Anoka County HRA holds public hearing on 2025–29 consolidated plan; City of Blaine urges manufactured-home preservation

The Anoka County Housing and Redevelopment Authority opened a public hearing March 21 on the agency’s 2025–29 consolidated plan and proposed uses of fiscal year 2025 Community Development Block Grant and HOME funds.

The hearing included a written comment from the City of Blaine asking the county to recognize manufactured homes in parks as part of the county’s permanent housing stock and to prioritize rehabilitation of those homes. Elizabeth, Community Development Specialist, City of Blaine, said the city requests “the consolidated plans and policies and procedures specifically recognize manufactured homes located in manufactured home parks to be part of the permanent housing stock in Anoka County.”

Why it matters: HRA staff said adding language to the five‑year con plan is straightforward but expanding CDBG eligibility to finance repairs on manufactured homes would require changes to the HRA’s policies and procedures. Staff said Minnesota Housing already provides capital funds for manufactured homes for very low‑income residents, but expanding CDBG eligibility could cover households up to higher income thresholds under the HRA’s single‑family rehabilitation loan program.

Renee Sandy, Community Development Manager for the HRA, told trustees the County can incorporate Blaine’s comment into the five‑year plan and that separately updating policies to allow CDBG‑funded repairs on manufactured homes would be an internal policy change at the HRA: “The first change is a given. We’ll incorporate their public comment in our five‑year plan. And then second, we had already had internally discussed including and expanding the definition to include them as part of our permanent housing stock, manufactured housing.”

Public comment included David Wyatt, housing program manager at Mediation Restorative Services (MARS), who described the local impact of CDBG‑funded housing navigation services. “That 1 FTE for 6 months that you provided generated over $800,000 worth of rental assistance in Anoka County,” Wyatt said, and added that his program facilitated more than $2,000,000 in direct rental payments in the county through state RentHelpMN funds.

Trustees discussed next steps. Trustee Jepsen recommended moving the matter to an HRA workshop to dig into program details and federal requirements before changing program rules; Trustee Gamache and staff agreed the public comment and staff recommendations will be carried forward to the HRA workshop and included in the draft five‑year plan to be presented to the Anoka County Board on May 13 for final approval.

Staff noted the written comment said Anoka County contains about 4,600 manufactured‑home units and that the City of Blaine has six manufactured‑home parks; the city’s economic development authority allocated $135,000 in 2024–26 as matching funds to finance repairs for manufactured‑home owners. That written comment was submitted by the City of Blaine and read into the record by HRA staff.

The public hearing opened at 10:24 a.m. and concluded after two public comments and the reading of the City of Blaine’s letter. No formal board action was taken on policy changes at the March 21 meeting; staff will return with policy recommendations if the HRA elects to expand CDBG eligibility for manufactured‑home repairs.