Chancellor Manor: Housing as if people mattered

Chancellor Manor Before and After Photos

There was a bright spot in a week filled with news about family homelessness in the Twin Cities. On Friday, Dakota County Community Development Agency, Community Housing Development Corporation and other stakeholders celebrated the award-winning makeover of once problem property Chancellor Manor in Burnsville. The property, which is the largest Project-Based Section 8 housing development in Dakota County, is home to nearly 500 residents including over 100 families with children and houses including a large immigrant population. Nearly 80% of the households have incomes at or below 30% of the area median income. 

Constructed in 1972, the development was in need of makeover on several fronts. As do most 40-year-old properties, the buildings needed new roofs, siding, and windows. The property also suffered from design problems that created security and livability problems. And, the public image of the project suffered from a history of security problems and a high volume of police calls.

In 2000, City officials put together a plan for improvements that would increase the quality of life at Chancellor Manor. The plan called for physical improvements to site lighting, landscaping, signage and elimination of some exterior garages that posed a security threat. It also included recommendations for better management and enforcement of rules related to curfews and visitor behavior. Nearly a decade later, this plan was put into action.

The redevelopment of Chancellor Manor has been more than a physical makeover. A 2009 resident survey gathered input on the types of programs in which residents would like to participate. Because of this survey, the community building now hosts a variety of programs including ESL classes, Boy Scouts, early childhood parenting classes and after school tutoring. The property also has a new owner, Community Housing Development Corporation, with a record of accomplishment of owning successful, attractive, well-managed and well-maintained affordable housing.

The redevelopment of Chancellor Manor is a model of the affordable housing design. It is a redevelopment design that considered both physical improvements and the social environment. In a post-rehab survey, one resident said, “All of the new things have just made the quality of life better. Living feels happier.”  That is what happens when you design housing with people in mind.

Minnesota Baseline Housing Measures

Guest blogger: Dan Hylton, HousingLink

Recently, the McKnight Foundation released the Minnesota Baseline Housing Measures, a three-year study of affordable housing trends in Minnesota from 2007 through 2009.  My organization, HousingLink, was privileged to have been commissioned to conduct this research that focuses primarily on work initiated and/or funded by the public and nonprofit sectors.  The goal was to present a public-facing progress report, as well as develop a framework to guide future investments towards those which can make the greatest impact.

McKnight’s evaluation of affordable housing work centers on the overall vision of “increasing family stability and linking families to greater opportunity in our communities.” To quantify progress towards that objective, seven representative measures related to affordable housing and production, socio- and  economic integration, and neighborhood stabilization were chosen, and a myriad of data sources were defined, tracked, and reported upon over the three-year period.

The report can be viewed at McKnight’s website, along with an introduction that provides a detailed explanation of the key themes that emerged from the three years of study.  Here is a summary of the key themes:

• Public  and nonprofit entities have been facing a challenge on two fronts simultaneously; not only needing to address an affordable shortage (only exacerbated during times of economic crisis), but also in the need to respond to a crisis in foreclosure that is unlike anything our nation has ever seen.  
• These entities have responded, particularly in the area of foreclosure, where there has been an unprecedented level of coordination and partnership at various levels. While foreclosures are still at historic levels, MN state and local government agencies, along with a coalition of nonprofit partners, have attracted federal investment and developed a number of initiatives ranging from a statewide network of foreclosure counselors to an interagency community land bank.
• Homelessness is on the rise and new affordable housing production cannot keep up with the challenge presented by a continuing high unemployment rate and increasing number of Minnesotans burdened by housing costs.  In addition, the share of the burden falling on non-profit and government entities during this time (what we in the affordable housing call “the gap”) has grown.  Federal investment, much of it in the form of the federal stimulus package, ramped up significantly in 2009; but that was a shorter-term solution, and the need for housing solutions to address those most in need is not going away.  
• In the midst of these overwhelming challenges to the community has been evidence of a strategic and holistic approach to affordable housing investment. In addition to trends toward the re-use and preservation of existing structures has been an increasing commitment of partners, from local to national levels, to housing investment made in the larger context of other factors that lead to sustainable, cost-efficient communities.  This includes transportation, job access, “walkability,” and various elements related to socio-economic integration.

I find it interesting that the Housing Measures study was conducted over a three-year period that was arguably the most turbulent period in the past half-century.  One might argue against the relevance of a three-year trend during a period of housing we’ve never seen before and may never see again. But a snapshot during this time affords us the opportunity to view organizations and agencies in the unique light of responding to an ever-changing and unpredictable environment. What is coming into focus is a re-thinking in how we develop communities and provide shelter for those most in need.  It seems to me that times like this, with resources tight and no proven road map for success, are the impetus for just the sort of innovation and risk-taking that might provide new strategies for future solutions.

Dan Hylton is the Research Manager at HousingLink.  HousingLink is a Minneapolis-based non-profit that serves as a crucial source for affordable housing-related data, information and resources. 

Homeless youth: Vulnerability and victimization

Last weekend, my teenage son lost track of time while at a neighborhood friend's house and missed his curfew. Intent on teaching him a lesson, I locked all the doors and went to bed. A few minutes later I was receiving a steady stream of text messages and phone calls interspersed between the ringing doorbell. I wanted to leave him out on our front step. Yet faced with a cold night and the knowledge that leaving a teenager to roam free at night is a bad idea, I finally let him in. 

The idea of leaving a teenager out in the night made think of a study that I had read and was planning to cover this week. The study, Surviving Crime and Violence: Street Youth and Victimization in Toronto, includes interviews with 244 homeless youth in Toronto about life on the streets and their experiences with victimization. It underscores the vulnerabilities that young people face when they are homeless.

Here are a few of the studies findings:

• Homeless youth are much more likely than housed youth to become victims of crime and violence. 76% of the youth in the study reported at least one instance of criminal victimization in the previous 12 months.
• Homeless youth are unable to take appropriate measures to protect themselves. Street youth use a number of strategies to keep themselves safer. These strategies, which include moving regularly and altering their appearance to look tougher, do little to reduce risk.
• Young homeless women in particular are much more likely to be victimized, and report high levels of sexual assault. 89.6% of the female street youth in the study reported being victims of crime, compared to 71.8% of young males. Over one-third of the young women reported being victims of sexual assault. Lesbian and bisexual females were the most victimized population among the street youth in the study.
• The younger youth are when they leave home, the more vulnerable they are to criminal victimization. Those who left home at age 16 or younger experienced victimization at levels which exceeded those for youth who left home after 16.  

The authors of the study point out that when young people are homeless they lack basic protective factors available to most young people - access to a home, supportive adults and friends, and places to seek refuge.  They state:

Being homeless means constant exposure to dangerous people and places, a lack of safe housing and privacy and the need to engage in income generating activities associated with poverty. Homelessness, then, clearly compounds the social exclusion of otherwise marginalized young people, and this has much to do with their experience of criminal victimization.

The study is published by the Street Youth Legal Services Justice for Children and Youth. The authors of the study are Stephen Gaetz, Ph.D., York University, Bill O'Grady, Ph.D., University of Guelph, and Kristy Buccieri, York University. 

I found this study at The Homeless Hub, a Canadian initiative to address the need for a single place to find homelessness information from across Canada. Launched in 2007, the Homeless Hub is a web-based research library and information center representing an innovative step forward in the use of technology to enhance knowledge mobilization and networking. It is a great resource, even if you aren't Canadian:)