A commitment to affordability

There’s a new affordable housing development on the block. 

Hennepin County is proud to partner with CommonBond Communities to support Whittier Community Housing. This project will update and improve a storied 45-unit affordable apartment building and add 40 affordable units with a new building on the property.

Across the 85 total units, 100% of the project will be reserved for very low-income households (50% of the area median income and below), with 44 of those units set aside for extremely low-income households (30% of the area median income and below).

Eight units will be dedicated to households exiting homelessness and will be filled by the county’s Coordinated Entry System, which equitably prioritizes and refers households most in need of housing.

Whittier Community Housing is located in a walkable and connected neighborhood. The development is two miles from downtown and close to major bus lines, retail, job opportunities, and community services.

“There are so many wonderful things about this project,” said Katie Anthony, Principal Project Manager at CommonBond Communities. “The opportunity to both reinvest in and upgrade an existing building to create new, additional housing units is really exciting. All the units have project-based rental assistance, which means that households pay 30% of their income towards rent and are protected from paying a higher percentage, which can be particularly destabilizing to low-income households. And CommonBond’s resident services are available to all households, with a focus on helping individuals and families maintain stable housing.”

The original building was designed and operated as a school. The development team combined reuse of the old school with new construction on vacant land on the site, expanding its footprint to support more residents. This innovative approach makes good use of underutilized parts of the property, cut capital costs, and breathed new life into the lot and neighborhood.

Hennepin County committed $3 million in Affordable Housing Development Accelerator funding to help bring this project to reality. Affordable housing developments typically take several years to assemble the necessary funding before they begin construction. Hennepin’s Accelerator fund was designed to move affordable housing projects quickly from design to construction to doors opening by providing more funding for projects that meet multiple county priorities.

Whittier Community Housing was a perfect fit. Hennepin County’s funding will reduce the project’s monthly mortgage in order to ensure its long-term affordability.

“This project achieves so many of the priorities we look for in a development,” says Julia Welle Ayres, Housing Development and Finance Director with Hennepin County. “It holds the door open for families who can’t afford market rents, which is our focus and where we believe we can have the greatest impact. It provides high quality housing in a thriving neighborhood. And it makes space for people exiting homelessness, which is key to breaking the cycles of homelessness and creating more capacity in our homeless response system. Whittier Community Housing really is the whole package.”