What if we had enough housing in which people could afford to live?  That was the question at the heart of the 2025 St. Cloud Area Housing Summit held April 29 at St. Cloud State University, bringing together a broad set of more than 100 community stakeholders.

Central Minnesota Builder Association (CMBA) joined CentraCare, the St. Cloud Area Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Central Minnesota and St. Cloud State University in co-hosting this year’s event, which was a follow-on to a similar summit CMBA helped co-host in 2023.  This year’s theme was “What if: Innovative Solutions for Housing Challenges,” focusing on ways area stakeholders can engage to start moving the needle in a positive direction in terms of meeting area housing supply and affordability needs.

CentraCare president Ken Holmen kicked off the day-long summit by urging people to “think differently” in addressing housing challenges. One local city council member added, “Bring us your ideas for how you can do it, not reasons why you can’t.”

One of the day’s sessions featured CMBA members Ted Schmid of Lumber One and Greg Wensmann of Wensmann Construction providing the builder’s perspective on the costs, challenges and opportunities of building homes in which people can afford to live. Their presentation included data on the actual builder costs involved in developing a residential lot and building a home. Schmid has done innovative affordable housing projects in the St. Cloud area and Rochester and has been engaged in local community discussions for more than a decade.

Another important session revisited St. Cloud’s Westwood Parkway development in the late 1990s which resulted in hundreds of units of affordable housing over a number of years. St. Cloud community development director, Matt Glaesman, reviewed factors contributing to the development’s success and looked at how we might use those today. Some key ingredients to the Westwood Parkway success included visionary developers and builders, city planning and engagement, mixed-use zoning and platting, smaller single-family lot sizes and affordable project financing.

Other summit sessions highlighted the potency of Minnesota’s Housing Tax Credit, how land trusts can help provide perpetually affordable housing, financing tools to help build and buy housing affordably, refurbishing existing home stock, local zoning opportunities and a look at modular and manufactured homes.

St. Cloud State University professor, Dr. King Banaian, and Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) regional labor analyst, Luke Greiner, delivered a keynote. They shared statistics about what the area’s population would be if we had continued growing as we were prior to the 2008 recession, with perhaps 30,000 more residents living and working in the area. Having affordable places to live is key to growing an area’s workforce and economy.

The Housing Summit concluded with a look at the next steps and how participants can engage in helping bridge the housing availability and affordability gaps in the St. Cloud area. A CentraCare-facilitated community initiative in which CMBA is involved continues bringing together a broad spectrum of community stakeholders to address several factors impacting housing supply and affordability.

CMBA and the other St. Cloud Area Housing Summit planning partners are already discussing a follow-up event to help maintain momentum and provide accountability for making progress toward meeting housing needs.