Minneapolis is Making Progress

Photo credit: Star Tribune

Excerpts from the August 10th City of Minneapolis e-news:

City of Minneapolis credit rating upgraded

Bond rating agencies S&P Global and Fitch Ratings have assigned the highest credit rating possible to the City of Minneapolis, reflecting strong confidence in the City’s financial health ahead of a bond sale later this month.

“The upgrade to ‘AAA’ from ‘AA+’ reflects Fitch’s belief that the City’s long-term liability burden will remain moderately low over time driven by moderate future borrowing plans, statewide pension reforms and strong trends of population and income growth,” the rating agency noted. “The ratings also incorporate the City’s strong revenue growth prospects driven by an expanding population and income levels, broad independent revenue-raising ability, and solid budgetary management that has resulted in healthy reserves and considerable gap-closing capacity.”

This is the first time since 2016 that the City has gone to market with AAA ratings from both Fitch and S&P Global rating agencies. The City plans to sell $113.85 million in bonds within the next few weeks and these high ratings affirm the City’s creditworthiness and provide confidence to the bond holders. This also allows the City to borrow funds to finance critical capital projects at a lower interest rate and save taxpayer dollars. 

The City goes through an extensive review process with the rating agencies where they evaluate factors such as the strength of management, City’s institutional framework, financial policies, financial measures in place, the amount of debt, long-term financial planning, current economic conditions and the amount of reserves the City has to withstand any unexpected revenue loss.

Learn more about the City’s credit ratings.

Stable Homes Stable Schools program expands for housing Minneapolis Public Schools students

Beginning in the fall, about 350 families a year will be served by the Stable Homes Stable Schools Housing Stability Fund. The fund provides emergency assistance to families at risk of losing their home. It will be offered to all 43 elementary schools in the Minneapolis Public School district.

The program’s multi-year rental assistance will also add five schools for a total of 24 eligible school sites. The program helps get families experiencing homelessness into safe and stable affordable housing and will serve about 250 families at any given time as a result. The expansion will also increase the number of participating families at existing school sites and staff to support them.

First piloted in 2019, Stable Homes Stable Schools has helped house or prevent homelessness for more than 1,500 Minneapolis Public Schools families and more than 4,200 students. More than 70% of families served through the program are single-parent households and approximately 90% are Black families, Indigenous families and families of color.

Stable Homes Stable Schools offers two types of rental assistance:

• The multi-year rental assistance program helps place and keep families of elementary students experiencing homelessness in safe, stable, and permanent affordable housing. See the City website for a list of the 24 eligible schools.
• The Housing Stability Fund helps prevent homelessness by helping families at risk of losing their housing. All 43 elementary schools in the Minneapolis Public Schools district are now eligible.

For families who immediately need eviction prevention resources, find resources listed on the City website.

Learn more about Stable Homes Stable Schools program

City leaders approve $5.8M investment in Minneapolis Homes program

Mayor Jacob Frey and the Minneapolis City Council have approved a $5.8 million investment in Minneapolis Homes, an umbrella program with products that help households access and sustain affordable home ownership in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis Homes was created with the vision of eliminating disparities in homeownership so that all families have access to the wealth-building opportunities that homeownership provides.

The investment will allow the City to convert 21 vacant lots or buildings into 40 affordable homes. Through the Council approval, an additional 18 project sites were awarded exclusive development rights with future plans for an additional 47 affordable homes.

Learn more about Minneapolis Homes.

Additionally...

This Star Tribune article, "Twin Cities has one of the lowest inflation rates in U.S., down to 1%" 

This Star Tribune article, "Why downtown is the fastest growing neighborhood in Minneapolis"

This Bring Me The News article, "Minneapolis enters Top 20 of 'America's Best Cities' 2023 list"