A Study of Affordable Housing in the City of Bloomington, Minnesota

Abstract

This project was completed as part of a partnership between the City of Bloomington and the University of Minnesota’s Resilient Communities Project (http://www.rcp.umn.edu). Since the adoption of its “Housing Opportunity and Preservation Ordinance” in 2019, the City of Bloomington has been actively investing in the development of housing that is more affordable to the community. The City sought a return on investment (ROI) analysis of multi-family residential developments that emphasize affordability, considering both human/social and financial benefits. Bloomington project lead Nick Johnson collaborated with a team of graduate students enrolled in Professor Peter Brown's course, PA 8081: Planning and Public Policy Capstone, to review the literature on the benefits of affordable housing, and conducted a survey and interviews with residents of affordable housing in Bloomington in an effort to understand how their personal lives were affected by access to such housing. The students’ final report and PowerPoint presentation are available.