I believe that with stable housing, children can function better in school, people can maintain stability in their workplace, and people have better health outcomes. I believe access to safe and secure housing is fundamental to a safe and secure society.

The city as a government entity, we tend to get involved where the marketplace does not. That is part of what is one role of government. And so with market rate, code and zoning compliance single family homes, we have very little role. But where we come in is where there are gaps in what has been provided in the marketplace.

Edina used to be a place where a traditional family of one, working adult, could afford a home. And this person could be in a typical professional field or a laborer and they could find a home, a skilled worker, they could find a home in Edina. And that opportunities are fading.

In the past 10 years, we've lost over 1,000 homes that have been demolished and replaced with luxury homes. As of mid September this year, there have been 40 permits pulled for demolitions. In 2023, the average price of a tear down was over $600,000. These homes are replaced with homes valued at over $2 million.

There are currently people in Edina that call Edina home. Yet it's challenging for them to lay down roots if the housing costs are wildly out of reach. Secondly, with a household size of four, there's a high probability that they have school aged children. Currently our school system, 20% of the school children are open and enrolled.

Pre-pandemic numbers estimated that 40,000 people traveled into the city each day for work. This means cars on the roads. And let me tell you, staff here about congestion. We hear about those cars on the roads. So in addition to a housing issue, this is actually a climate issue as well.

Between 2007 and now we have preserved 36 thus far more on the way modest homes through this program. Just since 2021, 22 of that 36 homes have been preserved through this program.

This program has been around since mid 80s, but it went through a revamping in 2007 and since that time between 2007 and beginning of this year, we helped 183 households buy home in Edina with originating almost $9 million. So how this was financed is old mortgages would get paid off and they would finance new mortgages. And so it was a revolving program that was self-sustaining. But what has happened is there's been a far greater increase because as I mentioned, the gap between housing prices and incomes is growing.

These are folks that work in the fire department, that work in the police department, that work in the schools, that work in the healthcare industry, that work in the city. There are income limits, and there are home value limits, but this is up to $100,000 of down payment assistance to a lot of these people who have to show up for work, be able to live closer to their job.

That one. That's not adjusted for inflation. No, that is not. This comes from our assessing department. It would be helpful to get a real true picture of it or adjusted either by average area median income over time or consumer price index or something to see.

I think what's telling about this slide is how the different lines are changing. The top line took a deep dive below the other lines where if everything were adjusted purely, kept on track, it all go up pretty much the same rate.

Why is right now a time to focus on affordable housing? I think we should always focus on affordable housing is truthfully, but now is a time people are struggling. With meeting their housing needs and truthfully, it's a lot more expensive.

If you it's higher up in the hierarchy of needs and it's a lot more expensive dealing with housing, the unhoused dealing with. Emergency medical room care dealing with educational issues when there's lack of stability. So kids are moving around to different schools. Those ultimately have much higher costs in the long run than figuring out housing costs and permanent sheltering costs now.