Washington County faces a "significant shortage" of affordable housing by 2020 without quick action to meet population projections, the County Board was told last week.
"We do have a supply problem. We are lagging behind affordable housing production," said Barbara Dacy, executive director of the county's Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA).
The county's population within seven years will top a quarter million residents and by 2030 will hit 300,000, driving a "significant demand" for affordable housing that could far exceed available living units, Dacy said. Retirees in the county will need twice as much affordable housing in 2020 as they do today, she said.
To reverse that trend, the HRA intends to invest its efforts in 2013 toward building new living units and helping the private sector produce housing projects, Dacy said.
Partnerships with cities -- which HRA board member Tom Triplett described as an "extraordinary talented use of resources" -- will move toward that goal.
The HRA in 2013 will be involved in key redevelopment projects in Newport and Mahtomedi that will result in new senior housing in both cities.
In Newport, the Red Rock Gateway Redevelopment will be built around a new transit station that will funnel commuters into St. Paul and Minneapolis. In Mahtomedi, the Piccadilly Restaurant site will become a gateway to the city's downtown, and a 79-unit senior apartment building is proposed.
"It's keeping seniors in their communities," HRA board member Kuchen Meyer said of such city projects.