From MinnPost.com, Cynthia Boyd, March 20, 2008: At a time when the need for affordable housing is increasing, there's some good news in the steel beams and foundation walls at East 24th Street and Park Avenue South in Minneapolis.

From the Star Tribune, Jeff Strickler, March 19, 2008: Lutheran Social Service on Wednesday announced its most ambitious project ever: A south Minneapolis center that will combine affordable housing with job training, financial services, mental health support, after-school services for children and even an in-house church.

March 19, 2008: LSS President Mark Peterson talks about a unique project called the new Center for Changing Lives in Minneapolis, scheduled to open in November 2008, and how it will help people in need.

March 21, 2008: R.T. Rybak, Mayor of Minneapolis, has a personal connection to the Center for Changing Lives. Rybak knows the Phillips Neighborhood well because his father owned a drug store there, and he recalls delivering prescriptions to the homes of struggling families as a young teen. R.T. tells of the impressions left by those visits, and the importance of LSS in the neighborhood.

March 19, 2008: Four years ago, Becky Hentges was pregnant and had nowhere to go. Drug addiction and depression made it difficult to gain stability. With affordable housing, counseling, parenting classes and employment help from Lutheran Social Service, she now works full time, has reunited with her older daughter and is making a new life with her family in Maple Grove.

January 22, 2008: LSS announced a partnership with Target in recognition of a $500,000 grant it received for the LSS Center for Changing Lives, a $27 million social service campus that will include a wide variety of social services as well as affordable apartments for 48 families who are struggling. The Target grant brought the project’s fundraising goal to the 85 percent mark.