MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Today, U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Housing Subcommittee, announced an additional $5 million for the Twin Cities Metro area to assist with updating local zoning laws to build more affordable housing. The award will add to the $4 million previously announced in June 2024. The funding will provide technical support to cities and towns already in the process of updating their housing plans, community development strategies and best practices around zoning policy to incentivize more housing development. The funding will allow the Met Council to fully fund staff for the project through 2030.
“We have to tackle our housing crisis at every level of government. Boosting the supply of housing is necessary to drive down costs, and that takes federal, state, local and private-sector coordination,” said Senator Smith. “Localities across the Metro have been working hard to reduce barriers to affordable housing and improve community development. This federal funding will support these efforts and further invest in the production and preservation of affordable housing in the region.”
“Neighbors for More Neighbors celebrates this newly-awarded grant to the Metropolitan Council. Minneapolis has seen the positive impact of legalizing more housing types in neighborhoods across the city. We are confident that similar reforms, encouraged by this grant and undertaken across the Twin Cities metro area, will help everyone find secure, affordable homes in the neighborhoods they choose,” said Anna Nelson, Board Chair at Neighbors for More Neighbors.
Local zoning laws dictate where housing can be built and what kind of housing is permitted. Many zoning codes prohibit cheaper, multi-family housing projects such as apartment buildings, duplexes and triplexes, which makes it harder to increase the supply of housing by limiting the kinds of housing that can be built to just single-family homes. Cities with restrictive zoning laws tend to have higher home prices, rent growth, and levels of homelessness than cities with more flexible zoning policies.
Funding was awarded through the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) program. The program was funded through the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which Senator Smith supported in Congress. Senator Smith urged appropriators to fund PRO Housing in a letter to Congressional appropriators and previously led a Housing Subcommittee hearing aimed at how to boost housing supply through innovative efforts such as zoning reform.
Many cities and towns in the region are in the process of updating their zoning codes to support increased housing options, density and greater affordability.
- Roseville upzoned its municipal code to allow duplexes in zones that were previously designated exclusively for single-family units.
- Shoreview passed the first inclusionary zoning policy in Ramsey County.
- Richfield voted to reduce the minimum lot size and to allow duplexes citywide in January 2023.
- Bloomington adopted zoning proposals which reduced minimum lot size and allowed duplexes city wide.
This funding will support other localities in the process of updating their local ordinances to better support new home construction.
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