On April 18, 2018, the Housing Policy & Development Committee of the Minneapolis City Council approved a pilot initiative that, if it becomes City policy, we believe has the serious potential to contribute to rising rents. Offering large property tax breaks to multi-unit landlords, the scheme uses deceptive Area Median Income (AMI) calculations to hide a pro-gentrification agenda.

Called the “4d Pilot Initiative,” the proposal would offer landlords of private, market-rate buildings with 10 or more units a 40% property tax reduction. Qualifying landlords in turn would agree to offer some of their units at rents affordable to households earning 60% AMI, for a 10-year period. The program is billed as intended to prevent “Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing” (NOAH) units’ rents from being raised as the gentrification of Minneapolis accelerates.

Problem is, the rents this initiative deems “affordable”—meaning affordable to households earning 60% AMI—are much higher than what many NOAH units are currently priced at. Since AMI determines median income based on the entire metropolitan region, including wealthy White suburbs, rather than by individual neighborhoods or even at the city level, median income gets skewed upwards. Believe it or not, the Met Council considers $94,300 for a family of four the average income for the Twin Cities! Therefore once again, we pose the question: for whom is this “affordable”?

60% AMI means this initiative is intended for incomes around $55,000, which in effect is affordable only to the lowest tier of corporate workers—not to at-risk individuals or families currently being forced out of the city due to skyrocketing rents, paired with stagnant or nonexistent wages. Contrast $55,000 with Black renters in Minneapolis, who earn less than $27,000 on average.

In this initiative, units ranging from $991 for an efficiency, to $1062 for a 1-bedroom, to $1,471 for a 3-bedroom, would be deemed “affordable housing,” and their landlords would be given a large tax break. These prices in many cases are far higher than what the lowest income families in the city are currently paying, meaning landlords potentially could raise rents and still receive the tax break!

This proposal seems to be another golden carrot thrown towards landlords, and more insidiously, developers, if only as a way to entice them to make the absolute bare minimum contribution towards  diminishing our current and accelerating affordable housing crisis. We feel this is yet another example of how city leaders are hiding a pro-gentrification agenda behind liberal rhetoric. No doubt Mayor Jacob Frey will tout this initiative as a victory, but it does nothing to stop rising housing prices that are driving the social cleansing of low-income, Black, Native and immigrant communities out of Minneapolis, while a few big developers and landlords profit. This initiative even declares, “The goal is to preserve affordability…in a way that strengthens the bottom line for property owners.” In other words, landlord profits come before people’s needs.

Instead of these market-driven proposals, we need people-driven policies like rent control and public housing, to guarantee housing for the lowest incomes in our communities—defining affordable rents by what a household actually earns, NOT by inflated statistical averages. Public housing already does this, with strong protections against predatory speculators, so the Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition renews our call for more income-based public housing, and to stop MPHA’s privatization plans NOW. We need real commitment from our leaders to fight back against gentrification.

Shout- out to Teqen Zéa-Aida of the Loring Park neighborhood who contributed to this statement.