Local housing summit examines issues, solutions

It should come as no surprise to anyone that when it comes to finding housing, the limited availability is hardest for those with the lowest incomes.
Take this statistic, for example:
In 2013, there were nearly 9,400 homes for sale that cost $250,000 or less.
By 2021, that number had dropped to less than 1,400.
That lack of inventory, said John Patterson, means prices are going through the roof – both for renters and for potential homebuyers.
There’s a key pattern that is statewide, he said at last week’s 2022 Housing Summit, sponsored by the Steele County Housing Coalition.
A balanced rental market means a 5% vacancy rate; underproduction from 2011-2020 allowed the vacancy rate to drop to 1-2%, “and you saw large increases in rents,” said Patterson, who is the director of planning, analysis and evaluation at the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.
In home ownership, five months’ worth of inventory also indicates a balanced market; currently, there’s about one month’s worth of available houses.
And while lenders typically follow the guideline that a housing payment shouldn’t be higher than 28 to 30% of the pre-tax monthly gross income, the MHFA estimates that 572,000 Minnesota households are spending more than 30% of their income.
That includes more than 3,500 households, or 45% of all renters, in Steele County – some of which are paying up to 50% of their income.
Statistics show that “any household that spends more than 30% of its income on housing will likely have to sacrifice on daily needs, like food or medicine,” said Karina Schmitz, of the Steele County Housing Coalition.
As housing costs continue to rise, incomes do not, she said.
A 2021 State Housing Profile shows that from 2000-2017, home values in Steele County rose 5%. In that same time, owner incomes dropped 2%.
Steele County renters saw an even larger swing: Median rent increased by 13%; renter incomes were down by 18%.
The profile indicates that nearly a quarter of all households in the Southern region of the state – which includes Steele County – pay more than they can afford for housing.
That has led the local coalition to focus on increasing housing availability in three areas: supportive/transitional housing; senior housing and workforce housing.
All three would involve buying blighted or foreclosed properties and renovating them, as well as building new single- and multi-family units.
That presents problems of its own, Schmitz said.
“Keeping (property) values in the area high is what’s important, too,” she said.
And as with all progress, it requires collaboration from many sectors, including the business, faith, philanthropic and education communities, as well as government agencies. It also makes it easier to get public funding, Schmitz said.
Last week, she said, was the Point in Time Count, which is an annual count of homeless people in the area.
“Whether you see them or not,” issues such as homelessness, extreme poverty, domestic abuse and child abuse are here, Schmitz said, “and it’s what we can do best to deal with it.”
The attendees, which included people from the collaborative communities Schmitz mentioned – as well as several online participants – then broke into smaller groups, where they discussed the barriers experienced in housing, as well as solutions that could help provide more housing units.