There was a time when farmworker housing was a shack provided by an employer with no insulation, no plumbing and no electricity. People were separated from their families, coming to the U.S. to work the fields then send money home to their families. Long hours in the hot sun, no health care, no benefits and less than humane conditions were the norm.

Some aspects of the above story are still true. Housing is no longer supplied by employers.   The difference is that many people now live in an apartment or rental house, pooling their money to afford rent. It’s better, but less than most of us would tolerate, and certainly not healthy conditions for raising children.

It took more than a decade and the help of 11 major funders, but the affordable Greenway Heights Family Housing building designed for large families is up and running.

The 42-unit building at 2845 Bloomington Ave. S. is in Minneapolis’ East Phillips neighborhood, an ethnically diverse area with immigrants from Nepal, Somalia and Ethiopia, and significant Latino and Asian populations. The building was fully occupied immediately after opening in January, signaling that its larger units are in demand in the area.

The phenomenon of turning stalled new condominium projects into apartments is continuing in Minneapolis, where Loren Brueggemann of Phoenix Development Co. last week gained city approval to reshape the Track 29 condo concept along the Midtown Greenway.

The original vision put forward in 2005 foresaw a 71-unit condo loft building going up on Bryant Avenue S. accompanied by a half-dozen nine-unit townhouse buildings along Bryant and Aldrich avenues. Only three townhouse clusters facing Aldrich were ever completed by original developer Ross Fefercorn before the condo market evaporated.