Affordability of Housing in Minnesota
The paper checks the access to affordable housing in Minnesota and explicitly focuses on population growth that needs an increase in cheap houses. Also, there is a focus on the Accessibility of affordable housing in the region, which has been a trouble to many lower-income citizens. Due to increased insufficient affordable housing in the State, other issues have been raised, like crime increase in the area and congestion in the available spaces. Through reviewing the history behind Minnesota housing, we get the critical steps taken to reach where the State is and what solutions should be instilled to reduce the cost of living in the United States (Anderson, 2021). Societal considerations influence affordable housing, with abandonment and gentrification occurring. The paper reflects on affordable housing in Minnesota, bringing a positive change through enhanced analysis of the problem.
Introduction
Accessibility to affordable housing is one of the issues considered in the project as macro planning. The planning is checking the essential points required and touching all Minnesota citizens. Like any other state where affordable housing access has been a great topic of discussion, Minnesota has different issues in the sector where not all people are lucky enough to secure cheap houses or manage shelter places. With the increased need for affordable housing and Accessibility in Minnesota, it is essential to check the various aspects used to collect and solve the housing issue for low-income residents (Pesch, 2018).
Scope of Housing Affordability in Minnesota
Housing affordability has changed over the last two decades with the population increase. According to statistics, in the year 2000, there was low income that totaled 300,000. Then, most individuals utilized 30 percent of their money or paid to fund their housing. They used the 30 percent, making some necessities lack funding (Gentry et al., 2021).
Three years later, there was a percentage increase in the number of people who needed housing, and at that time, they were almost spending half of their salaries to maintain their housing commitments. The housing increase in funding was about 80 percent, from 6.6 % to 11.8% (Osinubi et al., 2021).
Housing Plan in Minnesota
There are various plans on how housing affordability can be effectively managed in Minnesota. These types of projects include an affirmative action plan that majors on providing an equal employment opportunity platform, a strategic plan that focuses on how Minnesota Housing reviews how to improve operational, financial, and human resources, and how to maintain an organization that has a beneficial impact over a more extended period. In addition, there is also an affordable housing plan, the Annual Housing Plan for Minnesota, used to undertake the agency’s preliminary work for the next business year and implement the housing strategic plan (Gentry et al., 2021).
The Covid pandemic has affected housing affordability in Minnesota by far. For the lowest-earning residents of Minnesota, there are several relief resources to assist those who can’t afford houses and cannot pay rent. Various strategic goals need to be achieved, such as considering indigenous and black households when seeking mortgages, making the rentals cheap and affordable—increasing the housing inclusivity, cultural competency, and diversity in Minnesota by hiring black, indigenous staff and retaining employees if black color by 75% (Osinubi et al., 2021).
Another plan is to foster co-creation with communities, as these help develop better and more concrete solutions (Zheng et al., 2021). There is another plan of diversifying funded partners and those who work in the housing department, which is achieved through the increment of shares with vendors in procurement, predominantly indigenous black, disabled, or veterans. Another way is by conducting contracts with the organizations that the community trusts. Making programs more equitable and affordable is another strategic plan.
Engagement
Engaging the community members helps a lot when it comes to creating affordable houses and cheap rents for a better society to help prevent homelessness. Engagement is a broader perspective, and steps are undertaken to engage the community members effectively. The first step is to bring community members closer to help design programs and policies. This is achieved in many ways, including proactively Engaging community members on the front end. The members, through this, are given a platform to give out helpful information on how to go about housing so that it can be affordable to all the members.
Another way is engaging those who have lived experience; this means the people who need financed housing. This involves asking friendly questions to the members, for example, the kind of neighborhood that is important to them. The other method is by establishing workgroups that come up with better solutions. These kinds of solutions target the variety of problems or challenges that people go through in their day-to-day lives in search of affordable housing. Engagement also involves having the community members score and review funding proposals and prioritizing the community members participating in community engagement when selecting housing-related developments to fund (Osinubi et al., 2021).
Conclusion
In conclusion, affordable housing is vital to reflect, like Accessibility to affordable housing in Minnesota. It is crucial to cater to low-income earners to get affordable shelters, which will assist them in catering to other basic needs. There are many aspects and factors necessary to consider when assessing the level of housing and the conditions essential to check the growth in population for people living in Minnesota.
References
Anderson, E. (2021). Long-Term Affordability for LIHTC Properties in Minnesota. https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/225044
Gentry, K., Irvine, B., & Cook-Davis, A. (2021). State-Level Legal Barriers to Adopting Affordable Housing Policies in Arizona. https://morrisoninstitute.asu.edu/sites/default/files/state-level-legal-barriers-to-adopting-affordable-housing-policies-in-arizona-nov-2021.pdf
Morin, L., & Delamater, P. L. (2021). Finding Affordability: Transit Corridor Geographies and Efforts to Preserve Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing. https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/downloads/wd376492k
Peterson, K., Milnar, M., Wolski, D., & Mezey, R. (2020). Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reductions and Housing Affordability in Minnesota: Opportunities for the Residential Sector. https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/216477
Pesch, R. (2018). Minnesota Rural Housing Study: Artists Seek Grassroots Solutions to Housing Issues, Milan, Minnesota. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08882746.2021.1940447?casa_token=mKuk1osLFXEAAAAA:18jL4NE6piILhLZrLUTAVnVAG0_T_xkBAvNfJHfDTApFSNY4FVZmNnb7PnYXAmVWph2_0qASpXgq2AX7
Osinubi, A., Skobba, K., Ziebarth, A., & Tinsley, K. (2021). Perceptions and affordable rental housing: A small-town perspective from Georgia. Housing and Society, 1-22. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08882746.2021.1940447?casa_token=mKuk1osLFXEAAAAA:18jL4NE6piILhLZrLUTAVnVAG0_T_xkBAvNfJHfDTApFSNY4FVZmNnb7PnYXAmVWph2_0qASpXgq2AX7
Pesch, R. (2018). Minnesota Rural Housing Study: Collaboration Knits Funding and Partnerships for Significant Housing Project, Grand Rapids, Minnesota. https://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/handle/11299/200411/Grand%20Rapids%20Case%20Study%20FINAL–editEP2018.08.22.pdf?sequence=1
Palm, M., Raynor, K. E., & Warren-Myers, G. (2021). Examining building age, rental housing, and price filtering for affordability in Melbourne, Australia. Urban Studies, 58(4), 809-825. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0042098020927839
Zheng, H., Marantz, N. J., Kim, J. H., & Houston, D. (2021). Accessibility, Affordability, and the Allocation of Housing Targets to California’s Local Governments. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7932w9xf
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Question
Affordability of Housing in Minnesota
Identify a geographical community or specific target population within a geographical community and identify an area of community change essential to you as a social work practitioner. Provide context and data to educate your reader about the community and the specific change effort. This should be done as a narrative that utilizes data and community context. One example is the Accessibility and affordability of food in Lexington’s East End neighborhood.
Provide a rationale for the focus—your role, why the community/area of change has been selected, etc. As you consider this macro change effort, demonstrate an understanding of cultural humility and power dynamics.
Provide a short overview of scholarly research in this area. What did you learn from your review of the literature that helps to provide context for your community and the problem/area for change? Are there evidence-based interventions that have worked in other communities? Is there an applicability/way to translate these to other communities? What theoretical perspectives drive work in this area? Summarize the scholarly literature in a short overview that helps to provide a broader context for your reader and demonstrates that you understand how to utilize the literature to inform practice.
Identify a macro intervention you’d like to create/utilize within the community, as defined by this use of the literature/evidence. Briefly discuss the following:
Engagement: Stakeholders, your role, community tensions and opportunities, political context, what you know, what you still need to know.
Assessment: What is the target for change (or the problem)? What does positive change look like? What does the community want/need? How are voices being heard? Based on your assessment, what intervention strategy can you see working to affect change in this area? Why?
Planning: Discuss your intervention strategy in depth.
Who is involved?
What assets and strengths are available to help create change?
How will change happen?
Is there a theory guiding this intervention?
What are specific goals and objectives (how will it be measured)?
Who are the key stakeholders in the change effort?
How is it sustainable?
What does a timeline look like?
What resources are needed, and where can they be accessed?
What are the potential challenges to the successful implementation?
Conclude with a persuasive paragraph/needs statement about this project that could be an “elevator pitch” for a potential funder/stakeholder.