Rehabilitation | Program Guidelines

Program Goals

Facilitate the rehabilitation of affordable rental and owner-occupied housing throughout Greater Minnesota.

Eligible Projects and Funding Priorities

  • Substantial rehab of aging rental properties: Address structural, systems and habitability concerns that have created substandard/deteriorated housing. Emphasis will be on units serving low-income (<50% statewide median income) households.

  • Preservation of federally-subsidized housing: Preserve projects that serve low-income households and are most at risk of converting to market-rate housing.

  • Rehab of owner-occupied single-family housing: Assist local organizations to help low-income households make significant improvements in the habitability, safety and energy-efficiency of their current homes.

  • Purchase/rehab of single-family housing: Assist local organizations that make habitability, safety, and energy efficiency improvements to housing that will be purchased by low-income households after rehab. The purchase/rehab program may also be used by local organizations to make funding available to low-income homebuyers to purchase and rehabilitate their homes.


Related Links
Income Limits
Applications

Eligible Applicants

Non-profit and for-profit developers and local government agencies.

Types of Assistance

GMHF will award qualified rehabilitation projects or programs funding in the form of zero- or low-interest deferred loans, or grants on a limited basis. Maximum amount of GMHF assistance per unit is $15,000. GMHF assistance may be layered with other funding resources.

Minimum Project Requirements

  • Assisted units must be restricted to households with a gross household income that does not exceed 80% of the statewide median income, adjusted for family size. Priority is given to projects that serve households at <50% statewide median income.

  • Assisted units must receive substantial rehab addressing habitability, energy efficiency and safety repairs and/or address the preservation of federally-subsidized housing. The life of improvements must meet or exceed the term of the loan.

  • Single-family assisted units must be occupied as the homeowner's principal place of residence.

  • Community must have a demonstrated need for affordable housing, documented through a recent housing needs assessment or a market study.

  • Leveraging of additional funds from other agencies such as local governments, state agencies, local businesses, local lenders or other funding agencies is required.

  • Project must support the local community's comprehensive plan and be consistent with the region's EVHI guidelines. For more information about your EVHI region, see http://www.mhfa.state.mn.us/about/EVHI.pdf.

  • Project must demonstrate sound financial structuring, e.g. rehabilitation must be determined to be more cost-effective than new construction.

  • The development team (for projects) or administrator (for programs) must possess the expertise and technical capacity sufficient to complete the project in compliance of all codes and requirements of all funders, including GMHF.

  • All other sources of funding must be committed prior to GMHF approval of funding.

Funding Cycles

Applications for funding are accepted twice a twice a year in the Spring and Fall through Minnesota Housing Finance Agency's Super Requests For Proposals (RFP) process.