Russ Stewart, one of my favorite politicians, has done it again: he has taken a potentially explosive issue and has evaluated it in the light of good policy. I am talking about the Housing 1000’s (a loosely defined group of non-profit housing developers) request to build one-thousand new units of housing in seven years, using $3M from the Community Investment Trust Fund (commonly known as street improvement funds or casino money). When I approached Russ to let him know the Chamber officially supports using the money for Housing 1000 efforts – namely gap funding to build houses for low income people – he simply pulled out a section of MN statute, 469.001, to demonstrate that the State of Minnesota has already empowered the Duluth Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) to provide for those who need housing. You could say Russ is one dedicated policy wonk.

Further, Russ pointed out the fact that the HRAs in Minnesota are empowered to provide a sufficient supply of adequate, safe, and sanitary dwellings to protect the health, safety, morals, and welfare of all citizens of the state. The statute also allows HRAs to clear and redevelop blighted lands, operate within the context of comprehensive plans, to remedy the shortage of housing for low and moderate income residents, and to redevelop blighted areas in situations in which private enterprise would not act without government participation or subsidies, and so forth. Moreover, HRAs can levy taxation to raise funds to do all these things. Seemingly, we should have been trying to do what Housing 1000 is working to accomplish all along.

The policy rub for the Chamber is that we have already endorsed using $3M from the Community Invest Trust Fund for Housing 1000. Further, we think private developers will not work to build affordable housing - private developers cannot build houses for which they cannot make a profit. Clearly, the Chamber can justify the need to use these funds to build affordable housing.

Regardless of Chamber support, Mr. Stewart has a point. When using public dollars, we need to do things right. Before the city council moves ahead and simply approves the Housing 1000 request, we need to have a vigorous public debate.

In the end, the Chamber still supports the need for affordable housing.