Since 1996 GMHF has Helped Employers Invest Over $20 Million in Affordable Housing

A Challenge to Recruit Employers

When the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund was created in 1996, its primary funders, The McKnight Foundation and Blandin Foundation, challenged it to promote the creation of affordable housing for working families in cooperation with employers throughout Greater Minnesota. GMHF has delivered on this goal by creating local and regional housing programs in cooperation with employers. GMHF’s innovative Employer Assisted Housing (EAH) program has won national attention for fostering meaningful partnerships between both large and small employers and their local communities.

EAH Guides Community Development Efforts

Without more affordable housing, many working families in Greater Minnesota are not able to find safe, decent, affordable housing near their workplace, and many employers cannot easily recruit or retain employees. Similarly many communities seeking economic development opportunities find it difficult or impossible to recruit or retain the businesses that will keep their communities economically vital.

GMHF's EAH program was created to find solutions to these problems. GMHF's combination of education, technical assistance and funding has enabled it to work with corporate CEO's and family-owned companies to structure community partnerships that have yielded over $20 million of new money invested by employers (view an inventory of EAH projects and funding in Greater Minnesota). GMHF has targeted both major employers such as Hormel, The Schwan Food Company and Mayo Clinic, as well as "Main Street" employers, such as local banks and retail businesses.