Duluth – With the state expected to pass a hefty bonding bill in the coming legislative session, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan came to town to see what's worked in the past.
As affordable housing grows more scarce in Duluth and other cities across the state, Flanagan and representatives from Minnesota Housing visited the city Thursday to check out public and private developments that have received money from the state in recent years.
And at both stops on her quick trip north, the residents she met expressed similar feelings: gratitude and an urgency for more funding to assist others in need of affordable housing.
At Lutheran Social Service's Center for Changing Lives on E. Superior Street, where 20 units are for homeless youths, the lieutenant governor met Joshua Kortes and Mercedes Moore, who live at the center.
The Center for Changing Lives received $4.1 million from Minnesota Housing through state housing infrastructure bonds in 2015.
With his 4-month-old daughter bouncing in his lap, Kortes choked up describing his experience being homeless as a young teen. When he connected with the center, he said he was finally given a chance to "get my life together a little, bit by bit."
"Now I've got a family, and we've got a home," he said. "And we've got people who have got our backs."
Similarly, at Ramsey Manor — a publicly owned building that received $1.4 million in bonding money to make crucial repairs and improvements — residents took turns telling their tales of misfortune, addiction and loss that ended happily because they were able to find a safe, affordable place to live.
