MPHA Tries to Discredit Residents Opposed to Privatization, Calling Public Ownership “Antiquated”

February 8, 2018 – Two weeks ago, the Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition (DG&PHC) sent a letter to Minneapolis City Council members, recommending the Council immediately review the activities of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA). We included documents DG&PHC has obtained through public records requests – including contracts, invoices, and work products – proving that MPHA and its contractors have quietly undertaken extensive privatization planning for Minneapolis public housing over the past year. We called particular attention to MPHA’s request to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the authority to release two properties from legal protections known as Declarations of Trust (DOTs). DOTs are the foundation for public ownership of public housing, and releasing them opens the door to privatization. Continue reading →

MPHA Enlists Rep. Ilhan Omar for Its Privatization Campaign

On September 6, 2017, MPHA’s communications manager Jeff Horwich wrote an email to the McKnight Foundation about a then-upcoming event hosted by Rep. Ilhan Omar called “Coffee and Kulan: Affordable Housing.” He wrote, “It promises to be interesting–our first demonstration of what Rep. Omar’s support can mean as we move forward.”

Then, on September 15, Horwich sent an internal email to further highlight Rep. Omar’s event. He wrote, “It goes without saying why this is a particularly notable event and location.  Rep. Omar’s district includes both Glendale and Cedar-Riverside, two areas very important to us.  There will certainly be questions from the audience, and it could get interesting.  Rep. Omar has expressed her intent to help us move our conversation forward in this potentially most difficult of places, and this will be our first chance to see what her involvement could mean.” Continue reading →

McKnight Foundation Complicit in MPHA’s Lack of Transparency for Privatization Plans

Last week, the McKnight Foundation issued an email to Minneapolis City Council members implying the Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition’s (DG&PHC) December 8 public statement included a “mischaracterization” of its $1 million grant to the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA). However, McKnight failed to specify for council members which part of our statement allegedly mischaracterized their grant, or explain how it did so.

In fact, our statement contained no mischaracterization, while McKnight’s rhetorical sleight of hand fits in neatly with MPHA’s longstanding pattern of downplaying and obfuscating its now well-documented privatization plans. Continue reading →

MPHA Secretly Hires Corrupt Financial Consultants from CSG to Research Redevelopment Options in Violation of Unanimous 2015 Minneapolis City Council Resolution

The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) has ceased to operate in the public interest and must now be considered a rogue agency, captured by private interests. The Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition (DG&PHC) has long been aware of MPHA’s track record of misleading and intimidating residents, but recent revelations shock even the most experienced and jaded observer. Continue reading →

Confirmed: MPHA’s privatization team is bankrolled by the McKnight Foundation

In September 2017, the McKnight Foundation, a nationally prominent Minneapolis-based charity, awarded the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) a $1 million grant. MPHA told public housing residents these funds would be used to preserve and repair their homes. Documents newly uncovered by the Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition (DG&PHC), however, reveal this was more of MPHA’s typical double-talk. Continue reading →

MPHA’s Latest Privatization Scheme: Replacing Declarations of Trust with Land Use Restriction Agreements: Fact Check!

In their 2018 Moving to Work Annual Plan, the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) says it will ask the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to waive the Declarations of Trust (DOTs) on its properties and replace them with Land Use Restriction Agreements (LURAs). It sounds complicated, but the bottom line is this move would privatize Minneapolis public housing and displace thousands of low-income residents. Continue reading →

Will Minneapolis Let Trump Privatize Public Housing And Call It “Progressive”?

Some are already calling the incoming Minneapolis city council the most progressive in the United States. That means the new council will be determining, through its actions, the meaning of the word “progressive”. Working class and marginalized folks in Minneapolis will be watching closely.
We’ve watched as cities sold off public property on the cheap, to private speculators who quickly brought them up to market-rate, telling citizens that no, this wasn’t corruption, it was simply “innovation.”
We’ve watched as “affordable housing” became a meaningless slogan in cities where loophole-filled schemes catering to real estate speculators meant the rents deemed “affordable” are still rising, day after day.
These same speculators for decades have drooled at the prospect of acquiring ownership stake in Minneapolis public housing, complete with pathways to massive profits through raising rents, displacing families, and transforming public land into private real estate.
The project of neoliberal and right-wing politicians has always been to facilitate the privatization and plunder of public resources. Trump and his Housing and Urban Development (HUD) chief, Ben Carson, have made it clear that privatization is their objective for public housing across the country.
Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) director Gregory Russ is trying to sell the Trump/Carson plan to Minneapolis as “progressive.” He tells us privatization is the only “pathway to preservation” for public housing. But we know this carrot-and-stick approach is how neoliberals have always forced their schemes onto the public. Greg Russ no doubt learned these techniques of manipulating the public during his tenure at shadowy Abt Associates.
In reality, Russ and the Trump administration are working in lockstep, with the privatization of public housing as their shared objective. MPHA’s latest plan submitted to HUD openly admits to this.
Minneapolis city council could stop these plans. Funding exists that could truly preserve public housing for the public, not for private speculators.
But will they do it? Will the new “progressive” city council save public housing for residents and the public, or will they sell us out to Russ, Carson, and Trump, and transform “progressive” into yet another empty buzzword? Working class and marginalized folks in Minneapolis will be watching closely.
References: In its annual plan submitted to HUD on 11/13/17, MPHA states its privatization initiative “is consistent with the strategies expressed by Secretary Carson during his June 9, 2017 Congressional testimony, ‘The old model was the government came in with a whole bunch of money and said, build this facility for people with AIDS. Build this facility for low‐income people in this area, etc. The new model is government seeds the program and then facilitates public‐private partnerships by creating win‐win situations.'” (pg. 39-40 of the PDF pages ) http://tinyurl.com/MTW-FY2018-to-HUD

Gregory Russ, Executive Director of MPHA: Who Does He Really Work For?

In late 2016, Gregory Russ was appointed the new Executive Director/CEO of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, (MPHA).  According to a Nov 10, 2016 Star Tribune article announcing the appointment, Gregory Russ worked previously as the executive director of Cambridge Public Housing Authority, as well as a “consultant to public housing agencies both on his own and for Abt Associates.”

Who are Abt Associates?

Clark Abt, a former Raytheon engineer and manager, started Abt Associates in Cambridge in the 1950’s.  Abt Associates is a for-profit consulting firm that contracts primarily with corporations, non-profits, and governmental agencies (including the Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD)  and local Public Housing Authorities).  With a revenue of $501 Million in 2016, Abt Associates has close ties to both the financial and government sector. Gary Perlin, the current Chair of Abt’s Board of Directors, is the former CFO of both Capital One and the World Bank, as well as the former vice president and treasurer of Fannie Mae.

Abt Associates “in the forefront of efforts to measure the condition of the public housing stock and the costs of bringing this resource up to a standard state.” According to their website, they presented some of their findings to Congress in 2011. They claim there is 26 Billion in large scale capital improvements needed for public housing across the country – this came from Meryl Finkel’s 2010 “Capital Needs in Public Housing”. Is this behind the push to MTW & privatization?

According to Sourcewatch – Abt Associates worked as a consultant with the CIA to develop techniques to destabilize leftist governments (including Allende in Chile in 1970’s).

Jeff Lubell (director of housing and community initiatives for Abt Associates) wrote a book with Henry Cisneros (of Hollman vs. Cisneros!) and Janis Bowdler of JP Morgan Chase.

Cisneros is a founder of CityView, “a premier investment management and development firm which targets complex multifamily housing opportunities in densely populated urban markets primarily in the Western United States. The firm prides itself on its ability to be a part of revitalizing neighborhoods within metropolitan areas while at the same time striving to generate meaningful returns for its institutional investors.”

A 2015 article in the Cambridge Day highlighting a pay increase for Gregory Russ revealed that, on top of his nearly $200,000 annual salary, his contract with the Cambridge Public Housing Authority allowed him to work up to 80 hours a year as a private contractor.

So who does Gregory Russ really work for?  Is he accountable to the residents of MPHA, or is he working for a shadowy government contractor controlled by the same large financial interests that prey upon ordinary people and low-income families?  Is Gregory Russ an agent of Wall Street and the  1% or  public servant that is here to keep public housing public?  The residents of MPHA, resident of Minneapolis, elected officials from the City Hall to MN State deserve an answer!

References:

 http://www.startribune.com/public-housing-veteran-recommended-to-lead-minneapolis-agency/400754941/

http://www.abtassociates.com/Projects/2008/Capital-Needs-in-the-Public-Housing-Program.aspx

http://abtassociates.com/AbtAssociates/files/a7/a776f7a5-02d4-4716-aac9-bd3e453e5c92.pdf

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Abt_Associates

http://www.cityview.com/

http://tinyurl.com/clark-abt

http://tinyurl.com/cambridge-day
http://tinyurl.com/star-tribune-greg-russ