St. Paul's $2.5 million affordable housing fund will be used to prevent foreclosures and build and renovate affordable multi-family housing, the city's Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) decided Wednesday.
The HRA, which consists of City Council members, unanimously backed a plan to allocate $750,000 each for foreclosure prevention and housing preservation, and $500,000 each for new affordable construction and the Twin Cities Community Land Bank. The land bank works to stabilize neighborhoods.
Council Members Melvin Carter and Russ Stark, who promoted the fund, said they were pleased. Stark said the plan did "a really nice job of putting resources where they're needed right now." Carter said it "helps us to put a little more skin in the game."
The HRA also requested a quarterly progress report.
The city established the fund in 2010 with money from its half-cent sales tax program.
