Duluth Celebrates Grand Opening of 90 New Supportive Housing Units in Spirit Valley

Duluth's inventory of affordable housing expanded Friday with the grand opening of two new supportive housing developments: Wadena West and Welch Place Apartments. The newly constructed buildings sit adjacent to each other in the 500 block of North 52nd Avenue West in the Spirit Valley neighborhood of West Duluth, and the 90 units they collectively provide will be filled from a waiting list of roughly 300 people.

The buildings were constructed at a cost of more than $31 million with help from multiple sources and will operate with ongoing support from St. Louis County and the Duluth Housing and Redevelopment Authority, providing an array of services to residents, whatever their needs may be. The Duluth Housing and Redevelopment Authority is providing Section 8 rental assistance vouchers for 30 housing units, and has also pledged about $1 million in tax-increment financing support to cover ongoing operating expenses. Minnesota Housing provided $13.6 million in support for Wadena West and another $11.5 million for Welch Place.

Wadena West accounts for 60 of the units and Welch Place for the remaining 30. Of the 90 total units, 24 are affordable to households at or below 30% of area median income, with the remaining 66 affordable to households at or below 60% of AMI. The buildings include secured entry and exits, ADA-accessible units, and rental assistance, features Center City Housing called essential for a population that often cannot absorb full market rents.

Nancy Cashman, executive director of Center City Housing and the driving force behind the project, was direct about the financial model at the opening ceremony. "The units all need to be affordable because homeless people don't have enough money to pay the full rent and we need the full rent because we have to pay the bills," Cashman said. Her broader ambition for the buildings was just as unambiguous: "The goal of these buildings is to end homelessness and to help people have long-term housing stability."

Cashman thanked Center City's many partners in the project, referring to the development as nothing short of "a miracle," in light of daunting financial and site challenges related to problematic soil conditions. Minnesota Housing Commissioner Jennifer Ho pushed back on that framing, saying of the buildings that these aren't miracles, and instead credited Cashman and her team for getting their hands "into that dirty dirt."

The ceremony also carried a personal dimension for Cashman. She read a proclamation issued by Mayor Roger Reinert declaring Friday Nancy Cashman Day, in partial anticipation of her pending retirement from Center City Housing. Duluth City Council Vice President Janet Kennedy, who represents the 5th District where the new developments are located, thanked Cashman and said: "This is what community looks like."

State Sen. Jen McEwen, who represents Duluth's District 8, framed the project around more than square footage. The buildings will offer residents furniture, food, and on-site case management to help navigate social services, and McEwen said the cumulative effect would be transformative. "It will be a game change for the lives of all the people who are able to come into this building," she said. McEwen noted that while 90 households will gain housing as a result of the latest projects, they come from a waiting list of about 300 individuals.

Commissioner Ho put the project's promise plainly: "We can welcome people home, and we can give them the stability that allows them to dream again, that allows them to want more and to realize more." With roughly 210 people still waiting for a unit, that work is far from finished.