There’s been a lot of discussion in Ramsey County and St. Paul lately about homelessness, affordable housing and gentrification, three related issues that the Scoop finds difficult but fascinating to dissect.
For instance, there’s a push on to find new housing for every single homeless veteran in the Twin Cities, a campaign related to a statewide master plan on homelessness.
Foundations and nonprofits that deal with housing issues continue to eye the Central Corridor, or Green Line, as the place to be to build new affordable housing, or even their own offices. Among them is Habitat for Humanity, which recently completed a new headquarters at Prior and University.
Likewise, Prior Crossing, an affordable housing apartment building for young people, has been proposed by Beacon Interfaith.
The long-vacant old Midway Chevy dealership at University and Hamline is another site that could soon be converted into an affordable housing development. First, a group of poets and artists will gather this Saturday to liven up the lot in a closing celebration for an arts project there: http://artifynow.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/midway-is-home-artify-project-closing-celebration/.
Meanwhile, University of Minnesota Law Professor Myron Orfield has been highly critical of plans to situate affordable housing along transit lines, which tend to be heavily clustered in the urban core of St. Paul and Minneapolis. More on his affordable housing report — and the alleged “re-segregation” of the Twin Cities — here. Orfield has raised similar concerns in the past, and here too.
Rather than invest public funds in large-scale urban apartment developments, which tend to be pricey, some advocates nationwide are calling for the construction of little houses, according to this report on BillMoyers.com. They’re cheap to build and go up fast.
As St. Paul studies where to situate housing for the chronic homeless, the city is looking at Higher Ground, Catholic Charities’ existing structure over in Minneapolis, as a possible model. Some East Side residents still have concerns.
With the light rail rolling in June 14, some neighborhood advocates worry that rents, housing costs and property taxes will increase, pricing out the locals. That’s a big concern among Lowertown’s artist community.
President Barack Obama is expected in Lowertown on Wednesday, and he’ll likely mention the fact that Lowertown is, by some counts, the hippest neighborhood in the country, a perfect place to live and walk to work, or ride the light rail. Hizzoner is pleased.
In fact, higher-end construction, such as the upscale new Penfield apartment building, is already emerging downtown in the shadow of the light rail, and a new Lunds supermarket is just around the corner, with an opening date projected for May 15. Check out the pictures.
(As an an aside, eager developers looking to come into downtown St. Paul and tear down a few buildings, such as the vacant Macy’s department store, can expect some pushback from history buffs who prefer to see even Soviet-style eyesores from the 1950s-to-1970s retrofitted and renovated.)
Among those housing developers who are working within the confines of the structures they’ve purchased is Jim Stolpestad, who plans to retrofit the old downtown post office tower along the Mississippi River.
It’s entirely possible that those types of higher-end developments along the Central Corridor will break up some of St. Paul’s lengthy, contiguous “RCAPS” — ‘racially concentrated areas of poverty’ — ultimately contributing to more employment and income diversity.