There was a good turnout this morning for the Fall Housing Summit at St. John Neumann Church in Eagan. It was attended by a number of state legislators, city council members, a school board member, staff from numerous agencies, real estate agents, and many housing advocates.
Madeline Kastler, Housing Manager for Dakota County Social Services, led off the program with some statistics on the impact of homelessness. Anyone who pays more than 30% for housing is considered to have a problem, Students without stable housing do not do as well in school as do those that do.
The main part of the program was highlighted by a panel of people knowledgeable on the topic.
One question is how do we increase the availability of affordable housing? Another is what should be the role of state government and local government? We need to solve these issues sooner than later. The need for affordable housing is growing!