor, in the past the majority of the homicides in the city took place in that neighborhood.
The mayor attributes the success of this project to the quality of housing and its amenities, including open space and access to public transportation. She also believes that because creating job training and other opportunities made the residents economically self-sufficient, an overflow of good neighbors has resulted. That has prompted residents in the surrounding neighborhoods to upgrade their homes. “This is how you build community,” she says. “And it’s a wonderful example of how you can bring the public and the private sector together to get something done.”
Another mixed-income project that the mayor hopes will be equally successful is the Near North Redevelopment Project, a $200 million redevelopment of a public housing project on the city’s Near North side.
The project will create 900 units, of which 100 units will be dedicated to affordable senior housing and 400 units will be affordable housing.