Churches United hopes to break ground on its Silver Linings Apartments for homeless men and women 55 and older within 120 days after receiving approval for $9,585,000 in low-interest forgivable loans from the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Churches United’s proposal to build deeply affordable housing for older homeless men and women is finally moving toward reality, thanks to approval by the Minnesota Housing and Finance Agency of $9,585,000 in interest-deferred, forgivable bonds from Minnesota Housing Finance Agency.

With that approval — plus $600,000 already committed locally to the nonprofit serving the area’s homeless population — Rev. Sue Koesterman predicts that ground will be broken sometime within the next 90 to 120 days, depending on the weather.

Only weather can stand in the way of that long-awaited occasion at this point. Koesterman hopes that her nonprofit, which serves the area’s homeless population and operates two food pantries, may be able to welcome the first residents in early 2024.

The Silver Linings Apartments have been a dream of Churches United’s board and leadership team as long as Koesterman has served as the organization’s executive director. “When I came on board in 2016, construction hadn’t even begun work on Bright Sky,” she remembers. “But the board was already dreaming of homes for people over 55.”

Churches United had purchased 10 acres of undeveloped land at Third Avenue and 34th Street North, just north of the EasTen Mall, in 2011. The Bright Sky Apartments, with 45 units for families, was built on the first of those five lots. Now Silver Linings, with 36 one-bedroom units, will begin to rise next door on a second plot. A third 2.5-acre location remains for future developments. (Forty percent of the purchased site was ceded to the city for drainage and a forested buffer.)

The vision of deeply affordable housing for older singles and couples began to take shape after Bright Sky opened in 2018. But the journey to finding funds was a long one, complicated in several ways by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. With the assistance of Beyond Shelter, the affordable housing company with which Churches United partnered, work began on the original application for low-interest funding in the middle of 2019. It was submitted to Minnesota Housing was submitted in February 2020 … just as the pandemic struck.

It was originally approved in April 2021. But when the project was bid out in December, construction estimates came in nearly $2 million higher than the original estimate of $7.6 million. That sent planners, including the architectural firm Schultz and Associates, back to the drawing board. About one-third of a million dollars was shaved off through design adjustments and substitution of less expensive but equally durable materials, but a gap remained.

That gap was closed when Minnesota Housing Finance’s mortgage credit committee approved the adjusted amount. Word of the official approval for the entire $9,585,000 made its way to Moorhead last week. The funds will be provided in the form of a low-interest loan, forgivable in 30 years. Another $755,000 in gap financing had been okayed earlier on the same terms. Funding for other costs related to the project include $250,000 in donations gathered by Churches United as well as grants via the American Rescue Plan of $150,000 from Clay County and $200,000 from the city of Moorhead.

Future residents of the new building will be limited to those who earn less than 50% of the area’s median income of $66,000 for a household or $34,400 for an individual (according to the US Census Bureau). They will pay a percentage of their income as rent. Most will qualify for some kind of affordable housing voucher, Koesterman predicts, that will cover the balance of the fair-market-value rent and whatever they personally pay.

Studies have shown that the need for affordable shelter among older adults is very, very high. “Just spend five minutes outdoors this week without a hat on,” Koesterman suggests. “You’ll understand immediately how critical shelter it to survival. Without it, this weather is deadly.” On top of that, the winter’s very early and brutal start has put extra stress on all the services Churches United provides, from emergency food supplies to hot meals and warm beds.

The pastor notes that providing for those services is the greater challenge her agency faces, despite the long wait that has culminated in funding for Silver Linings. “We always struggle to gather support for our general operating budget,” she points out. “I can raise money for bricks and sticks all day long. That’s the easy part. Finding the money to continue to pay our team members who provide such excellent service is far more challenging. Everything we do comes down to people. We need all the support we can get as we approach the year end.”

Worries aside, the next few days will be warm and cheery ones at Micah’s Mission, the main shelter on First Avenue North, as well as the Dorothy Day House, Safe Haven and Bright Sky. The Moorhead Police Department hosted a children’s party at the apartments on Monday, with Santa arriving in a squad car. On Tuesday, volunteers from Atonement Lutheran Church delivered Christmas gifts for kids. Volunteers will be serving holiday meals on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

And board members and the leadership team are still feeling the holiday spirit after getting word of the major Minnesota funding award. So what’s next?

“We still have one lot standing empty across from where Silver Linings will be built,” Koesterman confides, “and we’re considering the possibilities.

“If you never dream about what could be, it will never happen,” she says, and pauses. Then she smiles. “If you dream, at least you will have a chance.”