What is multiple sclerosis?
Multiple sclerosis interrupts the flow of information between the brain and the body and stops people from moving. Every hour in the United States, someone is newly diagnosed with MS, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are moving us closer to a world free of MS.

Who does Kingsley Commons serve?
Kingsley Commons is the first multihousing in Minnesota specifically designed and built for people living with multiple sclerosis and one of only a few such developments in the nation. It is an affordable community with 18 one-bedroom and 7 two-bedroom apartments with universal design features, where residents can live independently yet have access to services. To qualify to live at this property, residents must earn 50 percent or less of the area median income in accordance with the guidelines set forth by Hennepin County.

Why do people with MS need affordable housing with services?
Symptoms of multiple sclerosis are unpredictable and vary greatly from person to person and from time to time in the same person. Because of the unpredictable nature of the disease, people with MS often face varying needs from day to day, creating a barrier to independent living. Kingsley Commons offers residents shared personal care and support services based on an individual’s needs that can be accessed on short notice.

How is Kingsley Commons designed specifically for people with MS?
Kingsley Commons offers people with MS a way to help manage life with a disability, remain as independent as possible and be integrated into community life. The fully-accessible apartment units include accessible showers with fold-down seats, kitchens with low (34-inch) roll-under countertops and pull-out pantry shelving, wide-door entries, a five-foot turning radius and more. The building also includes an accessible computer lab, laundry facilities with a wheelchair wash, community spa, community room with a specially designed kitchen, and an outdoor patio and gazebo featuring an accessible barbecue kitchen and raised planting beds.

For design details and floor plans, please see Building Design.

What is unique about the site?
The 1.3-acre site is located along Shingle Creek in Minneapolis. Kingsley Commons shares a campus with Shingle Creek Commons, 75-unit, independent living apartment home for seniors. CommonBond Communities is the developer, property manager and service provider for both buildings. In keeping with the campus concept, Miller Hanson Partners designed Kingsley Commons to be complementary to Shingle Creek Commons. The two buildings share a driveway. Landscaping is similar and outdoor lighting fixtures are the same.

Who gets MS?
Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with more than twice as many women as men being diagnosed with the disease. Studies indicate that genetic factors may make certain individuals more susceptible to the disease, but there is no evidence that MS is directly inherited. It occurs more commonly among Caucasians, especially those of northern European ancestry, but people of African, Asian, and Hispanic backgrounds are not immune.

How many people have MS?
MS affects an estimated 9,000 people in Minnesota and western Wisconsin, more than 400,000 in the U.S., and 2.5 million worldwide. Every week about 200 people are diagnosed with the disease—more than one person every hour.

What are the typical symptoms of MS?
Symptoms of MS are unpredictable and vary greatly from person to person and from time to time in the same person. For instance, one person may experience abnormal fatigue, while another person may have severe vision problems. While one person with MS may have loss of balance and muscle coordination—making walking and everyday tasks difficult to perform—another person with MS may have slurred speech, tremors, stiffness, and bladder and bowel problems. Even severe symptoms may disappear completely and the person will regain lost functions. In the worst cases, people have partial or complete paralysis on a permanent basis.

What causes these symptoms?
In MS, symptoms result when inflammation and breakdown occur in myelin, the protective insulation surrounding the nerve fibers of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). Myelin is destroyed and replaced by scars of hardened “sclerotic” patches of tissue. Such lesions are called “plaques,” and appear in “multiple” places within the central nervous system. This can be compared to a loss of insulating material around an electrical wire, which interferes with the transmission of signals. Some nerve fibers are actually severed in association with the loss of myelin.