McKnight Foundation Provides $10 Million

I had the honor of addressing numerous members of the state media, state and local officials, the heads of the Minnesota Housing Fund, Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, numerous corporate sponsors and the McKnight Foundation. The press conference was held at a home in St. Paul that has been recovered from foreclosure. This was recognition of our commitment and leadership on the foreclosure issue. Our program to manage foreclosures and all the surrounding issues is being used as a model for other communities. Again I was honored to represent greater Minnesota and Isanti.

Flanked by Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis and Mayor Coleman of St. Paul. Far right is McKnight Foundation President Kate Wolford.

Mayor Rybak, Mayor Wimmer and Mayor Coleman

The McKnight Foundation Provides $10 Million to Help Stabilize CommunitiesImpacted by Foreclosure Crisis

$5 Million Each to Family Housing Fund and Greater Minnesota Housing Fund

SAINT PAUL, MINN. (April 28, 2009) — At a press conference today in St. Paul, The McKnight Foundation announced that it will contribute $5 million each to loan funds administered by the Family Housing Fund and Greater Minnesota Housing Fund to help stabilize communities impacted by the foreclosure crisis in Minnesota.

The investment will in part provide money to assist organizations working in neighborhoods statewide threatened by foreclosure to acquire vacant, boarded homes to repair and sell to responsible homeowners. The new loan funds will also help create new affordable housing opportunities for individuals and families so they can afford to purchase newly rehabilitated energy-efficient homes.

The announcement was made at a newly renovated home owned by community developer MCASA LLC that runs a successful contract-for-deed homeownership program in Saint Paul.
"The McKnight Foundation is pleased to support this coordinated response to community needs statewide. Through a nationally unique network of innovative programs and partnerships, our partners will reach thousands of Minnesota families hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis. We encourage foundations and others to take part in this opportunity to invest in the best and help stabilize our communities," said Kate Wolford, president of The McKnight Foundation.

The housing loan funds mark McKnight's first major program-related investments, through which foundations invest in activities that, unlike grants, offer a potential modest return of capital within an established time frame.

"The Family Housing Fund is thrilled that The McKnight Foundation is stepping in with this major investment towards stabilizing families and neighborhoods in the Twin Cities and Greater Minnesota," said Family Housing Fund President Tom Fulton. "These critical dollars will help the Fund and our partners respond to the foreclosure crisis by providing support for sustainable, affordable ownership programs that help families buy homes in the right way, rather than the wrong way."

The $5 million to the Family Housing Fund will help support the activities of the organization's Home Prosperity Fund that was established in early 2008 to revitalize neighborhoods and increase housing opportunities for families throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Initial investments totaling $16 million from Wells Fargo, US Bank, TCF Bank, Thrivent Financial and Minnesota Housing initially launched the Fund that has grown to $25 million with the new McKnight commitment and recent investments of $3 million from Wells Fargo and $1 million from the Pohlad Family Foundation. The McKnight Foundation is the first philanthropic foundation to join the Home Prosperity Fund.

At the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, the $5 million in McKnight funds will support the Greater Minnesota Foreclosure Recovery Fund. Funds will be used to help stabilize communities throughout Greater Minnesota including neighborhoods heavily impacted by foreclosure in Rochester, St. Cloud, Duluth and the counties surrounding the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
"Neighborhood stabilization efforts are critical to prevent further deterioration of communities hit hard by foreclosures," said Warren Hanson, president of the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund. "The McKnight Foundation's investment will help communities throughout Minnesota rehabilitate homes previously abandoned and lost to foreclosure. Multiple coordinated efforts are needed to address the scale of the current crisis, and McKnight has demonstrated how its program-related investments can leverage renewed confidence and investment by families, philanthropy and responsible lenders."

"Our communities have been hit hard by rampant foreclosures," said Isanti Mayor George Wimmer. "This socially motivated investment by The McKnight Foundation will help foster local initiatives to provide families with rehabilitated, energy-efficient homes and sustainable home mortgage financing."

"The Home Prosperity Fund comes to Saint Paul as a key element of our Invest Saint Paul strategy," said Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. "Invest Saint Paul brings the full energy and resources of the city and our partners to focus on issues of disinvestment — large and small — that threaten our neighborhoods, including the thousands of foreclosures over the past few years. Support of MCASA's contract-for-deed program is a perfect example of a community coming together to invest in and strengthen a neighborhood and its residents."

"The mortgage foreclosure issue is the number one housing problem in Minneapolis. Its impacts on families and neighborhoods will successfully be addressed only through innovative, combined public/private responses," said Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak. "The Home Prosperity Fund is just that. I commend The McKnight Foundation and the other investors on their commitment to help stabilize neighborhoods and families by boosting quality affordable housing opportunities for all."


The McKnight Foundation: Tim Hanrahan, Communications Director, 612-333-4220, thanrahan@mcknight.org , 710 South Second Street, Suite 400, Minneapolis, MN 55401

Greater Minnesota Housing Fund: Andrew Schlack, Program Officer, 651-221-1997, ext. 106, aschlack@gmhf.com, 332 Minnesota Street, Suite 1201-East, St. Paul, MN 55101

Family Housing Fund: Lowell Yost, Program Director, 612-375-9644, lyost@fhfund.org, 801 Nicollet Mall, Suite 1650, Minneapolis, MN 55402

Sisco Public Relations, Inc.: Ginger Sisco, 763-544-6029, ginger.sisco@tela.com, cell 612-581-4272

PROGRAM PARTNERS

The McKnight Foundation The McKnight Foundation seeks to improve the quality of life for present and future generations through grantmaking, coalition-building, and encouragement of strategic policy reform. Founded in 1953 and independently endowed by William and Maude McKnight, the Minnesota-based family foundation has assets of approximately $1.6 billion and granted about $99 million in 2008; of the total granted, about 11 percent went to increase family stability and link families to greater opportunity through support for affordable housing. http://www.mcknight.org/

Greater Minnesota Housing Fund (GMHF) and the Greater Minnesota Foreclosure Recovery Fund Founded in 1996 by The McKnight Foundation and Blandin Foundation, Greater Minnesota Housing Fund (GMHF) is a private, nonprofit organization that supports the creation of healthy communities and affordable homes for working families throughout the 80 counties of Greater Minnesota. GMHF provides both financial and technical assistance to make innovative local affordable housing initiatives possible in partnership with community based organizations. Since its inception, GMHF has provided nearly $110 million to help create over 8,100 affordable housing units worth over $947 million statewide. http://www.gmhf.com/

GMHF's Foreclosure Recovery Fund provides funds to community development partners in Greater Minnesota working to stabilize areas that have been hard-hit by foreclosures. Using these funds, partner organizations buy, rehabilitate, and sell previously foreclosed homes creating sustainable homeownership opportunities for low-and moderate-income families. GMHF's revolving loan fund, including the Greater Minnesota Foreclosure Recovery Fund, has investments of over $24 million dollars.

The Family Housing Fund and Home Prosperity Fund The Family Housing Fund is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide safe, affordable, sustainable homes to families and children in the Twin Cities metropolitan area through ongoing partnerships with the public and private sector. The fund supports the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, the Metropolitan Council, and the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency in their efforts to preserve and expand the region's supply of affordable housing. http://www.fhfund.org/

The Home Prosperity Fund, administered by Family Housing Fund, provides money to assist organizations working in neighborhoods threatened by foreclosure. They acquire vacant, boarded homes to repair and sell to responsible owners. The loan fund helps create new affordable housing opportunities in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and suburban communities and provides gap loans to families so they can afford to purchase a new home. The Home Prosperity Fund has investments of $25 million with a goal of reaching $50 million by 2012.