“Pivotal” funding secured for Mankato housing project addressing homelessness

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - The city of Mankato has received a grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development for $115,000.

Those funds will be used to excavate the contaminated soil on the site at 750 Linder Avenue in Mankato, which is slated to become a 40-unit apartment complex to address homelessness.

“[Soil inspectors] found undocumented fill that’s buried on the site that’s as deep as 15 feet. Stuff would’ve been buried on the site and that’s where the contamination was found,” the City of Mankato’s Economic Development Director Courtney Kramlinger said.

Kramlinger said the soil needs to be replaced before any building can be done toward the city’s new Supportive Housing Project.

“For this grant award to happen at the timing that it did, it was critical,” Kramlinger said.

Not only was this critical to the project but also to the people that are working to overcome homelessness in Mankato. Partners for Housing of Mankato will be the main service provider for this site.

Trisha Anderson from Partners for Housing said the goal is “to remove barriers and meet people’s needs toward finding permanent housing.”

But for Kramlinger, she feels her work will help get people off the streets.

“Just hearing from those people directly that are going to benefit from it, it is really moving just to know that I’m going to have a piece in it that’s going to help somebody’s life,” Kramlinger said.

The Supportive Housing Project is set to start construction this fall and open late next year.

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