One Roof Housing’s impact on local communities extends well beyond its physical presence in Duluth.
Throughout northern Minnesota, from Grand Marais to the Iron Range, One Roof Housing, a nonprofit housing organization, has assisted and supported homeowners, tenants, and landlords to improve access to affordable housing. The organization provides homebuyer education, mediation for tenants and landlords, rental assistance, home improvement loans, and more.
“Our mission is really to improve people’s lives through helping them with housing needs,” One Roof Housing Executive Director Jeff Corey said. “Whether that’s providing a home, fixing a home, helping someone get ready to buy a home, or helping someone learn how to be stable in their apartment.”
Throughout its history, the organization has also been involved in constructing various single-family homes and apartment buildings throughout the state’s northern regions, including many in Grand Marais.
“We’ve done about 600 Community Land Trust closings between homes that we’ve developed,” Corey said. In Duluth and the surrounding area, the organization has developed Decker Dwellings Apartments, Brewery Creek Apartments, Plover Place, and numerous others.
Farther up the North Shore in Grand Marais, Corey said, One Roof Housing has built 10 Community Land Trust Homes and developed Four Directions Dwellings, a 16-unit apartment complex in Lutsen.
Building affordable housing in Duluth and rural areas, such as Grand Marais, presents numerous challenging obstacles, Corey said. Given the expansive bedrock and wetlands, construction costs are typically higher. The higher costs further complicate the objective of improving access to affordable housing.
Corey said, “Duluth is one of the hardest places in the state because our incomes are relatively low compared to the rest of the state. Development costs are high, if not higher, than anywhere in the state.”
“Then go up the shore to Cook County,” Corey said. “Cook County is a very hard place to make affordable housing happen.”
Despite these difficulties, One Roof Housing has found success in Cook County. Corey said he credits the local government and community’s commitment to finding housing solutions. While the Economic Development Authority (EDA) has been a valuable partner and resource for numerous projects, the more recent creation of the Housing Redevelopment Authority (HRA) has helped the community “sharpen the focus” on providing affordable housing needs.
“I think how we collaborate with other organizations, with government, with communities, is sort of the special sauce to getting things done,” Corey said. “Whether that’s the EDA and Grand Marais, or the HRA and other partners to do Birchwood Apartments. We couldn’t have done those projects if we hadn’t had that relationship with those entities.”
A significant One Roof Housing project currently underway in Grand Marais is the rehabilitation of the 24-unit Birchwood Apartments. Due to faulty plumbing in the two-building apartment complex, tenants lived in unhospitable conditions, with excessive water damage in numerous apartments.
The apartments are part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development program. Following a USDA inspection that identified the extensiveness of water damage and failing pipes, One Roof Housing stepped in to take ownership of the buildings.
“Because it was kind of a rescue project, we actually stepped in and took ownership of it before all the financing was completely assembled,” Corey said. “It’s not a normal project in that regard. Generally, we wouldn’t take ownership of a building until we had all the financing assembled.”
However, the unorthodox approach was necessary, as numerous low-income tenants were at risk of losing housing. Rehabilitation work began in 2024, with many of the apartments having renovation work already completed. Corey said work will continue in 2025.
Corey said the organization wouldn’t be able to accomplish all of the impactful housing projects throughout the Northland region without the dedication and support of his team. “I’m super proud of our team. We have a super dedicated group of people working here to do all the things that we do.”
As One Roof Housing continues renovating Birchwood Apartments and completes numerous other developments in the Duluth area in the coming years, Corey said he intends to maintain “as many projects as we have the capacity for.”
The two focus areas for One Roof Housing, looking toward the next five to 10 years, will be to find creative projects that require less state funding and operate in a more experimental housing space. “I really want to be able to devote resources to figuring out how to do more by coming up with some non-traditional mechanisms,” Corey said.