Funding Approved For St. Cloud's Affordable Senior Housing

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The plan to develop an affordable senior housing project in St. Cloud has taken another step forward.

During its meeting Monday night, the city council approved allocating $240,000 as part of a local match. (The St. Cloud funding is coming from an allocation of Statewide Affordable Housing Aid funds and Life Cycle Housing fee reimbursement)

The Central Minnesota Housing Partnership will now be able to apply for state funding through the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency, which has a very competitive grant process.

They are also pursuing $100,000 of Stearns County Housing Trust Fund dollars.

Vista On Pinecone would be at 1618 Pinecone Road.

Spokesman Jason Krebsbach says it would be a 100 percent affordable senior housing development.

The project as a whole is 58 units. Everybody who lives there would have to be at or below 80 percent of the area median income. In addition, 33 of the units are further reduced to 30 percent of the area median incomes. So we're serving low to very-low-income households.

Krebsbach says seven of the units would be designated for at-risk homeless individuals. There would be a 50-year declaration that all the units remain affordable.

There would be two levels of services on site, including a part-time tenant services coordinator.

They work with the tenants to help them with what they need, from transportation to securing Meals on Wheels or other food services, and coordinating social events. We want to combat isolation.

A case management service provider would work with the at-risk homeless tenants.

A 2023 study indicated a need for nearly 1,200 senior housing units in the St. Cloud metro area.

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The project is contingent on getting the state grant in order to move forward.

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