Agenda - Council Work Session - 10/16/2007

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Anoka County - Community & Economic Development - Karen Skepper The City of Ramsey participates in the programs available at Anoka County including First Time Homebuyer Funding. The County is supportive of the City's efforts to provide housing improvement and housing affordability. The City has approximately $700,000 available funds to be used for housing & redevelopment authority purposes. Of that, $300,000 is earmarked for the ACCAP rental housing project at the request of the City. In addition, approximately $200,000 per year is available to the City of Ramsey for HRA eligible projects. The City can access these funds through a request to the County regarding the potential use of funds. The County is generally supportive of requests from local communities that participate in their levy as long as the use is an HRA eligible project. When asked how the County is dealing with the increases in housing foreclosure, Ms. Skepper mentioned that the County is currently only monitoring the numbers of foreclosed properties in the County. However, they would be open to developing strategies and programs specifically targeting foreclosed properties. She recommended that the Cities should make a request to the County and include the need for the County to address foreclosed properties in their work plans. ACCAP - Joann Wright The Anoka County Community Action Program, Inc. (ACCAP) is an independent nonprofit agency that began in 1965 under the Economic Opportunity Act. Every year, ACCAP serves thousands of residents living in Anoka County, Minnesota through a wide range of programs. ACCAP offers safe, attractive, affordable housing for rent to low income individuals and families. They also offer programs for housing renovation and home ownership. ACCAP is interested in partnering and cooperating with the City to achieve their housing goals. ACCAP is currently partnering with a private developer for the new rental project in Ramsey. ACCAP also owns and manages the Ramsey Sunwood Rental Townhomes that were funded through tax credits. The project is a mix of affordable and market rate units and has very high occupancy. Ms. Wright noted that when the rental market is tight as in Ramsey, that people tend to turn to single family homes to rent. This tends to lead to more neighborhood dissatisfaction rather than providing a healthy mix of well developed and well managed rental complexes that can provide necessary services such as maintenance and tenant screening.