Everyone deserves a place to call home.

Prosperity’s Front Door is Minnesota’s statewide network of business, government, community and nonprofit leaders focused on housing issues in our state.

It is time for housing to be made a top priority in our state. Minnesota’s housing community is on the front lines supporting people and families experiencing homelessness, housing instability, evictions and foreclosure as people face challenges of job loss and income reductions. Housing is essential infrastructure and it’s critical that we keep building an affordable and diverse inventory of homes in communities across the state.

We believe what the data (and history) tell us. Minnesota’s long-term prosperity hinges on our commitment to ensure access to that prosperity is available to all. Our work will be done when the housing system works for everyone and every Minnesotan has a place to call home.

Grantee Spotlight – Construction Revolution!

We are pleased to support the work of Construction Revolution, including their Summit in September, 2019. The Summit brought together leaders from across Minnesota to explore emerging breakthroughs and innovative construction techniques in residential development and construction, including the use of modular and panelized elements, and to develop an action plan to accelerate the use of these approaches in Minnesota.

Read the Executive Summary and Full Construction Revolution Summit Report and Action Plan issued in June, 2020. Minnesota faces a significant housing shortage – 300,000 homes needed by 2030 (identified as part of the Minnesota Housing Task Force Goals) – yet the residential construction industry faces major obstacles to meeting that demand:

• Housing costs are rising, driven in part by construction costs

• Construction industry productivity has been nearly stagnant since the 1970s

• 90% of builders report difficulty finding skilled labor, a challenge expected to worsen

Offsite construction has long been viewed as a transformative innovation, and there are reasons to believe that its time has come. Around the world, the use of offsite techniques has begun to unlock significant benefits in residential construction. Early benefits are proving to be substantial:

• Schedule compression

• Cost savings

• Sustainable design opportunities

• Workforce development opportunities

Adopting offsite construction in Minnesota will require shifts from all sectors, Offsite construction is an integrated model of production and the transformation to offsite will require shifts from every sector. At the Summit, participants explored key barriers to overcome:

• Offsite manufactures

• Developers and contractors

• Architects and engineers

• Lenders

• Local officials

• Labor and workforce

Next steps for a system-wide revolution To reduce the cost of housing, the Construction Revolution has set an ambitious vision: By 2025, 10% of multi-family residential developments in Minnesota will meaningfully use advanced, offsite construction techniques.

At the Summit, participants contributed to an action-planning workshop and identified five cross-sector actions to make this vision a reality:

1. Launch multi-sector innovation cohorts to explore the potential and challenges of offsite construction techniques in actual projects.

2. Develop and promote learning opportunities to highlight Minnesota’s progressive building standards and inspections process for offsite construction.

3. Foster local collaboration to develop a fast-track or pre-approval process for projects using offsite concepts.

4. Incentivize a series of pilot projects using offsite construction through a public-private partnership request for proposals.

5. Attract new modular manufacturers and investors to Minnesota through a robust economic development campaign.

Many of these recommendations are already underway. Contact CR at info@constructionrevolution.io to get involved, or check out their website (constructionrevolution.io) for updates and resources.

Grantee Spotlight – zAmya Theater!

We are pleased to highlight zAmya Theater, a unique creative process that brings together homeless and housed individuals to create and perform a theatrical production. zAmya turns “homeless” from a word back into a person. Or persons. Living, breathing, laughing, singing persons. Who act — yes, act — in entertaining, genre-defying productions that are guaranteed to change your mind, if not your life. zAmya Theater believes that theater can change the narrative of homelessness.

Their performances grow from stories lived by participants and crafted by their core artistic members. They share them because they know that if we want to unravel crisis, then we have to unravel the story. Informed by the experienced advocates and direct service providers, zAmya is led by professional artists, and employs a group of actors who’ve experienced homelessness to create the plays, co-facilitate workshops, and guide the direction of the company.

zAmya is a Sanskrit word that means “aiming at peace.” For zAmya, aiming at peace means aiming toward a community with safe, stable, affordable housing options for all.

zAmya Theater was founded in 2004 by Minneapolis citizen Lecia Grossman. Lecia wanted to learn about homelessness working “with” people, not “for” them. With support from theater professionals and homeless advocates, she devised a process for bringing homeless and housed together to create theater, learn from one another, and share with the broader community

Through captivating performances and creative collaboration workshops, zAmya builds understanding and connection between citizens who have experienced homelessness and those who have not.

All sectors, communities and regions have a role to play.

Prosperity’s Front Door is drawing attention to what housing solutions look and feel like, while championing those who made these solutions realities. We:

• Convene diverse stakeholders across regions, sectors, and communities.
• Amplify their expertise and successes through digital storytelling and publication of an annual Scorecard measuring progress toward the six goals identified by Minnesota’s Housing Task Force.
• Cultivate and develop the next generation of affordable housing champions through strategic grantmaking, outreach, and resource sharing.

Read the first-ever Minnesota’s Housing Scorecard

We’re not there yet, but solutions are within our grasp. Minnesota’s housing community is working to create and sustain an affordable and diverse inventory of homes in communities across the state.