Bemidji board approves Habitat housing, revokes stalled workforce project

Bemidji's Planning Board gave Northwoods Habitat for Humanity a fresh push toward more housing while stripping a stalled workforce project of the permit it had held since 2024. The split action kept the city's housing debate centered on what can actually be built in Bemidji, not just what has been proposed.

Northwoods Habitat said it was building two new homes this summer, and a city planning notice showed a related minor subdivision request that would create seven additional parcels in Finseth's 2nd Addition to Nymore, east of the vacated alleyway. Since 1990, Northwoods Habitat says it has built almost 60 houses in the Bemidji area, a record that adds units one project at a time in a city where housing demand still runs far ahead of supply.

The nonprofit's homeownership program is aimed at families with a need for affordable housing, the ability to repay a mortgage and a willingness to partner in the build. Northwoods Habitat says buyers must keep housing costs at no more than 30% of income, and its income guidelines for Beltrami and Clearwater counties currently run from at least $20,000 but less than $53,350 for a single person to less than $88,350 for a six-person household. Buyers also put in 300 sweat-equity hours.

The larger shortage is obvious in the numbers. A Northwoods Habitat post says Beltrami County's median property value was $222,300 in 2023, up about 9% from the year before, and about 15.7% of residents faced severe housing problems such as cost burden or overcrowding. Statewide, the Minnesota Housing Partnership says 85% of low-income renters are cost burdened, about 175,400 Minnesotans. Against that backdrop, two homes, or even a seven-parcel subdivision, are a meaningful local step but still a small answer to a much bigger shortage. Headwaters Regional Development Commission has also been helping update Bemidji's comprehensive plan, the city's long-range guide for development and redevelopment, which shows how tightly housing decisions are now tied to land use and permitting.