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Multifamily Customer Portal Resources

Workforce Housing Development Program

The Workforce Housing Development Program (WHDP) is a competitive funding program that targets small to medium-sized cities, communities, or areas in Greater Minnesota with rental workforce housing needs. Funding is available to build market rate residential rental properties in communities with proven job growth and demand for workforce rental housing. Communities are required to secure funds that match one dollar for every two dollars in funding offered through this program.

WHDP Program Guide

Workforce Housing Development Program Request for Proposals is OPEN!

Applications are due to Minnesota Housing by Tuesday, June 2, 2026, at noon Central time.

Stay up to date on Minnesota Housing's Workforce Housing Development Program by signing up for our eNews list.

Eligibility
Recipients

An eligible recipient is one of the following eligible project areas:

  • A home rule charter or statutory city located outside of a Metropolitan County
  • A Tribal Community or Tribal Reservation governed by a federally recognized Indian Tribe in Minnesota
  • An area served by a Joint County-City Economic Development Authority
  • Eligible Project Areas with fewer than 30,000 people will be given preference. Refer to Minn. Stat. 462A.39 for additional information

Eligible project areas with fewer than 30,000 people will be given preference. Refer to Minnesota Statute 462A.39 for additional information.

Projects

Eligible housing types include the following: 

  • Market Rate Residential Rental Properties to serve employees of a business or businesses located in an Eligible Project Area; a portion of the units can have rent restrictions or income restrictions
  • Manufactured rental homes
Activities

Eligible activities include the following or a combination of the following:

  • New construction
  • Acquisition and rehabilitation of a property that creates new housing units. This program would only fund those new units of housing.
  • Adaptive reuse of an existing property that is not currently used for housing.
Submission Instructions

Step 1: Create a Multifamily Customer Portal (Portal) Account

Accessing the Portal

Step 2: Gather Materials and Apply by the Deadline

Technical Assistance

We offer and strongly encourage, a technical assistance (TA) session to discuss your project with Minnesota Housing staff. To make the TA session productive, we recommend applicants begin by completing the Multifamily Workbook and preliminary scoring of the project.  These items can be submitted to the TA team advance of the scheduled TA session. If you would like TA as you complete your funding application, submit an email request to workforcehousingdevprog@state.mn.us

RFP Information Session

Minnesota Housing staff hosted an online information session which included eligibility requirements, timelines and other important RFP related information. Watch the recorded session (coming soon) | Presentation slides

Training

  • Getting Started: Get started in the Portal including how to request a user account and log in.
  • Apply for Funding: Find open funding rounds, create a project using the Apply for Funding Wizard and request project team access.
  • Project Checklists: Select project characteristics, manage checklist items, and submit a checklist.

For detailed instructions on how to navigate the system and submit an application checklist, refer to the user guides and video tutorials on the Multifamily Customer Portal Resources webpage.

Post Selection Resources

Contact

The WHDP team is available to answer any questions or provide technical assistance.