"The Twin Cities area enjoys a strong economy and an enviable low unemployment rate. Unfortunately, with housing costs rising faster that wages, even working full-time does not guarantee access to affordable housing. The Twin Cities metropolitan area faces a severe shortage of decent, safe housing at prices that working families can afford." -Family Housing Fund Public Education Initiative

Workforce Housing Roundtable Wednesday, September 6th

     On Wednesday evening, September 6th, Isaiah(of which St. Joans is a member) sponsored a roundtable on affordable housing for working families. No member of our webreporting team was able to attend. However, Bob Brennan was able to take the following pictures. In addition, Michelle Dibble(right) and Sarah Gleason of Isaiah provided the following information:

• Isaiah defined workforce housing as housing that is affordable to low and moderate income working families.
• There are 10 roundtables happening around the metro area; this is a regional strategy to get business leaders at all levels and from all parts of the metro area involved in addressing the housing crisis. People interested in attending another roundtable can contact Isaiah at 333-1260 to find out the dates of the roundtables coming up.
• The churches partnering to do this roundtable are St. Joan's, St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Minneapolis, and St. Stephen's Catholic.
• There are a number of strategies being researched for the legislative session this year; anyone who wants to get involved should call someone on the St. Joan's Isaiah core team(Sarah Gleason at 612-825-7404 home or 651-642-2090 work, or Rich Nymoen at 651-776-1273 home or 651-266-8971 work).
• The Family Housing Fund Public Education Initiative lists the average rent for a one-bedroom unit in Minneapolis at $669/month, affordable at $26,750/year. Two bedroom units run $946/month, affordable at $37,850/year. Vacancy rate is 1.5% metro wide.

Facilitators(left to right): Ed Walsh, Sarah Gleason and Michelle Morgan
Businessman Robert Cordell, Partners in Wellness	Jay Schmitt, Director of Isaiah
Father Wertin joins the roundtable.

Robert Brennan has been a member of SJA for about eight years. Took a "sabatical" from the Catholic church for many years before finding St Joan's. He and his wife, Patty, are members of the choir and went to Rome last year as a part of the Archdiocese Rome Choir. They sang in the Vatican during the first ecumenical service with Lutherans. He is enjoying being a photographer for the website.