A Year of the HRA
In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
This is the time of year when things tend to slow down and give all of us a chance to look around and take stock. As I think about this past year, I’m especially proud of the work we’ve done on the Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA), which I had the opportunity to chair. Here are a few highlights from 2024:
Investing in affordable housing - Making it possible for more people to live in St. Paul is one of the HRA’s primary goals. This past year, we invested millions of dollars to create new affordable housing, encourage first-time homebuyers, and help people stay in their homes. We celebrated the opening of 731 new units of affordable housing, and closed on financing for 293 additional units that will open in 2025. We supported new homebuyers with $1.6 million in down payment assistance, and helped low-income homeowners with $760K in critical repair needs through our Homeowner Rehab Program.
Adding gentle density - Over the last few years, the City Council has adopted policies to make it easier to add gentle density to our neighborhoods by allowing accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and larger unit sizes (up to 5 or 6 units in most neighborhoods). But simply allowing something to happen isn’t the same as facilitating it. For example, despite the fact that ADUs have been allowed citywide since 2018, we’ve seen very few constructed. There are a number of barriers - cost and complexity foremost among them - and we need to address them if we want to see more of this kind of housing. This year, the HRA took a step in that direction by creating an ADU Toolkit. The toolkit demystifies the process for creating an ADU, clarifying the steps necessary for people who want to construct one. Coming next: pre-approved blueprints for ADUs that will make it even easier for aspiring builders to get started.
Revitalizing commercial corridors - From West to East 7th, Grand Avenue to Rice Street, Cesar Chavez to Snelling, our commercial corridors are what make our neighborhoods great. Traditionally, we’ve supported corridors by making grants or loans to individual businesses along them, but this year we wanted to do something to build the capacity of organizations that serve broader commercial areas. These business associations know what their neighborhoods need, but they often lack the capital to help. In response, the HRA created a new Commercial Corridors Fund that will launch in early 2025. The Fund will support business associations, District Councils and other business support groups with funds for event planning, marketing and promotions, streetscape improvements like flower baskets or signs, and more. We’re excited to take this step forward to support economic vitality citywide.
Education and transparency - With four new HRA members this year, we wanted to spend time at each of our meetings getting members up to speed on how the HRA works. Beyond just educating ourselves, we also wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to share information with the public about what the HRA does and what tools it uses to spur new housing and economic development. To that end, we created a year-long series of presentations on a wide range of topics, from specific development sites (The Heights, Central Station, Highland Bridge, etc) to financing tools like TIF, conduit revenue bonds, and low-income housing tax credits to HRA programs, such as the Downpayment Assistance Fund, Homeowner Rehab Fund, Housing Trust Fund and more. Not only did these presentations generate productive conversations at the table, but I hope they’ll serve as a great public resource for those interested in learning more about our work. You can see all the 2024 presentations here: https://stpaul.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx
None of this would have been possible without your advocacy, your input and your commitment to building a more expansive, inclusive community. Thank you for your partnership and have a safe, restful and joyous holiday season.
December 2024