Welcome Home Ramsey: Creating Housing Opportunities for All

Abstract

This project was completed as part of the 2017-2018 Resilient Communities Project (rcp.umn.edu) partnership with the City of Ramsey. Ramsey's housing plan was last updated in 2008. The plan identified numerous strategies for achieving the City’s housing goals, including increased housing density, redeveloping underutilized land, and engaging underserved populations. Since then, the City has made good progress in terms of achieving its workforce and senior housing goals, but public support for some of the City’s other housing goals is not as strong. The City sought assistance developing a communication/outreach strategy to make the case for various housing types and the value they add to the community. Students in Dr. Fernando Burga’s Land Use Planning class analyzed housing needs in the community, identified three locations accessible to transit or jobs as potential locations for additional workforce and affordable housing, presented case studies of policy strategies to increase affordable housing, and made policy recommendations for the City going forward. The students’ final report is available.