In February 2019, the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) is planning to hire two Community Service Coordinators for the “Stable Homes Stable Schools” program run by MPHA, the City of Minneapolis, and Minneapolis Public Schools. See here for DG&PHC’s analysis of Stable Homes Stable Schools:https://www.dgphc.org/2018/06/11/mayor-freys-latest-pr-campaign-does-not-serve-homeless-youth/. MPHA’s Community Service Coordinators are supposed to assist Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) holders find and retain housing. See job description here: https://www.facebook.com/mplspublichousing/posts/3067395509952949 .
They may help families with, “completing the appropriate paperwork to obtain and/or sustain stable housing, connect them to housing search assistance, coordinate financial, legal, or other supports to maintain housing, and work with landlords through and beyond the lease-up process”. The problem with HCV is not voucher holders’ inability to find or retain housing. It is the lack of landlords that accept HCV, fueled by systemic racism and the ongoing gentrification of Minneapolis. The Landlords and developers won a lawsuit against the City’s Section 8 compliance, and they don’t have to accept Section 8 Vouchers.
There is a massive waitlist for Section 8 (HCV) vouchers in Minneapolis and virtually no landlords are willing to accept voucher holders. Even if people are accepted, landlords frequently raise rents and displace residents making vouchers extremely unstable. Or, landlords can stop accepting Section 8 at any time while residents are living in the units, and they are given short notice to move out. This is a deliberate act to gentrify Minneapolis as families of color with Section 8 vouchers are being pushed out. Here is a story of a woman who has been displaced with Section 8 Voucher, and she can’t find housing in Minneapolis and in the suburbs.
These jobs announcements are nothing more than a PR stunt whereby MPHA can claim to be, “doing everything they can” while simultaneously decreasing Minneapolis’ existing Public Housing through privatization and pushing families out of Minneapolis and forcing them to accept vouchers that don’t work. This is another false solution from MPHA and the City of Minneapolis in an attempt to fix their public image as they dismantle public housing and displace low-income Black and Brown residents out of Minneapolis.