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Housing & Economic Development <br />ensue in the Zones. <br />The State of Minnesota should utilize community development resources to stimulate investment <br />in Opportunity Zones and adopt policies that ensure that local residents, workers and businesses <br />benefit from the investments. <br />Metro Cities supports the following: <br />• Preserving and increasing funding for the Community Development Block Grant <br />Program (CDBG) and the federal HOME program that are catalysts for creating <br />affordable housing; <br />• Preserving and increasing resources and incentives to sustain existing public <br />housing throughout the Metro Area; <br />• Maintaining the federal tax credit program to help spur construction and secure <br />additional private investment, including making the four percent Low Income Housing Tax <br />Credit a fixed rate as was done with the nine percent credit in 2015; <br />• Creating and implementing a more streamlined procedural method for local units of <br />government to participate in and access federal funding and services dealing with grants, <br />loans, and tax incentive programs for economic and community development efforts; <br />• Additional resources to assist communities to meet obligations to reduce barriers to <br />and promote fair housing and equal opportunity; <br />• Maintaining and increasing resources to Section 8 funding and to support incentives <br />for rental property owners to participate in the program; and <br />• Federal funding to provide short-term assistance for HRAs to facilitate the sale of <br />tax- exempt bonds. <br />3-1 Vacant, Boarded, and Foreclosed Properties and Properties at Risk <br />Abandoned residential and commercial properties can harm communities when vacant buildings <br />result in reduced property values and increased crime. The additional public safety and code <br />enforcement costs of managing vacant properties are a financial strain on cities. <br />Metro Cities supports solutions to vacant and boarded properties that recognize: <br />and <br />Prevention is more cost effective than a cure; <br />The causes of this problem are many and varied, thus the solutions must be as well; <br />2019 Legislative Policies <br />27 <br />