##VIDEO ID:DzITeJGHYDY## well good morning everybody one of the most critical things that we do at the City of Minneapolis is provide a foundation from which people can rise and perhaps the most important element of that Foundation is a home making sure that people have a safe place to go home to at the end of the night to rest their head on the pillow to rejuvenate for the next day there's nothing more important than that you can't possibly think about having someone fight off an addiction or get a job or become an entrepreneur run with a great idea if they don't know where they're going to sleep at night and so it's on us at the city working with a number of other jurisdictional partners to do everything that we can to provide them with that stability of a home and from the very first days of when I took office what we declared is that housing is a right and we need to do everything possible to make sure that that right was available to everyone uh and through some tremendous work uh by our staff uh director elfred Port uh who's standing behind me Partners like Dr statley and so many others we've got a team that is building affordable housing at record amounts we're producing two times the amount of affordable housing that we were before I took office and we're producing 8 and a half times the amount of deeply affordable housing that we were just a few years ago I'll say it again we're producing 8 and a half times the amount of deeply affordable housing that's housing so that people who are experiencing homelessness have that next rung on the ladder to pull themselves out often times they don't not only is that the immoral thing it's also financially really stupid because it costs far more to have someone cycling through homeless shelters unsheltered homelessness hospital stays sometimes jail than it does just to get them that Foundation of a home and so we've invested record amounts of money in fact about $365 million uh in affordable housing and that money has been put to really good use in getting people homes this year we have 11 new projects totaling over 800 units that we are presenting today that's 11 new affordable housing projects with 800 units in them that is that is 800 units that are giving people families children a home that's 800 units that are giving people who have experienced homelessness the stability of a place where they know they can sleep at night and that's a really big deal and something that we are very proud of and so I'm so pleased to announce these 11 projects that have received this funding uh some of the representatives are here with us today uh uh we weren't able to be joined by council member o Jamal Osman I know he's a big supporter but he's got budget markup that is happening as we speak uh and so the awardees come from eight different Wards all across the city the diversity of projects and locations truly reflect the diversity of our communities and so the 11 projects that will be awarded the funding through the affordable housing trust fund are uh first we've got Dr statley here with us the Native American Community Clinic and awarde who's by the way hosting us today thank you so much this is construction of 83 units for a mixed use project and you hear uh more from them in just a few minutes next is Clare housing Clare housing for 33 units for seniors living with HIV Andor AIDS next is CLA housing for 32 units for others living with HIV or Aids next is new construction at 1345 Central Avenue for 64 units and production space uh the Warren Apartments which is another 61 units upper Harbor Terminal which is a project the city's been working on for quite some time has 18 3 new units uh epic R for 68 units downtown view for 39 units for homeless youth Zar apartments for 89 units and construction at 2116 nickolet AV for 53 units to support people at risk of homelessness uh and then finally cheetah apartment with 98 units uh a really big congratulations to all the awardees and something that I want to uh acknowledge is over these last several years we've seen a shift in the way we've done things the focus has really been on those deeply affordable housing units those units that allow someone who's experiencing homelessness to pull themselves out making sure that we have that next rung on the ladder so that people can succeed in life and really take the next step uh we're putting our money where a mouth is uh I'm so proud of the work and our staff team uh that has been able to set this work up none of it would be possible without the affordable housing trust fund uh that has been funded to the tune of $18 million this year uh and this is this is work that we really want to continue so now uh uh again I'm I'm I'm proud of the work and I I'm proud also to introduce uh our housing director alred Port thank you may thanks a lot mayor um thanks for being here tonight I mean to this um this morning I want to First extend our thanks and appreciation to um knack for opening their doors to afford US the opportunity to um um do this do this Pres conference this is a great day for affordable housing in Minneapolis um 11 projects um comprising of 83 rental housing units creating and preserving um new units I want to also say that the the mayor talked about our focus on deeply affordable housing 40 nearly 45% of these units will be dead dedicated to deeply affordable that's households at about at and below 50 um 30% of the area median income including including um that that number is about 101 of those units will be dedicated to serve homeless the homeless population with wrap around Services total $18.5 million $17 million of that from the affordable housing trust fund an additional $1.5 million from the low income housing tax credits we could not have done this alone um Partners our funding Partners the developers and a dedicated staff professionalism comes to um to mind when I talk about the folks that I work with to advance this work so I want to say thanks to the partners thanks for the work and we look forward to um ground breakings and and ribon cutting in a few in a few months um thanks a lot and I'm going to um introduce um Dr stadley Who's um the president of knack thanks a lot for your work you thank you Bou relatives um I'm Anthony statley I'm the executive officer and president of Native American Community Clinic here in South Minneapolis and um I just want to express our profound gratitude and appreciation to the mayor and also to the um the trust fund and also I want to thank my um my housing partner Wellington Management Incorporated which will actually help to build the um building and also um uh manage and um and operate the housing um units above our Clinic we are um we know that housing is more than just Sheltering people we also know it's a critical social determin of health is probably the defining socially determined Health be before our community right now in South Minneapolis in Minneapolis and in the county of hennipin um more Native American people are over really significantly represented in the unsheltered um people living on the street and who are living on Shel in shelters and in homeless encampments um and in the work that Knack does um this is a preponderance of the number of patients that we see um we are delivering um we have a very robust Street Outreach team that goes and works with them significantly I mean um and has been doing that work significantly over the last couple of years but we've built that out over the last few years even more robustly and we are doing that work in encampments every every single day helping people to get the things that they need for their health care um and getting them connected to housing um we've been doing that for a couple of years and now with this investment from the city and all of other other investors and our Partnerships we are now going to be able to build a um uh I I like to call it a six-star clinic um why go for five stars when you can get six um uh six-star Quality Healthcare Center that's brand new um that's built um with the integration centering culture at the center of what we do because we know that that is a really important thing for our the healing in our community and for our people and then we're building four um floors of housing above that two-story Clinic um that is going to help um uh stabilize people's lives and get them back into um spaces um that where they can feel that they belong they are supported they are going to be able to help um raise their families and be um uh um um in the in the community doing the things that uh that that support them we have a tremendous number of uh Partnerships that I want to just name that have been significantly helpful in the design and and and and the you can see through these beautiful renderings that we have been working with Sam mxon who has been doing foundational work here on the American Indian cultural Corridor he is our Master architect who is in done a great job of integrating um what Knack likes to call our unapologetically indigenous um lens on how we deliver Healthcare we are centering culture and we are centering cultural healing at the center what we do um within a western clinic and um I think we are producing some amazing results because of that that's right um I want to um tell you that this is foundational for us and historic so thank you so much I really do appreciate your investment and your support so much over the years but with this particular project this is um um this is a turning point for Knack um and uh turning point for our community and I am really um tremendously grateful humbled humbled um to be in the role that I'm in and leading this work with my team I have the most amazing team on the planet I think you probably think you do but I actually do um and um I have great partners and none of this would be possible without great partnership and everything that we do at Knack is built on the value of partnership and collaboration we know that that we can't achieve any of this without each other um we are on a mission to um solve and um and and heal the the Deep wounds that are generational multiple generations of indigenous people living in South Minneapolis have struggled with homelessness chronically and generationally we are in um uh we are committed to changing that and working with our partners to do that so thank you so much for your time today and please if you have questions about these beautiful drawings I'd be happy to help I want to introduce our um housing partner Casey um ja Javy javinsky yeah thank you Dr saley um so my name is Casey jensy I'm the CFO at Wellington Management uh we are um we've been around for 40 years um we manage and have developed um about a thousand of units thousand units across the city um but I I would say we are also deeply humbled and honored to be part of this project uh we got to know Dr statley and his team about three years ago when this was of a still in the in the vision phase and um we're just super honored um to be here and I think one thing that's unique about this project it's you know as a knack being a native Le organization a critical piece of this whole project is there are 83 units on top of this building but that land is going to remain in the ownership of knack um and we are really just trying to be behind the scenes to support their work so um keep it brief um but yeah we're just super happy and excited to take the next phase with this great team thank you and Dr sty I think we both might be right in that your team now with Casey he used to be on our team so I think we both can have some excellent teams uh with that we'll open to any questions you might have yes was your completion date you may have said it I didn't oh sorry yeah so we plan to break ground in March of 2025 so um we groundbreaking will be then you'll all be invited to it um and then we expect to open in September of 2026 um when we'll start um uh operationally with the new Clinic um we'll continue to operate in this lovely building um until the build the new building is completed and then we'll um this building will be gr raised and we'll build our brand new parking lot on this side so it'll be a challenging for the next couple of um a year and a half or so to operate but we will stay open and we will continue to provide services where um we're going to be doing back flips and cartwheels and all kinds of ways to make sure that we mitigate the impact of the building on our patients we're going to take on that burden not not ask the patients to take that on um so um yeah about 18-month build for 14 to 18 months thanks we uh we here to we had the opportunity to shoot some video of the clinic before this presser what will the changes be and uh how important is this new Clinic going to be compared to where we're at right now oh gosh um well um the building that we're in now that a mat or Knack operates in um is a basically uh it is part of a um uh a shopping mall right so Knack started in 2021 or 20 2001 when or 2003 when we opened and one of the things that was unique about it was it was took up one little tiny part of the shopping center and it had a bunch of other things on either side of it and as people left we got the space and we kind of like kind of just you know put a door where it made sense to put a door those kinds of things so the clinic has never really been all that well integrated and thoughtfully planned as a clinic it's just sort of kind of been Jerry riged together like a lot like my home actually um and or the home I grew up in actually I would would say that um what's different about this building it has been thoughtfully planned and from the very beginning to be specifically culturally centered with um you know unabashedly you're you're going to walk into the new clinic and you're going to know immediately even even before you get through the front door you're going to know you're in an indigenous space because the gardens around the clinic are going to have indigenous medicines growing um in it and those medicines will be used both in our clinic and also given out to the community because those medicines are important to our healing you'll walk into the um Lobby and you'll see a big huge um a drum room um this is a little bit of an interpretation of it um that drum room is going to be that represents the heartbeat of our nation the heartbeat of our mother it's the first thing we hear when we become um when we are in our mother's wound it's the it is the thing that tells us we're are human and we are relatives and we have planned the space so that you can move throughout the building and you can have you know there's going to be a significant amount of investment made in the integration of our team so that they can work more collaboratively more seamlessly and clinical flow works better for both patients and also staff and so we are designing this building to be um um there my hope is and I think I've been in a lot of other clinics it's not I've never seen a clinic like it before it's not been built built yet but I got to virtually walk through it and it's pretty amazing if you want the virtual link I'll send it to you yeah it's it's it's a it's a game changer for our community yeah it's a game changer yeah it it's often times we kind of have our our heads down doing the work and it's seldom that we pick our heads up to recognize some of the successes we're seeing when I go around the country we talk to other Mayors we talk to the Secretary of Hud at the federal level they highlight Minneapolis um not just as one of the top cities for affordable housing but the leader uh they highlight the policies that we've pushed forward as setting the stage for so many others to follow uh and this is work that is led by so many great people on our team and we're really proud of it any other questions no all right thanks everybody