Edina City Creates Housing Preservation Program

Press release from the City of Edina:

March 3, 2021

Edina, Minn., March 3, 2021 – The City of Edina has created a program to buy and preserve smaller single-family homes in the community.

“Edina residents have been calling for a preservation of the smaller, more affordable homes in the community. They have expressed concern over the teardown of the livable smaller and modest homes being replaced with larger, luxury homes,” said Affordable Housing Development Manager Stephanie Hawkinson. “Some residents have also expressed that they are thinking of selling, but do not want to sell to a developer and would rather ensure their home is occupied by a family.”

Single-family homes with an assessed value of up to $425,000 can be purchased by the City under existing programs supported by the Housing & Redevelopment Authority, including Homes Within Reach. Houses purchased for Homes Within Reach would be purchased with “developer buy-in funds” and a portion of the City’s Community Development Block Grant allocation. Developer buy-in funds are funds the City collects from housing developers who choose to give the City money for affordable housing rather than include affordable units in their project.

Hawkinson recently mailed a postcard promoting the program to residents whose homes may fit the program criteria.

“Within the first day of the postcard reaching people’s mailboxes, we scheduled three appointments to look at the houses,” Hawkinson said. “Since then, eight more interested sellers were added to the list. Other residents called who were interested in selling their homes to be preserved for another family, but we soon determined that the value was too high. Otherwise, the list would be longer. I am really pleased with the positive outpouring that will help make our single-family programs more successful.”

This press release was produced by the City of Edina. The views expressed here are the author’s own.