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HRA Meeting <br />Minutes – June 21, 2011 <br />Page 3 <br />1 <br />Current projects for PPL are: <br />2 <br />Rental (44 1-3 bedroom units) at Snelling Avenue and West Seventh Street, a new <br />3 <br />building with 10 units permanently designated for supportive housing for families meeting <br />4 <br />the state’s definition as long-term homeless, or income restrictions for households earning <br />5 <br />under 60% AMI; <br />6 <br />Touchstone, 40 units of supportive housing for mentally ill people, located in the Seward <br />7 <br />neighborhood of Minneapolis; with the building’s architecture designed with neuroscience <br />8 <br />professionals to provide efforts for strategies to improve the lives of those individuals <br />9 <br />through the building structure and amenities (e.g. additional windows, lighting, etc.); <br />10 <br />Linden Place in New Hope, 33 rental units <br />11 <br />Vail Place in St. Louis Park with 11, 1 bedroom units for single adults with mental illness; <br />12 <br />and <br />13 <br />Louisiana Court in St. Louis Park, a long-term (12 years in process) rehabilitated complex <br />14 <br />with 128, 1-3 bedroom units total in 11 buildings, with household income restrictions <br />15 <br />below 60% AMI. <br />16 <br />17 <br />Steve Cramer <br />18 <br />Mr. Cramer advised that PPL often seeks to consolidate ownership for older, multi-family <br />19 <br />buildings (similar to Louisiana Court project) and then establish comprehensive services <br />20 <br />available to residents of those buildings. Mr. Cramer noted that, over the years, PPL had <br />21 <br />learned many lessons in managing their buildings and services; and it had now come to fruition <br />22 <br />in serving them well to transform that type of a building in a community so they once again <br />23 <br />became an asset. <br />24 <br />25 <br />A discussion among Board members, presenters and staff ensued. <br />26 <br />27 <br />Member Quam questioned how PPL determined the criteria in site or project selection. <br />28 <br />29 <br />Mr. Cramer advised that the criteria varied; however, one found successful in suburban <br />30 <br />locations such as Roseville was through working with the community to identify development <br />31 <br />challenges that may only be solved through affordable or living wage housing development. <br />32 <br />Mr. Cramer advised that other situations have included identifying nuisance properties in the <br />33 <br />community and problem-solving in partnership with the community. Mr. Cramer addressed <br />34 <br />current transit-oriented development that PPL was involved with in Minneapolis and St. Paul; <br />35 <br />in addition to focusing on the foreclosure crisis, doing recovery work on smaller projects. <br />36 <br />However, Mr. Cramer noted that each project was evaluated on its own merits to ensure that it <br />37 <br />made sense from a development standpoint and provided a connection to the community with <br />38 <br />PPL’s comprehensive services for its residents and for it to become an asset in the particular <br />39 <br />neighborhood as well as to the community as a whole. <br />40 <br />41 <br />Member Quam questioned if those support services mentioned, such as class educational <br />42 <br />opportunities, were offered on site or if PPL had additional space for providing those services. <br />43 <br />44 <br />Mr. Cramer advised that most out-of-school work time was offered on site where feasible; <br />45 <br />however, he noted that PPL had a sufficient number of larger-scale buildings offering <br />46 <br />community rooms, and since PPL had a fleet of vans, they could facilitate on-site or of-site <br />47 <br />situations. Mr. Cramer advised that PPL currently had six (6) concentrations around the <br />48 <br />metropolitan area for out-of-school programs; in addition to their administration/management <br />49 <br />of some schools, although that was a different project area from work involving support <br />50 <br />services for families in their housing facilities. <br />51 <br />52 <br />Member Quam asked if PPL had received any historic tax credits for financing; with Mr. <br />53 <br />Cramer responding that none of PPL’s projects had been eligible to-date. <br />54 <br /> <br />