Local Leaders Gather To Discuss Sherburne County Housing Solutions

ELK RIVER (WJON News) -- Representatives from cities and townships all across Sherburne County will get together to talk housing.

The Housing Study Action Forum is on Tuesday, August 26th, at the Sherburne County Government Center in Elk River.

Sherburne County Economic Development Coordinator Brian Fleming says this is a follow-up event from a Housing Summit in 2023, a countywide housing study in 2024, and a St. Cloud Housing Summit earlier this year.

He says the housing study determined the county needs 5,250 new housing units.

We're showing, even in the last year since we last met, new senior housing in Big Lake; we have lots of development going on in Elk River and Zimmerman, for just a few examples.  We've had the foot on the gas in the last year; let's keep the foot on the gas.

Besides local governments, the forum will also include representatives from the school districts, nonprofits like Habitat for Humanity, CentraCare, Central Minnesota Builders Association, real estate agencies, and financial institutions.

Fleming says the 2024 county-wide Housing Study projected the county's population to grow at about 10 percent through at least 2030 and beyond.

So, at a 10 percent growth rate, we know that we need to have further housing for this projected population going on.  Specifically on our east side of the county, the Elk River sub-market all the way up through Zimmerman, Baldwin, and south Princeton, that's projected to grow closer to 13 to 15 percent.

Fleming says it will take private-public partnerships to create the new housing.

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Fleming says the county just passed a Homeowner Rehabilitation Loan Program through the Housing Trust Fund.

Current homeowners can apply for low-interest loans to help with failing systems that they might have in their homes, energy efficiency upgrades, and accessibility upgrades.  And we're pairing that with Minnesota Housing's loan programs that are similar.  We have residents apply for those programs first, and if their project costs more, then they can apply for ours as well as a rider to that.

Fleming says some individual cities in the county also have their own specific programs.