On Monday January 28th, the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) released a Community Update. This update rewrites history and co-opts resident organizing efforts. The first item in the update celebrates the completion of weatherization at Glendale Townhomes in partnership with Sustainable Resources Center (SRC) and CenterPoint Energy. The picture for this section features Jeff Horwich and partners holding signs and smiling in front of Glendale Townhomes. The photo in their update, and MPHA misrepresents the history of the weatherization project at Glendale. MPHA claims to have completed this weatherization project in only one year. But the truth is that City Council Member Kevin Reich and Sustainable Resources Center, http://www.src-mn.org approached Glendale residents about weatherizing their homes in February 2016 when residents’ complaints about the lack of heat became public. SRC’s offer came after 6 years of residents organizing for better heat since MPHA took over control of heat in 2010. Yet, MPHA blocked SRC from weatherizing Glendale homes (for free!) for over a year and a half.
MPHA was intentionally making Glendale townhomes dangerously cold in a process of disinvestment and neglect so they can demolish Glendale. The goal of this process was to make Glendale unlivable so there was no choice but to demolish it. This is a process used to displace Black and Brown residents to make way for luxury condos. Resident leaders from DG&PHC first organized to defeat RAD application in 2015 that would have demolished Glendale. Then DG&PHC along with allies organized, lobbied, and protested to get MPHA to accept SRC’s proposal for free weatherization at Glendale. MPHA finally did in October 2017, and now the project is complete. MPHA is taking all the credit for residents organizing and rewriting the story of their own neglect in a horrific PR stunt. MPHA will stop at nothing to displace low-income Black and Brown residents from Minneapolis and will try to paint themselves as the heroes the whole time. This is a co-option of resident organizing and a gross display of white supremacy. Here is a link of a statement by released DG&PHC in 2017 that outlines the history of residents organizing to bring back heat to Glendale; https://tinyurl.com/Weatherization-by-SRC. And, here is a scathing letter from then Representative Karen Clark to MPHA about their neglect to provide heat in Glendale; http://tinyurl.com/Rep-Clark-to-MPHA-Glendale. Even though MPHA was violation of State, City and Federal laws, none of our elected officials held them accountable.
The second item in MPHA’s update is an update on the RAD application at Elliot Twins. MPHA has laid out all their lies in this piece. First, they claim Elliot Twins need extensive repairs, this is not true. Elliot Twins are in excellent shape. They went through massive renovation in 2006 to 2008 and again in 2014, MPHA spent $1.24 million dollars on elevator modernization. In addition, MPHA has spent millions of dollars in repairs in the last ten years at Elliot Twins. Second, MPHA claims RAD will allow them to “work with partners to raise money” for repairs. This is a gross misrepresentation of the RAD program. The RAD program will result in MPHA selling the Elliot Twins to private investors, not “raising money” with them. Third, MPHA claims to have been sitting down with residents to collaborate and to make sure they understand their rights. This is a lie. DG&PHC and other resident organizers have been the ones communicating with residents about their rights. MPHA also completely misrepresented the reality of RAD at their most recent meeting with residents. MPHA would not let seniors and disabled residents sit down. They took way their chairs. MPHA harassed and bullied public housing residents and youth organizers, kicking them out of the meeting and encouraging white residents to harass them. MPHA also called the police on Black residents. This is horrific and could have been deadly for Black residents. MPHA hired the Center for Multicultural Mediation . (https://sites.google.com/site/multiculturalmediation/) to lie to residents in order to forcefully accept displacement through RAD conversions. This group was suppose to conduct cultural mediation which did not work because they were silencing residents for MPHA. MPHA isolated residents and used these cultural “mediators” in an attempt to manipulate them into accepting RAD. Residents told MPHA they never approved RAD and they don’t approve of this meeting. Residents saw through MPHA’s tactics and walked out. This meeting exposed how abusive MPHA’s leadership is and how elders/seniors, vulnerable residents are mistreated and taken advantage of.
Here is a photo of Jeff Horwich, MPHA Director of Policy & External Affairs, physically pushing allies and residents @ Elliot Twins’s public meeting on Jan. 17.2019 when residents rejected RAD and walked out.
In this update MPHA is attempting to revise history. It is reminiscent of the way the Trump administration constantly revises facts to take credit and appear in control. MPHA is losing control and is publicly, blatantly lying in a desperate attempt to regain control and complete their agenda of privatization, displacement, and gentrification. But their lies are being exposed. How long will the City of Minneapolis and HUD the ignore this crisis, abusive and racist behaviour of MPHA leadership Greg Russ, Jeff Horwich and MPHA Commissioners? If public housing residents were majority white, the City of Minneapolis would have stopped MPHA a long time ago from displacing and abusing us. We will not stop fighting to keep public housing public, to protect our homes, community and our human rights.