State to award $52M in affordable housing grants

A state agency is awarding more than $52 million in grants to help people find affordable housing.

Minnesota Housing Finance Commissioner Mary Tingerthal said the money will help more than 2,400 low-income households get into subsidized housing. She says the grants will help create more than 600 jobs when housing construction starts next year.

Tingerthal said low-income renters are having a hard time finding a place to live.

"It's harder to find an apartment. We're also finding that rents, particularly in the Twin Cities area, are starting to go up," she said. "Even more people than in the past are badly in need of affordable housing."

Tingerthal said grants will go to renters and home buyers with household incomes lower than 50 percent of the median income.