Agenda - Council - 06/28/2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Allocation of Affordable Housing Need (the Need) Under the Metropolitan Land Planning Act, local comprehensive plans must include: "...a housing implementation program, including official controls to implement the housing element of the land use plan, which will provide sufficient existing and new housing to meet the local uni1'oshare 0fthe metropolitan area need for low and moderate income h0uoing." The Need attempts to provide the most ohiective, accurate prediction possible of the number of new low- and moderate -income households that will need affordable housing without considering the cost of, resources available for, orbarriers to building that housing. Looking ahead, the Council forecasts that between 2020 and 2030, our region will add 37,400 low- and moderate -income households that will need new affordable housing." (For more information on the calculations, see Appendix B.) The Need measures future affordability demand and does not incorporate existing unmet demand for affordable housing. It is determined every 10 years as a precursor to the decennial comprehensive plan updates. Over the last three years, resources distributed through the Consolidated Request for Proposals have supported the seven -county development of: * 2012: 703new multifamily rental affordable housing units *2013: 422new multifamily rental affordable housing units * 2014: 1,182 new multifamily rental affordable housing units (including units funded with the Housing Infrastructure Bonds that Minnesota Housing received in 2014) Multifamily rental units funded through the Consolidated Request for Proposals are generally affordable t0households earning 50Y60fAW1|with some units reserved for households earning 30% ofAW1|. While not all new affordable rental units in the region receive funding through the Consolidated Request for Proposals, these numbers provide some sense of scale —fewer than 2.500 new affordable rental units over three years. Looking at projects selected to receive funding in 2014, overall per -unit total development costs varied from $110,000 for single -room occupancy facilities such as the proposed Catholic Charities Higher Ground St. Paul to $259,000 for family townhomes such as the proposed Morgan Square Townhomes in Lakeville. Excluding single -room occupancy facilities and recognizing the range of proforrnau.theaverageuuboidy--inc|uding tax credit equity and public grants —is $185,000 per affordable unit. This suggests that meeting the 2021-2030need for housing units affordable t0households earning 50Y60fAW1|and below would require over $5 billion in subsidy over the decade or over $500 million a year, far more than the available resources. As currently deployed, existing state and federal funding sources are inadequate to subsidize the regionwide need for additional housing for low- and moderate households. While local governments can and do support affordable housing development through Three: Council Policies and Roles toExpand Viable Housing Options