MONTEVIDEO -- Montevideo City Manager Steve Jones considers Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership a wonderful partner in meeting his city's affordable housing needs.
"They've done a little of everything,'' said Jones. "We've looked at Southwest as an overall housing issue partner. Sometimes they've built. Sometimes they've helped us build. Sometimes they've managed.''
During the last 10 years, Southwest has administered three state Small Cities' grants totaling $1.5 million and helped Montevideo obtain matching funds.
One component of each grant dealt with rehabilitation of homeowner and rental housing.
"A lot of that was used for existing structures to rehab different target areas of the city,'' said Jones.
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One grant helped the city with housing buyouts in the flood-prone Smith Addition and with relocation of those residents.
"When we did the flood buyouts, and other times, they've helped us with some single-family construction,'' said Jones. "Sometimes they would build it for us and helped us, and sometimes they built their own and sold it.''
Southwest has constructed some properties for the city, such as the 18 rental units in the Ashmore Place development, which the city owns.
Jones said Meadowlands, a local apartment complex, was not built by Southwest but was sold by the city to Southwest, which continues to own and operate it, along with another apartment complex in Montevideo.
"Even if they didn't take a direct part on building or not, they probably advised us on 90 percent of what we did,'' said Jones. "I think we consider them a very valuable partner if nothing else for advice on what to do.''
Jones said he was surprised to learn about the opposition to Southwest's housing project in Willmar.
"Certainly Willmar has to decide what kind of housing they want and where they want it and what's appropriate,'' Jones said. "But I don't know if there's anybody else in the state that's got a better reputation than they do for housing development. We were shocked to hear the question about their integrity and how well they do what they want to do. We're happy to work with them.''
Jones said Montevideo does not have major developers that will subdivide large tracts of land for housing.
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"I don't think there's so much that there are developers that won't do it. I think there certainly are cost factors involved and it's difficult to put in a new subdivision with the cost of infrastructure,'' he said.
"I think that's where small towns have a problem. In our case, we have been the catalyst with the help of Southwest to get the developments going. But saying that, we are smaller, so what we do is smaller than what Willmar would be doing.''
Jones said a majority of residents working at local plants can't afford a $250,000 or $500,000 house.
"If we expect people to work at Jennie-O (Turkey Store) and work at the plants we have, we better be building something for them to live in,'' said Jones. "If those jobs are good enough for people to work, we better have houses good enough for them, too.''
