MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Some Minnesota nonprofits are embracing communal housing as a way to address affordable housing shortages despite the model being long rejected as contributing to urban blight.

Reports say Alliance Housing has been trying to get Minneapolis to rethink boarding houses as a solution to the affordable housing crisis.

The nonprofit has been unsuccessful in its efforts to lift the city's 1980s rule that prohibits new licenses for boarding houses. The prohibition reflects Minneapolis' stance that boarding houses undermine neighborhoods with single- and two-family homes.

Alliance runs one of the city's remaining boarding homes, where 25 single men and two women live together.

Tenant Craig Spivey says it offers decent housing for people who can't afford an apartment on their own.

Tenants each pay around $350 rent a month.

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