Housing project honoered

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

It was a "who's who" meeting of Bemidji's housing and redevelopment sector as the directors from several area governmental entities, financial institutions, educational facilities and others gathered to receive an award Monday.

Seven local government entities and organizations and the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency were presented with awards for their willingness to cooperate in an effort to provide low-income housing in Bemidji. The group is known as the Beltrami County Affordable Home Construction Partnership.

The Beltrami County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, Headwaters Regional Development Commission, Bemidji Area Habitat for Humanity, Bemidji High School and Northwest Technical College-Bemidji were presented with the Cooperative Public Service Award from Partnership Minnesota, a collaborative of Minnesota and federal agencies that gives recognition to partnerships.

The City of Bemidji, the Northwest Minnesota Foundation and the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency were recipients of a Governor's Commendation award in honor of their "critical support" provided for the Housing Partnership.

The eight partners have combined to build 13 new homes for low-income or moderate-income families in the past three years, and the Housing Partnership was one of 10, of a possible 120 cooperative partnerships, honored throughout the state.

"These are cooperative public service awards," said Tim Flathers, HRDC's community development director, "which really acknowledge that working together in this community we've really accomplished something."

Flathers said each partner has contributed a certain aspect to the partnership that has made it work. For instance, Habitat for Humanity, Bemidji High School and Northwest Technical College-Bemidji has provided several lots on which homes could be built and several other agencies have provided seed money to keep the partnership in business.

In addition to the awards given Monday, Flathers and several local bank officials announced the availability of $200,000 in MHFA Community Activity Set-Aside funds which will be awarded to moderate-income, first-time homebuyers interested in purchasing the Partnership's three most recently built homes. And the banks also announced the establishment of the MHFA Community Fix-Up Fund, a program that makes low interest rate home improvement financing available for moderate-income households in selected areas of Bemidji.

The designated lending area includes those areas that have been redeveloped by the city, and those being proposed for redevelopment, according to an HRDC news release.

The importance of the Community Fix-Up Funds, Flathers said, is that loans can be awarded to households with higher incomes than some programs have allowed in the past.

"We're hoping to go back in and help those develop who haven't been accepted in the past," he said.

The county's Housing and Redevelopment Authority is almost 25 years old, according to information presented by the HRDC at the news conference, and it is the lead agency in the Housing Partnership.

A community open house will be held 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday at the three most recent homes built by the partnership at 1329 Daisy Court S.E., 1327 Daisy Court S.E. and 912 Minnesota Ave. N.W., all of which will be open for public viewing.

"This was very clearly an innovative way to solve a problem," said Ruth Edevold, of the Northwest Minnesota Foundation, about the Housing Partnership.

"The Foundation covers 12 counties, and I tend to use this project as an example (for other counties)," she said. "I can go out and say, 'This is what we want. This is what we want you to do.'"