Unitarian
Universalist
Affordable
Housing
Partnership

Present: Bob Aderhold, Barb Weatherhead, Kay Dawson, Jo Haberman, Nan Corliss, Connie Metcalf and guest Lee Blons

Connie volunteered to be secretary.

Lee Blons from the Plymouth Church Neighborhood Foundation spoke about the organization.
It was created by Plymouth Church for the purpose of creating homes for those in need. The Foundation wants to add other groups. They are sponsoring "A Night on the Street" next spring. It will be "An interfaith opportunity for youth groups: To learn about homelessness by spending the night on the street; To make a difference by raising funds for affordable housing for homeless and low-income people; To create public awareness of the affordable housing crisis.

They created a nonprofit org and collaborated with Habitat. Their projects have been Clinton Ave (4 aptmts) at a cost of $160,000, a 16-unit aptmts, the Lydia aptmts for disabled (40 units at a cost of $6.5 M) and the Lofts on Arts Ave (36 units at a cost of $6.9M). The Foundation has created 81 new housing units and has a number of projects under development. Their cost so far is $137 M.

Why work together? There is a need but the participants must be willing to take a risk and to make the commitment. The Foundation has two new projects - the Hawthorne Ave. aptmts, 35 small efficiency with rents $3-400. This is a $1.6 M project. And the AnpaWaste supportive housing program for homeless teen moms. This is a collaboration with the Greater Mpls Council of Churches.

For the Night on the Street the Foundation would like to include 30 other churches.

Kay Dawson gave the treasurer's report. The fiscal year is May - April. The cash contributions for the year are $13,127.50. The fund balance from 4/30/03 was $6,684.28; so the total cash on hand is $19,811.78.

Discussion on whether there should be duplicate checks for tax purposes. Bill Scattergood will make cc. of checks.

Unity Church decided not to rehab the aptmt building. Mary Mills-Wilson will be at next UUAHP meeting to explain the reasoning.

Paul Halvorson, convener and founder of Third Way Network, came in to explain the organization.
Third Way is a non-profit org established to identify property for converting to affordable housing. It owns no property and it uses no government money including Section 8. It serves a 15-county urban area wherein there is a shortage of 10-20,000 units. The housing comes from owners who can't take care of the property and are therefore willing to have it renovated and rented to low-income renters.

The Unity project was a cooperation with the River of Life Christian Church and the House of Hope. He raised $25,000, a low-interest loan for it.

TWN is currently working with three local groups in Edina, Richfield and Minneapolis with plans to expand more groups. Each group adopts a local neighborhood and makes a two-year commitment to complete four to eight projects. TWN has a staff of seven.

After Mr. Halvorson's presentation and departure a discussion followed comparing UUAHP's role with the Plymouth Foundation and TWN. Both would involve fund raising. We would lose our identity with the Plymouth project. It was agreed that we should think about the Night Out. Bob suggested that one person become knowledgeable about each.

Nan suggested we need a new project. She also noted that Habitat needs more people. We need to promote "FUS for Habitat" [ ed. note UUs for Habitat].

YIMBY's coming up. We need to talk about that.

Nan talked about Night on the Street in Wayzata. [It sounded like a highly successful event, the details of which I've forgotten and Nan is out of town!]

The Alliance for Metropolitan Stability is asking UUAHP for $2,000 to "support our work around balanced affordable housing policies and innovative approaches to regional growth and redevelopment practices." A letter from Russ Adams, executive director of AMS was provided to the group. No action was taken.

Submitted by Connie Metcalf
Temporary secretary