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c) Provide stable and long term funding <br />for Minnesota Housing and other <br />affordable housing programs, <br />including a state low-income housing <br />tax credit to help rebuild the state's <br />partnership with local governments in <br />the development of homeownership, <br />multi -family rental assistance and <br />housing renovation programs, and <br />allow flexibility for cities to achieve <br />partnerships and leverage resources <br />with private and public entities. <br />d) Substantially increase long-term <br />funding for the Economic <br />Development & Challenge Fund to <br />leverage local private and public <br />resources to develop workforce rental <br />and single family homes. <br />e) Support legislation to provide sales, <br />use, and transaction tax exemptions or <br />reductions for development and <br />production of affordable housing and <br />use state bond proceeds for land <br />banking and trusts as well as <br />rehabilitation and construction of <br />affordable housing. <br />f) Provide funding and financing tools to <br />cities to create affordable senior <br />housing for our aging population. <br />Provide funding and financing tools to <br />cities to create affordable housing and <br />prevent foreclosure for veterans. <br />g) <br />LE-10. Energy Efficiency <br />Improvement Requirements for <br />Housing <br />Issue: Rising energy costs have brought <br />attention to the poor energy efficiency of <br />many private residences, especially in older <br />housing stock. The affordability of this <br />housing could be severely impacted by <br />continued increases in home energy costs. <br />Improvements in the energy efficiency of <br />this housing stock would improve the <br />affordability of local housing options and <br />would help achieve state energy demand and <br />greenhouse gas emission reduction goals. <br />The challenge is how best to achieve that <br />result. <br />Legislative discussions have suggested that <br />minimum energy efficiency improvements <br />could be added as point of sale requirements <br />for this older housing stock, including basic <br />renovations such as improved attic <br />insulation levels, window caulking and <br />outlet sealing. <br />While the goals of such a program are <br />laudable, there are a number of concerns for <br />how this would actually be accomplished in <br />individual cities. Most cities do not, for <br />example, have point of sale inspections. <br />There will also be cases where the house <br />will be structurally unable to meet high attic <br />insulation requirements, such as with <br />manufactured housing or with older houses <br />with very little attic space. There are also <br />concerns that the cost of meeting these <br />energy requirements could result in <br />homeowners being reluctant to sell their <br />houses because of the expense of the <br />improvements that would be required to <br />meet new standards. <br />What homeowners will need to accomplish <br />these energy efficiency improvements is <br />increased exposure to educational <br />information, such as increased access to <br />energy audits and more familiarity with and <br />access to programs that finance home energy <br />efficiency projects. This program could be <br />implemented very efficiently and effectively <br />by utility companies instead of cities. <br />Electric utilities have a customer <br />relationship with homeowners, a regulatory <br />requirement to meet energy demand <br />reduction goals through conservation <br />spending, and access to technical expertise <br />that can take into account variations in <br />housing age and construction. Cities could, <br />however, play a strong role in increasing <br />League of Minnesota Cities <br />2015 City Policies Page 52 <br />