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<br />41 <br /> <br />HOUSING <br />Introduction <br />Little Canada is mid-ring suburb in the Metropolitan region. While separated from Saint Paul by <br />a portion of Maplewood, Little Canada is still only five miles from downtown Saint Paul, and just <br />under 10 to Minneapolis. Little Canada is home to thousands of residents, with the Metropolitan <br />Council estimating 4,514 households in 2016. Providing safe, affordable, and high-quality housing <br />is a necessity for the city to continue to grow and support its existing community, whether for <br />renters, owners, young, and old. This chapter will outline the existing state of housing in the City, <br />examine the city’s projected housing needs, and finally reviewing the implementation tools and <br />actions which will allow for this growth. <br />Existing Housing Inventory <br />Tables 8 and 9 give us an overview of the total housing <br />units in the city as well as the division of tenureship, that <br />is how many households were owner-occupied or <br />renter-occupied. As mentioned above, there are an <br />estimated 4,514 households in Little Canada, and for <br />total units there are 4,729. That leaves an estimated 215 <br />vacant units which could be filled by new residents. In <br />terms of tenureship, Little Canada has a fairly balanced <br />housing market for a suburban community. Around <br />39% of housing units were rental units. This availability of rental housing plays a huge role in how <br />Little Canada is able to provide the amount affordable housing that it does. <br />One of the most significant aspects of Little Canada’s housing stock is just how much of i t is <br />affordable to almost every income bracket. Using the threshold of a household making 80 percent <br />of the Area Median Income (AMI) for the region, there would be 3,674 housing units which would <br />be affordable to that household. That’s around 78 percent of all housing units in the city. 969 <br />housing units are affordable to a household making just 30 percent of AMI as well, or 20.5 percent <br />of total housing units. Having housing that is affordable to all income levels means that Little <br />Canada is able to attract a broad range of residents. Workforce housing, senior housing, and starter <br />homes are all able to be provided via affordable development. <br />Table 10: Housing Affordability in 2016 <br />Affordable Units to <br />household income at or <br />below 30% AMI <br />Affordable Units to <br />household income at 31- <br />50% AMI <br />Affordable Units to <br />household income at 51- <br />80% AMI <br />969 763 1942 <br />Source: Metropolitan Council <br /> <br /> <br />Table 8: Total Housing Estimates <br />Total Housing <br />Units <br />Total <br />Households <br />4,729 4,514 <br />Source: U.S. Census Bureau <br />Table 9: Housing by Tenure <br />Ownership Units Rental Units <br />2,899 1,830 <br />Source: U.S. Census Bureau