Addressing affordable housing challenges in Eden Prairie

By Jan Eian

It’s hard to read a newspaper these days without finding an article about the need for more housing across the U.S. – especially affordable housing. This is also true for Eden Prairie. 

Under state statute, the Metropolitan Council must apprise communities across the metropolitan area of their affordable housing goals in order to distribute affordable housing units more broadly and equally across the urban area.  

According to the council’s website, their policy is to:

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“Create housing options that give people in all life stages and of all economic means viable choices for safe, stable and affordable homes.” In addition, they state that “Housing choices allow households to find housing affordable to them in the communities where they want to live. A full range of housing types can help increase resiliency as local governments experience changing demographics and economic conditions. Housing elements are an opportunity to state a local government’s specific policy priorities around housing choice within their community.”

The Met Council’s negotiated goal for Eden Prairie is 1,408 affordable units for the 2021 to 2030 period. According to Jonathan Stanley, the city’s housing and community services specialist, Eden Prairie has created approximately 370 affordable units that count toward this goal.  Two new apartment developments, The Ellie and The Fox & The Grouse, have 60 out of 240 and 107 out of 425 units, respectively, designated as affordable.

Developers work with the city to choose from a variety of specified options to decide the percentage of affordable units in each new development. The city works with a variety of financial tools that could include federal, state or local funds.

As part of Eden Prairie’s comprehensive plan update, edenprairie.org/AspireEP2040, a housing task force was formed to study housing issues in Eden Prairie and make recommendations to meet future housing needs. Their study begins, “Throughout the planning process, community members emphasized the need for increasing Eden Prairie’s affordable housing stock and providing diverse, safe, high-quality, affordable housing options to residents of all income levels,” much like the goals of the Metropolitan Council.  The task force developed a series of recommendations for policies to address housing issues in Eden Prairie.

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The Eden Prairie Housing Alliance is a private group of residents and housing advocates unaffiliated with the city, established with the goal of supporting the recommendations of the task force.  Because there is often misunderstanding of what affordable housing is, there can be pushback when affordable housing is planned for a particular area. 

To overcome the negative connotation of affordable housing, the Alliance’s mission is to develop an education, marketing, and communication strategy to provide Eden Prairie constituencies with a common, community-wide understanding of what affordable housing is and why it is important for Eden Prairie. The group plans to use public presentations and media to spread the word about the importance of affordable housing to the community and businesses of Eden Prairie.

For more information or to join the group, contact EPHousingAlliance@gmail.com.  

Editor’s note: Jan Eian is an Eden Prairie Housing Alliance member.