By Jill Fennema –

Last Wednesday, the Edgerton City Council held a special meeting to handle a couple of items that could not be handled at their regular meeting on the 2nd Wednesday of September.

The major item on the agenda was a meeting with two representatives from the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, a non-profit company based in Slayton. Chad Adams is the chief executive officer of SWMHP and James Arentson is an architect with the company.

They were invited to this special meeting to present information for the council’s consideration related to the shortage of affordable housing in Edgerton.

The SWMHP helps local government entities like cities and counties evaluate their local housing needs, create a plan, and find funding sources. They also assist with community planning and technical assistance, homeownership assistance, land development, and redevelopment.

They also do preservation and rehab of historic buildings. For example, they rehabbed an historic building in downtown Olivia into an apartment complex. They also design and build single family and multi-family housing.

“We don’t come in as a developer and just build whatever we want,” Adams’ said. They assist government entities as they try to identify and respond to community needs.

The SWMHP was formed in 1992 and worked with Edgerton to develop the De Kam Addition north of Fey Industries.

City Clerk and EDA Director Joel Farrington invited the SWMHP to speak to the council because in conversations with business owners in the community, he has learned that finding housing in Edgerton is a big challenge.

“There is a great demand here for housing,” Farrington said. “Employers are looking for places for their employees to live.”

He pointed out that there is one really big lot in the Northwest First Addition that would be a great place for an apartment complex, but the current covenants in that development do not allow for that type of housing. He added that some of the smaller lots on the south side of Tower Street would be a good area for the city to look to bring in smaller, more affordable houses.

Arentson, the architect, showed the council several floor plans that they have created for affordable housing options, including a twin home and smaller “built on slab” single family homes.

He explained that the costs of construction have been climbing steadily and the COVID-19 pandemic has raised costs even more in the last six months.  To build a house with a price tag under $200,000 is almost impossible, but the Partnership works hard to still try to do that. One of the ways they do that is to build houses without basements for people who may want to live all on one level – such as older adults who cannot or do not want to deal with stairs.