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Housing and Economic Development <br />The Council should recognize market factors such as downward economic cycles <br />when setting timelines and look backs in calculating recent affordable housing <br />production. <br />3-G State Role in Housing <br />The state must be an active participant in providing funding for housing needs, including <br />direct funding, financial incentives and initiatives to assist local governments and <br />developers to support affordable housing as well as housing that is appropriate for people <br />at all stages of life. State funding is a major, necessary component for the provision of <br />housing needs and current resource levels are insufficient to meet the spectrum of <br />housing needs in the metropolitan region and across the state. <br />Primarily through the programs of the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) and <br />the Department of Employee and Economic Development (DEED), the state establishes <br />general direction and prioritization of housing issues. The state financially supports a <br />variety of housing types including transitional housing, supportive housing, senior <br />housing, workforce housing and family housing. The state must continue to be an active <br />partner in addressing life cycle and affordable housing issues. <br />Workforce housing is generally defined as housing which supports economic <br />development and job growth and is affordable to the local workforce. Governor Dayton <br />dedicated $10 million in one-time funds to MHFA in the 2013 legislative session to fund <br />the Housing and Job Growth Initiative, to aid housing in support of job growth within a <br />community or region by meeting locally identified housing needs. <br />Metro Cities supports: <br />• Increased state and federal funding for programs that support life cycle, <br />workforce and affordable housing, foreclosure mitigation and senior, <br />transitional and emergency housing. The state should consider establishing a <br />non-competitive program to create a pipeline to match city -subsidized <br />affordable housing projects; <br />• Housing programs that assist housing development, preservation and <br />maintenance of existing housing stock throughout the low -to -moderate income <br />range; <br />Housing programs designed to develop market rate housing in census blocks <br />with emerging or high concentrations of poverty, where the private market <br />might not otherwise invest as a means of reconciling affordable housing with <br />community development goals; <br />• Continuing the policy of using the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency's <br />investment earnings for housing programs; <br />24 2016 Legislative Policies <br />