Eden Prairie Housing Alliance

There is not enough affordable housing in Eden Prairie – 

• People who work here can’t afford to live here.
•  Developers receive government funding to make units affordable for a specific period.  Some of that housing stock is expiring, so we are losing units.
• Natural Occurring Affordable Housing (NOAH) is at risk of flipping and displacing current residents.

The need for making affordable Housing viable to residents of Eden Prairie is multifold:

1. Low income – While there is housing in place for residents within the low-income groups, the state of some of those apartments is unsatisfactory. Often, the basic minimum upkeep and care that the residents of these dwellings are entitled to is sorely lacking and the renters are taken advantage of by the property owners as well as the caretakers of these dwellings.

2. Workforce – Affordable housing is needed not just for people who are from low-income groups. Workforce housing availability allows medium income folks like firefighters, police, and teachers to live within the communities where they work and serve. Teachers and firefighters often must commute long distances to work in Eden Prairie, and we may lose out on great talent because of these longer commutes.

3. Economic Mobility – Affordability touches so many people and fluctuates for many reasons: divorce, loss of job, risk-takers, market downturns, starter income.    Because people become attached to their schools and communities, and we become attached to
them, we all benefit from keeping these people in our community.  We need options to be there for families during changing economic times.

The Need

One in five of your neighbors has to spend more on housing than recommended. In Eden Prairie, 38% of renter households — and 64% of SENIOR renter households — pay more than recommended under federal and state poverty guidelines. If more than 30% of the average paycheck for Eden Prairie’s teachers, police, medical care givers and other residents is used for housing, that leaves an insufficient amount for food, transportation, insurance, medical needs – and none for savings.

Affordable Housing is needed to strengthen our community by enabling people who work here to afford to live here. We do this by:

• Providing additional housing options when the housing stock built with incentives and government funding with a time-definite agreement to keep it affordable expires
• Preventing Natural Occurring Affordable Housing from being bought and redeveloped into more expensive housing.
  

Why It’s Important to Eden Prairie

Under state statute, the Metropolitan Council must apprise communities across the metropolitan area of their affordable housing goals, in order to distribute affordable housing units more broadly and equally across the urban area. 

 According to Council’s website, their policy is to:

“Create housing options that give people in all life stages and of all economic means viable choices for safe, stable and affordable homes.”  In addition, they state that “Housing choices allow households to find housing affordable to them in the communities where they want to live. A full range of housing types can help increase resiliency as local governments experience changing demographics and economic conditions. Housing elements are an opportunity to state a local government’s specific policy priorities around housing choice within their community.”