A community meeting Tuesday night on what organizers call a crisis shortage of affordable housing in Rochester. Thomas Molina says the number-one issue that comes up in his door-to-door conversations every day is affordable housing. He points to “some of the worst stories ever of people — families — getting kicked out of their homes ’cause they can no longer afford the rent. So it’s at a tipping-point right now…. Enough is enough.”
Molina says Mayo Clinic’s Destination Medical Center project plays a role in the housing shortage with thousands of workers expected in the city and no affordable places for them to stay. Rochester Assistant City Administrator Gary Neumann says it’s a problem they’ve been trying to address with a number of projects, but there’s still a need for more affordable housing.
Molina says people are going to nearby Chatfield, Byron and Stewartville, where housing prices are in many cases half of those in Rochester. He says it “creates a problem because many of these people rely on public transportation, and anyone who lives in Rochester will tell you that the public transportation here is far from sufficient right now, especially for people who are now having to commute to work from farther distances.”
More in this interview: