Volunteers construct homes during the 40th annual Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project, which kicked off construction on houses in The Heights development in St. Paul, on Sept. 30, 2024. Photo by Madison McVan/Minnesota Reformer.
More than 4,000 volunteers will take part in the first wave of construction at a housing development financed by the city of St. Paul this week.
Habitat for Humanity chose the Twin Cities as its location for the 40th annual Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project, which brings together thousands of volunteers, including some celebrities and elected officials, to build homes and advocate for affordable housing.
The Carter Work Project coincides with the beginning of construction of The Heights, a $370 million housing development and business park at the site of the former Hillcrest Golf Course in the Greater East Side of St. Paul. The Heights is the largest development in the history of Habitat for Humanity Twin Cities.
The project is expected to create over 1,000 housing units, including more than 100 single family homes, townhomes, triplexes and fourplexes built by Habitat for Humanity. Volunteers will work on 30 Habitat for Humanity homes this week during the Carter Work Project.
Country music stars Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks shared stories of volunteering with Habitat for Humanity alongside Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter in St. Paul on Sept. 30, 2024. Photo by Madison McVan/Minnesota Reformer.
Sherman Associates, the lead developer for The Heights, will construct an apartment complex with around 900 units; JO Companies, another Twin Cities housing developer, will build between 110 and 230 apartments.
The new apartments are needed; the Twin Cities region needs to add nearly 65,000 affordable and available rental units in order to alleviate all households that are burdened by the cost of housing, defined as those spending more than 30% of their income on rent, according to research by Minnesota Housing Partnership.
Despite the demand for housing, construction has slowed down over the past year, especially in St. Paul. The city is on pace for its slowest residential construction season since 2010 or 2011, the immediate aftermath of the Great Recession, the Pioneer Press reported this month.
The slowdown is due in large part to high — but falling — interest rates, but developers have also pointed to St. Paul’s 3% annual cap on rent increases, approved by voters by ballot measure in 2021. In the years since the rent control measure was approved, the St. Paul City Council and city staff have approved sweeping exemptions — and now Mayor Melvin Carter is advocating for all new construction to be exempt from rent control in an attempt to make the city more attractive to developers.
“Every time you hear the phrase ‘housing crisis,’ you should hear, ‘We have more people than we have units.’ We need more housing units,” Carter said during a press conference at The Heights construction site Monday.
Chris Coleman, president and of CEO Habitat for Humanity Twin Cities and the former mayor of St. Paul, said the homes built by the organization are meant to help address the racial homeownership gap, which is worse in Minnesota than in most other states — statewide, 77% of white families own their homes, while only 29% of Black families are homeowners.
Country music stars Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks are helping with the construction of The Heights and attended the Monday event to highlight the importance of volunteering.
Yearwood and Brooks are carrying on the legacy of former president Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn Carter, who were longtime volunteers and supporters of Habitat for Humanity. Rosalynn died in November at the age of 96. Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday is Tuesday.
“It’s wonderful to volunteer in any way you can,” Yearwood said. “It’s wonderful to sign a T-shirt for an auction. It’s wonderful to write a check. It’s also wonderful to get your hands dirty and get in there.”