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Goal: People at all income levels have housing opportunities throughout the state.
Housing is more than shelter. Our communities need stable neighborhoods where families can put down roots. Children need safe, stable homes and neighborhoods to flourish. Having affordable housing available throughout the metro area is important to a strong economy. It reduces worker shortages for employers, and transportation problems for workers. Concentrations of poverty in neighborhoods make them less stable, decreases property values and makes the area less desirable for businesses.
What's happening
- The proportion of the state’s households that are “cost-burdened” (paying 30 percent or more of their income for housing), increased from 22 percent in 2000 to 34 percent in 2009. Residents of households in the Twin Cities and the Central regions of Minnesota are most likely to have a cost burden.
- Less than half of Minnesota householders of color are homeowners, while nearly 80 percent of white householders own their homes. The 34 percentage point “homeownership gap” between whites and persons of color in Minnesota during 2009 is substantially worse than for the U.S.
- After leveling off in the mid-2000s, the number of homeless people in Minnesota rose sharply between 2006 and 2009. The Wilder Research homelessness study, conducted on one night in October 2009, counted 9,630 homeless adults, youth, and children in shelters, transitional housing, and on the streets. This compares to 7,713 homeless adults, youth, and children counted in 2006.
Making connections
Stable housing improves a child's chance for school success. A vibrant economy depends on a workforce that has stable, affordable housing.
Homeless Children
This video highlights key findings about Minnesota's homelesss children and their families from Wilder's statewide homeless study. Children and their families now make up more than one-third of homeless people in the state.
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