🏢 Agate breaks ground on emergency shelter, affordable housing project on 27th Ave

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Agate Housing and Services broke ground Tuesday on a major new affordable housing and homeless shelter building at 2810 27th Ave, a block east of Cub, which it says will help provide shelter for about 100 people at a time and help single adults transition from homelessness into permanent stable housing. Agate expects the $25 million project to be completed by the end of next year. 

Background

Agate formed in 2021 with the merger of two of the city’s prominent homeless services agencies: St. Stephen’s Human Services and House of Charity. In tandem the group provides street outreach, emergency shelters, showers, meals, and case management services to about 5,000 people a year, with a focus on single adults.  

After one of its flagship shelters closed during COVID, and the peak-pandemic practice of sheltering people in hotels wound down, Agate began looking for a place to expand its housing inventory.

It zeroed in on four parcels at the corner of 28th Street and 27th Avenue: The former China Wok restaurant that was badly burned during the 2020 unrest, a parking lot, a vacant lot, and one house. The area met its criteria of being near affordable shopping and transit.

Early last year, an anonymous individual donor gave the vision a major push with a $1.5 million donation to cover the cost of buying the land. The rest was cobbled together through a mix of city and county funds, along with $5 million in bonding from the state and some additional funds from the Metropolitan Council. Agate partnered with Longfellow Community Council to host a pair of public meetings about the project last year.