Moorhead high-rise closure would impact pathways to housing

The potential closure of Moorhead’s 14-story downtown high-rise would have big impacts on the metro’s already overwhelmed homeless to housed pipeline.

River View Heights, 800 2nd Ave N, has provided 104 units of low-income public housing in downtown Moorhead since 1968. Its future is now in question.

To remain open the building needs some $18 million in repairs, Moorhead Public Housing Agency Executive Director Dawn Bacon told The Forum. With costs mounting, the agency is looking into the idea of selling the building and moving all current tenants into other affordable housing in the metro.

This massive public housing complex has been a vital pathway towards housing for guests at Micah’s Mission emergency shelter, according to Churches United’s Business Development Director Shelley Brooks.

River View Heights has helped people experiencing homelessness get into housing quicker for decades, Brooks said, not just for guests of Churches United but for housing agencies throughout the area.

In addition, the building’s proximity to resources like grocery stores, the library, and the meal services at Micah’s Mission play a key role in keeping people housed.

The loss of these 104 units of affordable public housing will have a huge impact on the community’s available affordable housing stock, Brooks said.

Already, there isn’t enough affordable and assessable housing available in the metro to meet current demand, Brooks said.

Housing waitlists are already lengthy, she said, and people often struggle to find landlord’s outside of public housing who will accept tenants with complicated rental backgrounds or credit. In addition, the community is facing a shortage of affordable housing.

There are guests at Micah’s Mission who have been waiting over a year in the emergency shelter for housing, she said.

“The units aren’t out there,” Brooks said.

On any given night Micah’s Mission has at least five families, five women, and anywhere from 10-15 men on the waitlist for emergency shelter.

According to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the nationwide rise in homelessness is due, largely, to underfunded programs causing affordable housing shortages, wages not keeping pace with rising rents, and inequitable access to healthcare and mental healthcare.

To help offset this rising demand, Churches United has opened two affordable housing units in Moorhead over the last 8 years: one building for seniors and veterans and another for individuals and families.

Moorhead’s Public Housing Agency Board is set to discuss the future of River View Heights at 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, October 27, at the Fieldcrest Townhomes community room, 1828 34th Ave. S., Moorhead.

If members of the board decide to move forward with selling the building, Bacon told The Forum, the agency could start moving residents out and into new homes as soon as June 2027.