Happy Friday and we end the week with great news from the state capitol! Plus consider nominating a peer for our fall awards. Have a wonderful weekend even though the weather has quickly turned chilly.
Largest Bonding Investment in Affordable Housing Passes
As they say, the 5th time’s the charm! This week the state held it’s 5th special session in 2020 and the key issue was whether the bonding bill would pass. In the House, the bill passed Wednesday night a little after 10:00 after 10 hours of debate!!! The House vote demonstrated strong bipartisan support with 23 Republicans ultimately voting for the bill. Read the House Summary here.
The Senate quickly followed suit on Thursday demonstrating even more bipartisan support by passing a $1.9 billion infrastructure bill on a vote of 64-3. The package includes a historic amount of bonds for housing including $100 million in Housing Infrastructure Bonds (HIB) and $16 million in BO Bonds for Public Housing Rehab (POHP).
This is a total of $116M which is the largest bonding investment in housing to date for our state. We will have lots to celebrate on this front when we get the opportunity. Thanks so much to those of you who took action and contacted your lawmakers this year. As you can see, advocacy matters and your voice makes a difference.
Read the Star Tribune overview of the full infrastructure package here.
Minnesota NAHRO Fall Awards
Deadline 11/6 Minnesota NAHRO honors its leaders in the affordable with two awards in the fall. We are accepting nominations for both the Outstanding Achievement Award and the Conrad Rettmer Award for Commissioners – deadline November 6th. View specific details on each award and forms on our webpage.
