On Monday afternoon, the University of Minnesota Law School will host a discussion on diversity in the suburbs and affordable housing, and Jeffry Martin, president of the St. Paul Chapter of the NAACP, will be among those presenting.
While some advocates for low-income residents and minorities feel there’s a lack of affordable housing in St. Paul, he’s of the mind that there’s too much of it — especially along the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line, or Green Line.
It’s an argument that has been made, time and time again, by U of M law professor Myron Orfield, a frequent critic of the Metropolitan Council’s campaign to build more housing along transit lines.
“I agree with him,” Martin said. “I think it is oversaturated, especially along the corridor. I understand their argument, because it is near transportation. But the reality is, the higher paying jobs are in the suburbs, and most low-income people do have cars.”
From the Metropolitan Council:
Connecting affordable housing and transit
The Council is one of numerous public, private, nonprofit and philanthropic partners involved in the three-year Corridors of Opportunity Initiative, which is under way through 2013. One project goal is to create detailed transit-oriented land-use plans and development strategies along seven emerging transitways in the region. The goal is to increase access to jobs, affordable housing and essential services for residents of all incomes and backgrounds.In addition, the consortium is helping to guide investments in affordable housing provided by a $16 million Living Cities grant along the Central and Hiawatha LRT corridors in St. Paul and Minneapolis.
Debate over where to situate affordable housing has touched all levels of government, with some advocates arguing that affordable housing developments replace substandard housing in poor communities, and others arguing that well-intentioned planners are inadvertently creating ghettos.
Like Orfield, Martin believes that builders are getting a hefty payout turning vacant old urban properties — the Old Home Dairy site near University and Western comes to mind — into low-income housing units. It’s often pricier, he said, than building on vacant land in, say, Minnetonka or Lakeville.
“You’re dealing with builders who want to build in certain areas because it’s a higher profit margin, and they can charge more,” Martin said. “You also have real estate agents who are steering people into certain neighborhoods. So you have all these entities who are working together to keep us segregated.”
“You’ve got all these people who are controlling who lives where. What kind of a society is that over time? … It’s dangerous if we keep it unchecked.”
” ‘ We’re going to build a wall around certain areas like Eden Prairie, and certain areas like Lakeville, because we don’t want you out there.’ Keep all the poor folks in one general area? … We seem to be limiting choices, without any good reason.”
The Met Council has defended the logic of placing lower-income workers on transit corridors where they can access jobs without spending thousands of dollars on cars, and they’ve said outreach has been done to folks of different incomes and races. The council is still seeking comment on its comprehensive housing policy plan. Martin says black residents and low-income residents of the metro are underrepresented in those discussions, as are parents groups and school district administrators.
“I’m looking at it with a real critical eye. It’s definitely something we have to play a more prominent role in,” he said. “Most of these decisions have been made without input from parents … or school districts, who are saying, in order to integrate these classrooms, we’ve got to redraw boundaries again. … Usually, getting the word out is not as strong as it should be from the Met Council. They may notify the district councils, but their track history has shown that’s not working for them. They get low turnouts at these events, time and time again, but they think it’s better if you only hear from a few, and if they hear from the same people.”
Martin, a self-employed attorney, said that oversaturating particular neighborhoods with low-income residents is a recipe for legal disaster. It amounts to segregation, and the federal government frowns on those outcomes when they’re challenged in court. “Can’t be integration, can’t be healthy,” he said.
But what about that Old Home Dairy project? The Sands Company is poised to turn a blighted old factory into a livable space along University Avenue, and those housing units could retain local residents — many of them African-American or minority — as rents go up in response to the light rail. Right?
“I think Sands Construction is trying to make some serious money on rebuilding that,” Martin said. “You’re looking at spending $350,000 (per unit) to build something you could spend $150,000 on in a different area. … I understand it’s better to have a building used or renovated rather than vacant, but is that the best site for low-income housing? Shouldn’t you use a minority contractor or minority laborers from the neighborhood?”
Housing advocates argue that too many families in the metro are paying more than 30 percent of their income toward housing, and many are paying more than 50 percent. They’d like to see more affordable units come online, and they worry that dropping new immigrants and low-income minorities into far-flung suburbs will do little to connect them to jobs and community.
The U of M Law School discussion takes place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday, April 21, and officials from the cities of Brooklyn Park, Oakdale, St. Louis Park and Richfield are expected to attend.