Twin Cities low income housing for mothers saved from bankruptcy, state looks for funding

NINA MOINI: A more than 40-year-old housing program for mothers with low income is back up and running after it was saved from bankruptcy. A nonprofit developer called Trellis bought the property this fall, and this week, the state's planning to secure $8 million in funding to keep the property and its programs afloat. Now almost 60 mothers and their children, many of whom have said the development was a safe place to recover from abuse or addiction, will remain in place and start receiving supportive programming.

Corinne Martin has been living at the development in St. Louis Park. She joins us now to talk about her experience. Hi, Corinne.

CORINNE MARTIN: Hi. How's it going?

NINA MOINI: Great. Thank you so much for being here. And we also have Jennifer Ho, Commissioner of Minnesota Housing, on the line, as well, to talk about this $8 million request to preserve and maintain this community. Commissioner Ho, thank you for joining me, as well.

JENNIFER HO: Oh, thanks for covering this. It's very exciting.

NINA MOINI: Exciting, and it's important. We know that housing is such a major issue in our state and beyond. Corinne, you've lived at what is formally known as Perspectives for a while. And then once Trellis bought it this fall, I understand they changed the name to Bickham Court Apartments. Can you tell me the story of how you came to be at Bickham Court Apartments with your family?

CORINNE MARTIN: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I'm actually not from Minnesota. I grew up in Winter Park, Florida, and that's where most of my family still lives today.

NINA MOINI: OK.

CORINNE MARTIN: So it's really just-- yeah, it's really just me and my daughter, my four-year-old. And my active addiction is actually what brought me to Minnesota. I was technically trafficked here and ended up getting arrested, which actually probably saved my life at the time. But, after that, I ended up staying here. I met my daughter's father.

And we tried to make a life here, but we were both serious drug addicts. So it wasn't healthy. And I didn't know about any of the programs, like Perspectives, that could have helped me. And it wasn't until my youngest daughter, Oakland, until I had her, and that I was forced to get help or lose her. CPS actually came to the hospital and took her from me before I was discharged, which was horrible. But, honestly, it probably saved both of our lives at the time.

After that, I started working with CPS to get sober and actually started my recovery journey at Wayside Family Recovery, and they helped me get Oakland back. We stayed there for, like, four months. Oakland is my daughter. We stayed there for four months, and they actually helped me get Oakland back.

And then, from there, we went to RS EDEN recovery for 10 months. But, by that time, I was looking for like an apartment and somewhere I could actually live and build a life with my daughter. And Perspectives-- this was back in March 2022, and that was Perspectives. And, yeah, they really, really saved Oakland and I, in a lot of ways.

NINA MOINI: Thank you so much--

CORINNE MARTIN: And now Bickham Court.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing that. Commissioner Ho, I want to bring you in here. I understand many mothers there are recovering from addiction or have been through abusive situations, have dealt with homelessness. And to Corinne's point, these aren't really fast things to recover from. It takes a long time. It takes individualized care. So I'm wondering, what types of offerings do you have in this program?

JENNIFER HO: Well, first of all, I just want to congratulate Corinne on her recovery and that journey that she's been on.

NINA MOINI: Absolutely.

JENNIFER HO: We know that stable housing is really key to being able to reach your dreams and your goals. And I think that's why the opportunity for Trellis to buy Perspectives and have this housing remain in the community and let Corinne and her neighbors be able to stay there is so important.

But, also, it preserves a partnership with a service provider that is also there to just help support people in their recovery and in their parenting, in their getting back to work and all the other things that we want for families. And so we're glad we can step in as a housing finance agency and help make the economics of this work and also help Trellis make the kind of improvements to the buildings that are really going to improve the quality of the whole community.

NINA MOINI: Because there was no guarantee that this would be able to go on, that you would be able to add back in this supportive programming so that it's more than just a place to lay your head, although that is very important. I'm sure that that's an exciting development, Commissioner.

JENNIFER HO: Yeah. When I heard that Perspectives was declaring bankruptcy, I mean, the first thing that I thought about was, well, what about all the families that live in St. Louis Park in that housing? And I'm sure that Corinne and her neighbors felt that same level of uncertainty. And so to be able to go, over the course of one calendar year, from having housing that could have been sold to a market rate developer, and the residents who live there today could have been given notice that their rents were going way up-- that would have been the most jarring thing for people who really have put their lives back together.

So, so much gratitude to everybody because it took multiple entities to help get the buildings purchased by Trellis and refinanced. And now the opportunity to recommend to my board that they approve improvements to the property, as well-- it's a huge turnaround.

NINA MOINI: Corinne, were you nervous about what might happen when you heard about the bankruptcy and perhaps having to move again? Corinne? Do we have Corinne? Oh, we might have lost Corinne. Well, we'll try to get her back. But, Commissioner, what were you hearing from residents at that time? They must have been pretty nervous.

JENNIFER HO: Yeah. I mean, I know-- because I've had the opportunity to talk with Corinne-- I know that when she got the letter that said that Perspectives was filing for bankruptcy, and, basically, we'll keep you posted as to what this means for you-- I mean, that is very, very, very terrifying, especially for somebody who has experienced housing instability in the past and has been able to achieve stability. So this is just the best-possible outcome.

NINA MOINI: And why was it so important to have this housing specifically for mothers and their kids?

JENNIFER HO: I think that Perspectives, while they're no longer in operation, they long-time had a commitment to recovery and supporting people in recovery and with a targeted niche to really help moms and their kids find that stability. And so it's really mission-critical work. We joke that we're the land of 10,000 treatment centers, but it's so important that we support people after treatment in their recovery so that they can really just move ahead in their lives.

NINA MOINI: And that often takes a lot of resources after that stay. Corinne, I understand we have you back on the line. I don't know if you were able to hear. We were just talking about, the commissioner and I, just that there wasn't a guarantee that families like yours were going to be able to stay and that the supportive programming was going to be there. What types of programming, or what do you really appreciate about maybe the holistic approach to helping people out where you're living?

CORINNE MARTIN: No, absolutely. Yeah, everything that Jennifer was talking about was very real and a very real fear. I mean, everything that we-- and it wasn't just me and my daughter. It was this community. They're really like our family. And it took a long time to build, and so losing that it was so scary.

But to lose all of-- it wasn't just the case managers and all the programs and stuff, but I was worried about losing like my friends and my neighbors. And we already need help as it is. So losing what little help we had or little support we had, it was so scary.

NINA MOINI: Yeah.

CORINNE MARTIN: Talking about it now, it just-- yeah.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, I'm certain that it was, and a community-- it sounds like what you've built there. Is there anything, Corinne, that stands out to you as something that you are really grateful for? Because people need help with financial stuff, getting a job, all sorts of things. So what's some of the programming that stands out for you?

CORINNE MARTIN: No, absolutely. And I feel like my recovery journey is a testament to how much programs like Perspectives and now Bickham Court helps single moms like me. They give us the means and support to raise our kids independently, not having to depend on toxic family members or, in my case, different relationships to help us get by.

And, yeah, it's financially, but it's also support, like making the right decision. I mean, at the beginning of my recovery, I didn't trust myself because I had-- for so many years, the most important thing to me was staying high. And so now the most important thing to me is building a family with my daughter and being a good role model. And how do you do that? And Perspectives and now Bickham Court, thank god, there's people here to help guide us and support us along the way.

NINA MOINI: Commissioner, I'll throw the last question here to you. I mentioned off the top of our segment here that the state's asking for $8 million for this project under an umbrella of a $25-million ask for housing in general from the state. How does this project fit into your larger goals for housing in this state? How do we get more supportive housing and programming like this?

JENNIFER HO: Well, the reason we're able to do this is because of the incredible partnership that we have with the Minnesota legislature and the investments that they make over and above the money that we can use from the federal government in order to really make sure that we can do projects like supportive housing, like really affordable rents. This recommendation from my board tomorrow is a part of a slate of recommendations that covers apartment buildings across the state, both new construction, as well as preservation deals like this.

We're also going to be talking about single-family home ownership. We're going to talk about investing in manufactured home community infrastructure. We need more housing in Minnesota. We have a shortage of units. We have more Minnesotans than we have homes. And just every opportunity that we have to invest in improving the housing that we have and creating more-- that's what Minnesota Housing is here for.

NINA MOINI: All right. Commissioner, Corinne, I thank you both for your time, and I wish you the best in the new year.

JENNIFER HO: Thank you so much.

CORINNE MARTIN: Bye.

NINA MOINI: Thank you. That was Corinne Martin, a resident of Perspectives housing in St. Louis Park, and Jennifer Ho, the Minnesota State Housing Commissioner.