2022 Rochester Housing Summit addresses community needs

(ABC 6 News) – On Thursday, the 2022 Rochester Housing Summit was held at the Mayo Civic Center with local housing partners, DMC, the City of Rochester, and Olmsted County.

The Maxfield Housing Needs study was shared at the summit.

It identified five areas as the top priorities that need to improve for the next decade.

This includes creating homeownership opportunities, preserving the affordable housing stock, and ensuring opportunities for seniors.

"It is kind of the combination of those relaxing some of the rules and regulations or allowing density to happen in areas of the city where they historically haven’t along with pairing financial tools of these organizations in order to help those outcomes occur," DMC Housing and Sustainability Director, Kevin Bright said.

The study shows that the median sale price for a home in 2019 was $230,000, but skyrocketed in 2022 to $322,500.

"The number of homes available on the market is just extraordinarily low so as we talk about our needs as a region and we talk about economic growth, talk about housing that is affordable this is one of those key drivers of that is the key driver is the cost just continuing to go up," Olmsted County Housing Redevelopment Authority Housing Director, Kevin Bright said.

There are about 6,000 units in Olmsted County that are considered affordable housing.

But often, when these units get a rehab deal, that eliminates affordability.

So there needs to be a community strategy to preserve the units.

Bright said they hope to hold more summits like this to get everyone involved to make a change.