From Our Current Newsletter
A Classy Rooming House
By Herb Frey, AHI Executive Director
Thanks to the government and foundations, AHI has just finished rehabbing its 27-unit rooming house at 2011 Pillsbury Avenue in Minneapolis. The windows are all new, so are all the doors, furnace, six baths, common kitchen, laundry room, floor coverings, all the beds, dressers, and ceiling fans. The building now has fire sprinklers throughout. Outside improvements include new concrete steps, new paint, all new landscaping around the building and sidewalks and asphalt pavement in the rear parking lot. “It’s now a classy place to live”, says Billy N., a long-time resident.
Pillsbury’s rehab is part of the neighborhood rehab that has occurred all along Franklin Avenue. With the new apartment buildings, condos, and retail has come a new outlook—and less drug activity and anti-social behavior. A half-mile from downtown and a block from bus lines in every direction, 2011 Pillsbury is a perfect location if you’re single and don’t have much money.
All of Pillsbury’s residents have been homeless. Nineteen of the current residents came directly from shelters; the others from treatment, friends’ floors or outside. Eleven were long-term homeless. (Eventually 14 of the residents will have to have been long-term homeless.) Racially it’s a mixed building: 11 whites, 10 blacks, 2 Native Americans, and 2 Hispanics. The average age is 47. Twelve residents work; eleven get Social Security Disability; four have no income—a long-term homeless program pays their rent.
Five residents have problems with mental illness; another 8 are chemically dependent; 5 are both mentally ill and chemically dependent.
People live at Pillsbury primarily because the rent—average is $325 a month—is lower than anywhere else except subsidized housing. Many see it as a place to get started, build up a rental history, until they land better job and can afford a larger place. Residents who never land that better job or who are disabled stay there a lot longer. Some of them have lived in other Minneapolis rooming houses.
At Pillsbury AHI employs a dedicated on-site caretaker to keep things peaceful. New residents quickly learn that they and their rowdy friends are not in charge. They learn or they leave.
New residents start with a weekly lease, which has advantages for them and for AHI. Residents don’t have to come up with full month’s rent on the first of the month, and instead pay by the week. AHI can legally have them out in little over a week, rather than the 4-6 weeks it takes to evict somebody on a monthly lease. Most new residents, however, aren’t a problem. They are very glad to be out of the shelter and in their own place.
Last year, it cost AHI about $415 a month to keep somebody in the rooming house. Since residents pay on average $325 a month, AHI has to make up the difference through donations. Operating costs should go down this year because of the new windows, fire sprinklers, and furnace, unless the price of natural gas goes through the roof.
$415 a month compares favorably with the cost of keeping someone in a shelter. St. Stephen’s costs $953 a month for each shelter guest. The Salvation Army shelter costs $1,109 a month per guest. A family of three at People Serving People costs Hennepin County over $3,000 a month.
And, as you might expect, rooming houses are also cheaper to buy and rehab than other housing. Buy-and-rehab is the best bet since current city code prohibits their construction outside the downtown area. The total development costs for buying 2011 Pillsbury and taking it from a dilapidated building to something almost brand new was $61,100 a unit. (This includes the new roof and common baths that were done four years ago.) Studio apartments—the only thing you can build in most places—cost more than twice as much as a rooming house: $131,000 unit to build new.
Most planners and politicians say you should never build rooming units. “Nobody should have to live like this.” However, rooming houses still work very nicely for some of the populations AHI serves. Believe it or not, some Pillsbury residents don’t want a studio or one bedroom. After years on the streets, a room is all they can handle. Some residents also benefit from living in community rather than cooped up in their own apartment. On-site management looking out for them is also a plus. In an era of dwindling resources, rising costs, and rising homelessness, rooming houses like 2011 Pillsbury should get a second look.