Bus Tour Highlights Affordable Housing in Maple Grove

Affordable housing is an issue that faces all communities in the Twin Cities.  Affordable housing advocates offered a bus tour Tuesday night to highlight the need for housing that is affordable in Maple Grove. The tour showed that there is a need for affordable housing at all stages and ages of life. The tour gave people the chance to see firsthand what affordable housing projects look like.

Tours Inform Attendees

“One of the things that we realized is that there was a lot of myths surrounding affordable housing,” says Roxanne Smith, social justice director at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Maple Grove. “So, we decided to do these bus tours to show just how needed these developments are. “

 Attendees met the people who live in the affordable housing complexes. Developers provided information on how such projects get built.

“I’ve got to say from an investment stand point they don’t make a lot of money,” says John Duffy of Duffy Development company.  “We look at it as we are in the black every year because we are 100 percent full.  We’ve got other what I call high risk high reward developments that aren’t always high reward developments. Affordable housing is steady you can count on being 100% full. If you build a good product and manage it right it’s going to be a good investment for you. “

Learn More about Affordable Housing

Duffy went on to say developers try to build affordable housing projects where there is access to public transportation and a large amount of employment opportunities. To learn more about the Housing for All initiative click here.

Maple Grove