Local Affordable Housing Program Initiatives

Many communities are creating local affordable housing programs to address the high cost of housing. Through its Housing Assistance Services (HAS), AHC works with local governments to support these innovative efforts designed to reduce housing costs. Often these programs use a market-based strategy to create mixed-use communities by incorporating affordable housing units into market-rate developments. Specific policies and programs vary from city to city and may have different names, such as Inclusionary Zoning, Mixed-Income Housing, or Moderate-Income Housing.

Local programs apply their own specific restrictive covenants and regulatory agreements to reflect local priorities. Typically, property owners agree to both rent and income limits that must be met to stay in compliance. AHC supports and monitors local affordable housing programs and compliance needs in various communities, including the following:

The City of Edina
The City of Golden Valley
Hennepin County
The City of Minneapolis
Ramsey County
The City of Red Wing

Reach out to AHC with questions about these programs, and about how your community could benefit from implementing a local affordable housing program.

Minneapolis Inclusionary Zoning

Guided by the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan, inclusionary zoning aims to create mixed income communities by requiring affordable units within new housing developments throughout the Period of Affordability (POA).

Edina Affordable Housing Program

Properties developed using financing from the City of Edina are subject to specific rules designed to ensure that affordability pledges made by owners and developers remain available to very low and low income tenants (30% to 60% of Area Median Income) throughout the required Period of Affordability (the POA).

ACCESS CITY FORMS & GUIDES

New to local affordable housing programs?

Your goal is to rent a specific number of units at an affordable price to “moderately low-income,” “low-income,” or “very low-income” households. To accomplish this, you need to know the rent limit that determines affordable rent and the income limit that defines a low and very low-income household. Next, you want to ensure that the household has signed the required documentation and that you have appropriately verified and documented income and assets. In addition, you are required to report the status of your property to AHC on an annual basis.

AHC is here to educate and guide you through this process! Our monitoring efforts are meant to assist property managers and owners by providing insight into performance and recommendations for program implementation improvement.