Longfellow Community Council (LCC)
2008 ANNUAL BUDGET: The board approved the 2008 LCC budget.
CITY OF LAKES COMMUNITY LAND TRUST (CLCLT): After much debate, the board tabled a motion by Housing Task Force Chair Cara Letofsky until its January meeting. The motion would have committed $60,000 of LCC’s Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) funds to CLCLT’s Homebuyer Initiated Program. The program provides affordability gap and rehabilitation loans to low-to-moderate income individuals so they can become homeowners in Longfellow.
The loans are structured as perpetual affordability grants to the CLCLT and the homebuyer, so the money would never be repaid to LCC. Instead the grant stays with the home, increasing in value as the value of the home increases. The initial grant, plus 75 percent of the equity is transferred to the next qualified household at resale. This formula keeps the home affordable in perpetuity.
Board members Jay Kelly and Marcea Mariani expressed concern that a program that brought no revenue back to LCC was unwise given the uncertainty of continued NRP funding. Board member Dan McConnell disagreed, saying he was “uncomfortable only doing programs that benefit us. We have to evaluate programs based on what will benefit the community. I don’t want to see the board paralyzed because we don’t know about NRP funding.” Board member Melissa Erjavec sided with McConnell, saying, “If NRP goes away, the $60,000 we gave to the Land Trust wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. I mean it wouldn’t have been enough to save us.”
BASIC HOME IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM: The board approved using $200,000 of NRP money to fund a home improvement loan program for low and moderate income Longfellow property owners.
Funds can only be used on health and safety improvements or those approved by the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, repairs to any City of Minneapolis code violations or
energy-efficiency upgrades. The loans have tiered interest rates based on a household’s gross annual income. Funds will be available starting December 2007.
SAVE NRP: Save NRP Chair Dewayne Townsend invited all Minneapolis residents to join him and other LCC board members in a march on City Hall to express support for NRP. Any citizens interested in joining should meet in the City Hall rotunda at 4:30 p.m. on December 11. The march will coincide with the City’s Truth in Taxation meeting.
NEIGHBORS 4 NRP: The board agreed to act as fiscal agent for the Neighbors4NRP coalition, accepting and disbursing all funds. LCC will not charge a fee to act as fiscal agent.
THE BEST GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING EVER: LCC is billing its January 23 general membership meeting as “the best meeting ever.” Kids are welcome. Entertainment will be provided for them in a separate room. The meeting location is yet to be determined.
NEXT: Board meeting, January 17, 2007
MEETINGS: 3rd Thursday monthly, 6:30 p.m. at Longfellow Park, 3435 36th Avenue South
CONTACT: 722-4529, www.longfellow.org
BORDERS: Mississippi River to Hiawatha Ave., Minnehaha Park to 27th St. railroad tracks
last revised: November 21, 2007