Edina Housing, Fire Department to Benefit from Grants

An array of grants have been awarded to the City of Edina in two important areas of the community’s life: housing and firefighting.

At a relatively short meeting last week, the Edina City Council spent a large portion of the evening reviewing, discussing and approving the acceptance of grants designed to help the city improve and advance housing in three areas.

The Metropolitan Council awarded a $250,000 grant specifically addressing the Section 8 affordable housing project, the Yorkdale Townhomes. A long-time multi-family residence at 7401 York Ave., the project consists of a mix of one-, two-, three- and four-bedroom homes, but is in need of significant maintenance updates, repairs and replacement efforts.

Yorkdale has a host of issues it needs to address, ranging from replacing rotting retaining walls to leaking pipes to aging HVAC systems to problems with mold. 

Nearly $148,000 in HUD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) will be designated for two programs.

Technically awarded through Hennepin County, $65,719 is for the rehabilitation of private, owner-occupied, single-family homes for structural improvement. Household income determines eligibility and is focused on low and fixed income residents. The program calls for deferred repayment on the loans.

The second portion of the CDBG is for $82,000 and is through a program administered by the West Hennepin Affordable Housing Land Trust (WHAHLT) as part of their Homes within Reach program.

Homes Within Reach provides affordable home ownership to one selected new homeowner in which WHAHLT buys an existing home, but retains ownership of the land on which the dwelling sits. The new owner is required to maintain the home, but has the advantage of greatly reduced mortgage payments because only the house, not the land, is factored into those payments.

The Edina Fire Department received two grants.

The first from the Department of Homeland Security is for $76,500 and will be used for training of department personnel in the areas of Urban Search and Rescue (USR) which primarily deals with issues related to collapsed structures.

The second grant is for $46,800 provided by FEMA to purchase a new state-of-the-art Jaws of Life apparatus. As contemporary vehicles contain greater tensile strength and reinforcement, they require more advanced equipment to pry them open in an accident to extract occupants. The new apparatus is up to that task, capable of cutting through just about any car.