East Conifer Estates grand opening marks final phase of Conifer Housing Project
Aug. 24—BEMIDJI — More than a decade in the making, the Conifer Housing Project celebrated the completion of its third and final phase on Tuesday with the grand opening of the East Conifer Estates.
Part of the Headwaters Regional Development Commission's efforts to construct supportive housing in Bemidji, the East Conifer Estates is the third phase of the organization's housing project that has now built 76 units meant for people struggling with housing instability.
To celebrate this milestone, the HRDC invited its partners in the project and different organizations that work to provide housing in the community to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony and tour one of the units.
"We're so thankful that this could happen to recognize how important it is that we can all celebrate this," said Naomi Carlson, executive director of the HRDC. "This is an all-hands-on-deck thing."
The Conifer Housing Project is made up of three developments,
the original Conifer Estates,
which opened in 2012; the
Conifer Villas, which opened in 2021;
and now finally the East Conifer Estates which are located on Conifer Avenue in Bemidji.
"This has been more than a decade in the making. It's hard to remember that," Carlson shared. "It takes time to do great things, but it continues to be something that's highly important."
Consistently emphasized during the opening ceremony was the importance that
partnership and collaboration had played in getting the housing project completed.
Working alongside the HRDC through this process have been local governments and organizations like Housing Matters and regional Housing and Development Authorities. Each of these partnerships played an important role in the project's success.
"We're really proud of this partnership," said Patrick Harrington, executive director of Housing Matters. "People have worked tirelessly to see this come to fruition."
Creating supportive housing, which provides tenants not only with an affordable place to live but also easy access to supportive services, has been a primary goal of the HRDC, particularly in Bemidji which has disproportionately high rates of poverty and homelessness.
"We believe housing, safe, stable, affordable housing is a basic human right," Harrington said. "We can also give a little help to people who historically haven't had that chance."
The need for supportive and affordable housing has been clear during each phase of the project. Within a month of the original Conifer Estates opening, every one of its units was filled, and over 90% of those original tenants still call it home.
"That property was filled less than thirty days in," said Chad Nelson with DW Jones, the property management company for the different developments. "We're teaching them ownership of their home and a lot of people outside of this don't know about that."
Each of the units in the East Conifer Estates has also been filled, and the tenants are expected to move into their new homes during the next week.
"The most important thing that we have is our tenants and our clients," Nelson said. "Things have been going really well.
Now that the Conifer Housing Project is complete, the HRDC and its partners are looking toward their next initiatives.
"There's land nearby and more opportunities to identify and develop the next projects," Carlson added. "Collaboration is what it's going to take to be successful."
Housing will remain a primary focus for the HRDC and its partners as they begin to examine potential future projects,
"This is the smallest drop in the bucket for this community," Harrington said. "My hope is that we get this community to a point where nobody is unhoused, where everyone has stability."
