An Uncommon Collaboration: Why our Region’s Leadership is Coming Together on Housing

September 2026
Dave Hengel 
Executive Director

If you’ve tried finding a place to live in the greater Bemidji area lately—or tried hiring someone who needs one—you already know we are at a critical juncture. Last year, our community saw virtually no new housing development.  In fact, multi-family housing development has been fairly stagnant for several years now. Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, over 4,000 people who work right here in Bemidji are forced to commute from outside Beltrami County in part because there is nowhere for them to sleep.

At Greater Bemidji, we see this challenge on the front lines every day when speaking with local employers, expanding businesses, and prospective residents. That is why we are partnering with the City of Bemidji, Beltrami County and the Beltrami County Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) to lead the operational rollout of Blueprint 2035: A Bemidji Area Housing Initiative.

Why Housing Matters to Our Shared Future

This isn’t just about putting up walls; it’s about setting up a sustainable engine for our local economy. Housing is a foundational gear of economic growth. Recent market data from Maxfield Research shows our region needs 6,264 new housing units by 2035—spanning 1,707 owner-occupied homes, 2,472 rentals, and 2,085 senior transition units.

Without housing, our businesses can’t staff up, regional anchors like Sanford Health and Bemidji State University struggle to recruit talent, and local governments are left with no choice but to repeatedly raise property taxes on existing homeowners to maintain public services. By aggressively expanding our housing supply, we expand our taxable valuation. A broader tax base eases the long-term property tax burden on everyone while protecting our quality of life.

To address the challenge, we are thrilled to lock arms with the City of Bemidji, Beltrami County, and the Beltrami County HRA to build and implement a unified strategy. Our goal is simple – to lay the foundation for our community to attract and support new housing development.  Just as we do at Greater Bemidji for new and expanding businesses, we want to ensure that builders and developers of housing are welcomed and supported, and that our area is seen as “shovel-ready” for development.

How the partnership will drive action

So what are we planning to do? Here are a few cornerstone pieces of our comprehensive strategy:

• A Centralized Single Entry-Point: We will be supporting a dedicated Housing Coordinator. The Coordinator will serve as the primary liaison for developers, financial institutions, and local governments—helping builders navigate permitting, locate available sites land, and pull together capital to support projects – including the resources available at the state level.
• Dedicated Funding Pool: To ensure fiscal stability, key partners are stepping up to ensure a long-term commitment to the goal. Partners are looking to make three-year commitments of support – providing the time needed to take a comprehensive approach to the issue. In addition, Sanford Health is providing critical start-up support to ensure we have strong footing as we build our capacity.
• Targeted Infrastructure Investment: We will be looking to align our public partners to lay the groundwork first— finding ways to extend water, sewer and other critical public infrastructure to ready-to-build sites so developers face lower upfront costs and fewer delays.
• Supportive Permitting & Zoning: With the upcoming completion of the City of Bemidji’s Comprehensive Plan, we will have a critical opportunity to address local land-use, zoning and permitting challenges – with an eye toward ensuring we can find responsible ways to say “yes” to housing development projects.
• Targeted Developer Incentives: Making housing developments pencil out in greater Minnesota is a significant challenge – including here in Bemidji. Simply put, the costs associated with developments are virtually the same (if not more) than in the metro area, but the prices (whether purchase price or rent) are significantly lower in our area. It is in these cases where a public-private partnership is required to be successful. We will be developing a tiered toolkit to incentivize builders and high impact developments.
• Preserving Neighborhoods: Alongside new development, we won’t lose site of our existing neighborhoods and will seek grants to fix up existing housing stock protect home equity.

What’s Next on the Rollout Plan

In the coming months, partners will set their focus on recruiting the housing coordinator. Once we have leadership in place, we will dive in. We will begin the work to inventory of public properties, work with the City and County to standardize local incentive models and identify impactful infrastructure development opportunities. Most significantly, we will work directly with local and regional developers and builders to identify and support projects that will have an immediate impact on our housing crisis.

Let me close by sharing that this level of collaboration is not common.  I am deeply grateful to the leadership at the City of Bemidji, Beltrami County and the Beltrami County HRA for their commitment to collectively make a difference. This is a daunting challenge that our community has been aware of for several years.  Instead of waiting for others to step up or pointing at each other, the partners have remained focused on what it is each of us can bring to the table.  That is impressive leadership – and it’s the path forward for solving the issues we face.

At Greater Bemidji, our goal is clear: measure success not just by the number of “front doors” in our area, but by filled job openings, a stronger tax base, and a region built to thrive well past 2035.