New Article from Ismail Khadar on the Minneapolis 2040 Comprehensive Plan

Dear allies:

See this article by Ismail Khadar about the Minneapolis 2040 Plan and how it will make our city more unequal and unaffordable for communities of color. This is the perspective you don’t get from the white mainstream media, who silences our voices.

The City of Minneapolis pays lip service to the problems facing POC communities, but their policies – like privatizing public housing and giving handouts to developers – will harm us and lead to displacement and homelessness.

https://www.weareubuntu.com/race-politcs/2019/4/16/the-san-francisco-fication-of-minneapolis?fbclid=IwAR0sKV4qyWwTA0tWNrrEc7SNxYtizOWyhofPtmsHDzDidW41KrH6CXNoWRQ

Council Members Cam Gordon & Abdi Warsame’s one-day listening session violates City’s Core Principles of Community Engagement

Council Members Cam Gordon (Chair of the Housing Policy & Development Committee) and Abdi Warsame (Chair of the Ways & Means Committee) posted a one-day listening session regarding the MOU they will sign with MPHA that will end public housing as we know it without notifying public housing residents that will be directly impacted by this decision.
facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/events/425514318211108

This MOU will evict thousands of residents in the coming years.

CM Gordon and CM Warsame also decided to hold this one-day session at non-public housing building.

The majority of public housing residents are seniors, people with disabilities and children who don’t have access to computers or speak English, so they have no idea about this MOU. 
According to City and MPHA’s community engagement policies and procedures, public housing residents, just like the rest of the public, are notified in writing a month prior regarding such meetings in multiple languages so they can participate.

Now public housing residents and the people of Minneapolis will not able to participate in this decision that will end public housing and change the future of Minneapolis. This decision is in line with Trump and Carson’s housing agenda.

By intentionally excluding public housing residents and refusing to hold citywide meetings at different times and locations so working families can attend, the City of Minneapolis, CM Gordon, and CM Warsame are violating the City’s Core Principles of Community Engagement. 
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/ncr/ncr_community-engagement

1. Right to be involved – Public participation is based on the belief that those who are affected by a decision have a right to be involved in the decision-making process.

2. Contribution will be thoughtfully considered – Public participation includes the promise that the public’s contribution will be thoughtfully considered.

3. Recognize the needs of all – Public participation promotes sustainable decisions by recognizing and communicating the needs and interests of all participants, including decision-makers.

4. Seek out involvement – Public participation seeks out and facilitates the involvement of those potentially affected by or interested in a decision.

5.Participants design participation – Public participation seeks input from participants in designing how they participate.

6.Adequate information – Public participation provides participants with the information they need to participate in a meaningful way.

7. Known effect of participation – Public participation communicates to participants how their input affected the decision.

Copyright IAP2. All rights reserved. Adopted by Minneapolis City Council, December 2007

Urgent Action! Contact Elected Officials to demand citywide listening sessions for “Memorandum of Understanding”

Urgent Action!

Contact the City of Minneapolis and your state representatives (see contact info in the comments) to demand that the City hold citywide listening sessions for public housing residents and the people of Minneapolis to comment on the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the City wants to sign with MPHA to privatize and dismantle public housing forever!

Dear allies, demand that the City of Minneapolis do the following:

1) Hold at least 4 to 5 citywide listening sessions for public housing residents and the people of Minneapolis about the MOU. 
2) Notify every public housing resident by mail and in multiple languages about the listening session times, dates and locations. Provide at least 2 to 3 weeks notice. 
3)Hold the listening sessions from 6 to 8 pm at the Brian Coyle Community Center, Horn Towers, Glendale Townhomes, Spring Manor and the Cora McCorvey Health and Wellness Center so that public housing residents are able to attend. 
4) After the listening sessions are complete, provide a 30 day comment period. 
5) Hold a public hearing at City Hall before the vote at a time everyone can attend.

On April 11, 2019, Council Member Cam Gordon announced on Facebook and by email to a few people that he and Council Member Abdi Warsame will hold one listening session at Matthews Park on Wednesday, April 17th from 7-9 pm about the MOU the City of Minneapolis and the MPHA plan to sign regarding the financial support MPHA will receive from the City for privatizing and dismantling public housing. The City Council will then vote to approve the MOU on Friday, April 19, 2019.

Neither the City nor MPHA notified any of the thousands of public housing residents who are at risk of displacement and homelessness about this MOU. In failing to do so the City violated its own Core Principles of Community Engagement. Holding only one meeting and voting two days later to approve the MOU is unacceptable and violates any transparent democracy and governance.

The MOU and the meeting at Matthews Park are not designed to involve public housing residents or to protect public housing, but rather to convince non-public housing residents that MPHA’s privatization scheme is not what it seems. The MOU misleadingly implies that transferring ownership of public housing from MPHA to an unaccountable private non-profit and companies such as the one MPHA Executive Director Greg Russ’s family owns does not constitute privatization. It also repeats the lie that privatization is necessary when MPHA has a surplus of over $23 million and ample funding sources to keep public housing public. Furthermore, the MOU offers no meaningful protections to residents.

The MOU helps MPHA force through its plans to privatize all Minneapolis public housing through Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) and Section 18 Demolition & Disposition, against the will of residents. The City and MPHA are taking advantage of Trump’s pro-privatization agenda to gentrify Minneapolis. Trump and Carson’s HUD recently gutted resident protections for Section 18 and is failing to properly monitor the RAD program. Privatization will displace 12,000 of our city’s most vulnerable residents and rob over 40,000 people on MPHA’s waitlist of the chance to access housing they can afford.

Contact your City and State elected officials to demand citywide listening sessions for public housing residents and the people of Minneapolis to learn about this MOU. MPHA cannot interfere with this process or intimidate public housing residents. The future of our city is at stake.

Link to the contact info sheet: https://www.dgphc.org/mn-elected-officials-and-city-of-minneapolis-contact-information/

#KeepPublicHousingPublic #BuildMorePublicHousing #PHIMBY #NotoRAD#DefendElliotTwins #StopFrey #StopRuss #SayNoToGentrification#StopPrivatization #DGPHC

MN Daily Editors Remove Resident Voices after being bullied by MPHA

Minnesota Daily editors removed resident voices from Aleezeh Hasan‘s article the day after it was published because MPHA complained about resident and leaders’ voices being heard. As a result, editors intentionally reported inaccuracies to push MPHA and Minneapolis elected officials’ narrative to normalize MPHA’s privatization and displacement plan through RAD at Elliot Twins.This plan is in line with Trump and Carson’s housing agenda. The reporter Aleezah Hasan told the truth and the real experiences of residents who are facing eviction but that made MN Daily editors too uncomfortable since they are not POC and don’t want to understand what the residents are going through. They related to MPHA more than the residents. In addition, even though the editors verified that the elected officials DG&PHC invited to the meeting did not show up, the editors also removed that fact to bend to the wishes of the DFL and local politicians. This is not journalism. MN Daily consistently silences POC voice and have no integrity in our communities. 
https://www.facebook.com/mndailynews/posts/10156168443189327?
//www.mndaily.com/article/2019/04/o-hasan-housing-is-a-human-right-but-we-dont-treat-it-that-way-in-minneapolis?fbclid

#KeepPublicHousingPublic #BuildMorePublicHousing #NotoRAD#DefendElliotTwins #SayNoToSection18Disposition #StopFrey #StopRuss#SayNoToGentrification #StopPrivatization #DGPHC

Evidence that the Minneapolis DFL is anti-public housing

More evidence that Minneapolis DFL (Democratic Party) is anti-public housing & pro developers pushing Trump and Carson’s Housing agenda: https://www.facebook.com/mplsdfl/posts/2283005505089775?__

The Minneapolis DFL has shared a Star Tribune article promoting MPHA’s privatization agenda. MPHA, with the support of Jacob Frey & Lisa Bender, have applied to HUD’s Section 18 Demolition & Disposition program using new rules created by HUD Secretary Ben Carson that make it easier to apply to this voluntary program to privatize public housing. This has never happened in the history of Minneapolis public housing since its birth after WWII.

One of the people who liked their post sharing this article was a man named Kent Mortimer. Why does this matter?

An ally from Twin Cities Musicians Against Gentrification forwarded us this person’s information, as he is a musician in Minneapolis. But aside from being a musician, Kent Mortimer is the Director of Compliance at Thies & Talle, one of the largest owners of subsidized tax credit affordable housing properties in Minnesota. This is exactly the type of company that hopes to take over public housing if the Minneapolis DFL allows MPHA to privatize our homes.

But it goes even deeper: this company is owned by Kenneth Talle, who is the Father-in-law of MPHA Executive Director Greg Russ. Greg Russ is the man who said he wants to end public housing in Minneapolis. Greg Russ is also a Democrat who is close to Carson. Greg Russ’s wife Luara Russ is the Vice President of Asset Management at Thies & Talle. In other words, Greg Russ’s family owns Thies & Talle, whose employees are publicly expressing support for MPHA’s privatization agenda.

An anonymous public housing resident wrote a letter to us, the Star Tribune, Mayor Jacob Frey, and the Minneapolis City Council alerting the public of this massive conflict of interest last year. We will post a link about this letter in the comments below. 
When we complained about this, the DFL completely ignored us. But now we have clear evidence linking together the Minneapolis DFL, MPHA, and Greg Russ’s family company in the privatization of public housing for profit.

#KeepPublicHousingPublic #BuildMorePublicHousing #NotoRAD#SayNoToSection18Disposition #DefendElliotTwins #StopFrey #StopRuss#SayNoToGentrification #StopPrivatization #DGPHC

Minneapolis DFL has become the party of privatizing public housing

Minneapolis DFL (Democratic Party) has become the party of privatizing public housing and pushing Trump/Carson’s housing agenda.
Check out DFL Minneapolis post.

The Minneapolis Democratic Party ( DFL) decided to promote the dismantling of public housing and show their true colors by endorsing an article that is a PR campaign that promotes disposition and the demolition of over 730 single family public housing homes in Minneapolis through a HUD voluntary program called Section 18 Disposition & Demolition.

link to this post here:
https://www.facebook.com/mplsdfl/posts/2283005505089775?__x

For the first time in the history of public housing in Minneapolis, this plan is approved by Trump and Carson, Mayor Jacob Frey and Lisa Bender. Again this is a voluntary program that allows public housing single-family homes to be turned over to private developers and corporations through a non-profit corporation that is controlled 99.9% by private developers that are gentrifying Minneapolis and destroying Black and Brown communities. This fits perfectly into 2040 Comp. Plan by Bender and Frey. Is this why CM Abdi Warsame, Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley, and Reprsentative Hodan Hasan and Mohamud Noor decided not to show up to meet with senior and disabled residents who will be evicted from Elliot Twins and face homelessness from Nov.2019 to Jan.2020? Allies call out the DFL for supporting Developers and Trump Carson’s housing agenda. They should not get away with this.

#KeepPublicHousingPublic
#BuildMorePublicHousing
#NotoRAD
#SayNoToSection18Disposition
#DefendElliotTwins#StopFrey#StopRuss
#SayNoToGentrification#StopPrivatization
#DGPHC

This is what Minneapolis progressivism looks like

Today Friday, April 5th, from 5 to 7 pm Elliot Twins elders/seniors and residents with disabilities invited City Council Member Abdi Warsame, State Representatives Hodan Hassan, Mohamud Noor, and Hennepin County Commissioner Angela Conley to help them see the homelessness and the crisis residents are about to face through MPHA’s RAD eviction plans where residents will be evicted from Nov 2019 to Jan 2020. They were all no shows. At least Hodan Hassan may reschedule. The rest didn’t bother to reach out. This is what Minneapolis progressives looks like.
#KeepPublicHousingPublic
#BuildMorePublicHousing
#NotoRAD

Call To Action

Stop the Elliot Twins RAD Evictions!

Defend Glendale and Public Housing Coalition (DG&PHC) recently received a leaked copy of the Elliot Twins’s RAD Eviction Plan (http://tinyurl.com/MPHA-Eviction-Plan) that MPHA calls “Elliot Twins’ (Project Site) Resident Relocation Plan” for the planned Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) privatization and conversion that will transfer ownership of the buildings from the public to private developers. To call this a relocation plan is absurd. This is not a plan. It is a plot to evict residents and place them in the streets. In this eviction plan for RAD conversion, MPHA outlines clearly step by step how they will evict the vulnerable, disabled and seniors/elderly residents of Elliot Twins.

Contact your elected officials and tell them this eviction plan is unacceptable and dangerous! You can find a list of contact information at the bottom of this email. Tell our elected officials including your Congress representative to pause this RAD application until Congress investigates. MPHA is asking residents to move in with friends and family when they evict them out of Elliot Twins.

For DG&PHC’s full analysis of MPHA’s eviction plan please see: http://mphas-rad-eviction-plan-for-elliot-twins-leaked

Also see this video: https://youtu.be/SsnvwEbQ66s where Mary Boler, one of the directors of MPHA, lies to residents by saying they will not have to move out of Elliot Twins during the RAD conversion and that residents will be moved within the two buildings. Yet, MPHA’s RAD Eviction Plan will force residents out.

MPHA’s Eviction “Options” that is outlined in their plan:

Eviction Option 1 (page 7): Residents may temporarily relocate to a “hotel unit” within Elliot Twins during construction.

  • This option is a lie. If MPHA had enough units for residents to move into temporarily they would not need six other eviction options. Residents will simply be forced to choose one of the other “options” which directly lead to homelessness. MPHA is giving everyone 90-day notice from November 2019 to January 2020 to move all at one time according to another leaked timeline: http://tinyurl.com/Eviction-Timeline.

Eviction Option 2 (page 7): Residents may “Temporarily relocate to a friend or family’s home during construction.”

  • Having no choice but to live at a friend or family’s house is homelessness. This is direct evidence that RAD causes homelessness and is an absolutely unacceptable “option.”

Eviction Option 3 (pages 7 to 8): Residents may “permanently relocate to a fully renovated unit at Elliot Twins Project Site.”

  • MPHA says they will “seek to accommodate residents with this preference to the maximum extent feasible,” meaning there is no guarantee that this option is even possible.  
  • This option is predicated on there being fully renovated units available for the resident to move into, due to construction timing and other residents moving back in this option seems false and may only be possible if other residents are permanently evicted.
  • Nowhere in their plan does MPHA mention residents have guaranteed rights to return to Elliot Twins which is what they have been preaching for the last year and a half to sell RAD plans to the public and politicians.

Eviction Option 4 (page 8): Residents may “temporarily relocate to another MPHA project during construction, and return to Elliot Twins Project Site after construction is complete.”

  • MPHA themselves admit that this option may not be available, which puts residents at risk of being homeless. This “option” is not an option at all.

Eviction Option 5 (page 9): Residents may “permanently relocate to another MPHA project during construction.”  

  • MPHA says they will make this option available to the“greatest extent feasible.” As in Option 4, this means this is not a guaranteed option and therefore, is not an option at all. Further, MPHA says some residents may be evicted a second time when the public housing building residents move to undergoes future RAD privatization.

Eviction Option 6 (pages 9 to 10): Residents may “temporarily relocate off-site using an MPHA-issued federal housing choice “mobile” voucher or project-based (“in place”) Section 8 voucher during construction, with the option of returning to Project Site after the construction is complete.”

Eviction Option 7 (pages 10 to 11): Residents may “Permanently relocate using an MPHA-issued federal housing choice “mobile” voucher or project-based “in place” Section 8 voucher during construction, and remain within that program after Project Site’s construction is complete.”

  • This will not work for the same reasons as Option 6, and also, this option requires residents to permanently move away from Elliot Twins. It is therefore not an option for residents who do not want to leave Elliot Twins.
  • Page 12 also acknowledges that residents using Section 8 vouchers may have to pay utilities at their new site, which is a rent increase for residents that those on limited incomes cannot afford. This means that in the unlikely event that a resident is able to attain Section 8 housing they will face eviction again when they are unable to pay the increased utilities.

Additional problems with MPHA’s eviction plan:

  • Residents can expect to face multiple evictions from Section 8 housing, which will be a severe burden on them, especially the elderly and/or disabled. (page 12)
  • MPHA will offer residents a replacement unit at Elliot Twins after construction, but it is not clear what will happen if the resident finds the replacement unit unacceptable. They will not be able to move back. (page 16)
  • MPHA admits that some residents will be forced to move over 50 miles away from Elliot Twins, which is not what they claimed previously when they said residents could stay in their building or neighborhood. Having to move 50 miles away is displacement and gentrification and is unacceptable. (page 17)
  • MPHA fails to mention that private Section 8 landlords can raise rents and utilities, while HUD’s subsidy is capped at a certain level. This places residents at risk of eviction. (page 18)
  • MPHA fails to disclose that they will not own the RAD-converted properties. Their “wholly owned non-profit” is an unknown and unaccountable entity that will only own 0.01% of the building, with the rest being owned by private investors. (page 19)
  • Once Elliot Twins are converted through RAD to private ownership, the leases and policies governing them will be subject to change. MPHA is only required to notify residents of these changes, not to incorporate resident feedback in any way. Residents will have no say over what happens to the buildings. (page 19)
  • MPHA will hold open houses to show renovated units to residents, but will only give them three days after the open houses to notify MPHA that they want to return. MPHA will then offer a specific unit and will require residents to respond in only one day. It is unclear how residents will be informed of the open houses or how they will be expected to respond to MPHA. This will be hard for residents who do not speak English and/or those who do not have permanent addresses to receive mail at due to being displaced by RAD. Residents could easily miss this window and lose their chance to return to Elliot Twins. (page 21)
  • MPHA does not have a plan for how to contact residents who are displaced during construction and do not have permanent addresses to receive mail informing them of changes at any point in this process. (page 23)

MPHA is proceeding with its plan to privatize Elliot Twins despite the fact that residents never approved of RAD. The draft relocation plan is a plan to evict residents who do not want to – and in many cases are physically unable to – move out of their homes. MPHA is forcing tenants to move out and providing no legally enforceable guarantee that they will find suitable replacement housing, or that they will be able to return to Elliot Twins after renovations. MPHA is making these eviction plans without having an actual construction plan or financing lined up for renovations. Their priority is evicting tenants.

We need a Congressional investigation into MPHA’s activities surrounding RAD privatization of Elliot Twins and the risk that RAD is posing to residents’ ability to have safe and affordable housing. These plans will put hundreds of low-income, elderly and/or disabled residents at risk of homelessness in a city that is already experiencing a homelessness crisis. HUD is currently controlled by Donald Trump and Ben Carson, and we cannot rely on them to enforce resident protections or oversee MPHA’s privatization and eviction plans. We need our elected officials to step up and say NO to privatization, NO to RAD, and NO to forced evictions!

Call, email, and tweet at your elected officials and tell them to pause MPHA’s RAD activities until there is a full investigation by Congress.

Here is the contact information you will need:

Name Phone Email Twitter
HUD
Susan Wilson: Director of Urban Revitalization (202) 402-4500 Susan.Wilson@hud.gov  
Congress
Rep Ilhan Omar   MN: (612) 333-1272 DC: (202) 225-4755   @IlhanMN
State
Governor Tim Walz (651) 201-3400   @Tim_Walz
Attorney General Keith Ellison  (651) 296-3353 attorney.general@ag.state.mn.us @keithellison
State Rep Hodan Hassan (651) 296-0294 rep.hodan.hassan@house.mn @hodan4house
State Rep Mohamed Noor (651) 296-4257 rep.mohamud.noor@house.mn   
City
Mayor Jacob Frey (612) 673-2100  jacob.frey@minneapolismn.gov @Jacob_Frey
CM Lisa Bender (612) 673-2210 lisa.bender@minneapolismn.gov @lisabendermpls
CM Abdi Warsame (612) 673-2206 abdi.warsame@minneapolismn.gov @AbdiYWarsame
CM Cam Gordon (612) 673-2202 cam.gordon@minneapolismn.gov @CameronAGordon
CM Andrea Jenkins (612) 673-2208 andrea.jenkins@minneapolismn.gov  @annapoetic
CM Kevin Reich (612) 673-2201 kevin.reich@minneapolismn.gov @KevinReich4NE
CM Steve Fletcher (612) 673-2203 steve.fletcher@minneapolismn.gov @FletcherMpls
CM Phillipe Cunningham (612) 673-2204 phillipe.cunningham@minneapolismn.gov @CunninghamMPLS
CM Jeremiah Ellison (612) 673-2205 jeremiah.ellison@minneapolismn.gov @jeremiah4north
CM Lisa Goodman (612) 673-2207 lisa.goodman@minneapolismn.gov @cmlisagoodman
CM Linea Palmisano (612) 673-2213 linea.palmisano@minneapolismn.gov @LineaPalmisano
CM Jeremy Schroeder (612) 673-2211 jeremy.schroeder@minneapolismn.gov @jeremyschroeder
CM Alondra Cano (612) 673-2209 alondra.cano@minneapolismn.gov @AloCanoMN
CM Andrew Johnson (612) 673-2212 andrew.johnson@minneapolismn.gov @Andrew4Mpls
County
Commissioner Angela Conley (612) 348-7884 angela.conley@hennepin.us @D4Commish