Dear Allies: 

Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) sent another letter to public housing residents about a virtual public hearing on November 18 at 1:30 pm about their new Statement of Policies that is 149 pages long and a new Statement of Corporate Policies is 65 pages long for Section 8 residents.  MPHA still refuses to hold public meetings, even a virtual one to explain to public housing residents about these statements of policies, 2021 MTW Annual Plan or Section 18 Demolition & Disposition Lease they are forcing residents to sign.  

When we received this letter, MPHA did not send the documents along with the letter and the majority of residents received this notice by the 5th of November. MPHA knows residents cannot access nor understand these documents due to language barriers, lack of access to computers, lack of internet, and disabilities. We also do not think Section 8 residents have any way to access these documents. We need MPHA to hold community meetings to explain these documents so we can submit comments.  When MPHA wants to hold community meetings during the pandemic, they do.  But, MPHA still refuses to hold community meetings for us to explain these documents and answer our questions. 

Here are the links to their documents and announcement from their website: 

https://mphaonline.org/annual-policy-update/

https://mk0mphaonlineorajvvy.kinstacdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Policy-Update-Resident-Notice-2021.pdf

Please notice that MPHA removed from their website the public hearing for the 2021 MTW Annual Plan after we demanded that they hold community meetings to explain the plan and instead they posted a hearing on the Statement of Policies on the same date November 18, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/2021MTW-Public-Hearing-Notice.

MPHA, are you going to hold community meetings to explain the Statement of Policies, 2021 MTW Annual Plan and Section 18 Lease to answer many of our questions so we can submit comments verbally or are you going to continue to undermine our rights as public housing residents?

Again, if we were white homeowners, MPHA would not be allowed to behave this way by Mayor Frey, Minneapolis City Council, Governor Walz, Senator Tina Smith, Congress Ilhan Omar, AG Keith Ellison, Minneapolis County Commissioners, and the entire DFL House and State Representative of Minneapolis.

@MPLSPubHousing Refuses to Hold Community Meetings to Explain Their Latest Policies & Plans!
MPHA, are you going to hold community meetings to explain the Statement of Policies, 2021 MTW Annual Plan, and Section 18 Lease? If we were white homeowners, MPHA would not be allowed

— Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition (@DefendGlendale) November 6, 2020

https://www.facebook.com/DefendGlendale/posts/1902701663229015

MPHA, will you hold public meetings to explain 2021 MTW Annual Plan & Section18 lease before another hearing?

Lack of public input

∙         On August 26^th, 2020, MPHA had a public hearing regarding 2021 MTW Annual Plan without first holding community meetings to explain the 2021 MTW Annual Plan to public housing residents and to the greater public of Minneapolis.   MPHA did not provide an opportunity for public housing residents to ask questions in order to understand this plan.  

∙         On August 25, 2020, Prospect Park Association wrote a letter to MPHA asking to engage residents and hold community meetings.  MPHA rejected this request. https://www.facebook.com/DefendGlendale/posts/1834452573387258

∙         On September 17, 2020, Keep Public Housing Public Minneapolis Coalition, Minneapolis Sanctuary Movement, Campaign Against Racism-Twin Cities Chapter and Beltrami Neighborhood Council wrote an Op-ed asking for MPHA to hold community meetings to answer questions about the 2021 MTW Plan.  MPHA did not respond. https://mndaily.com/262294/opinion/opinion-the-mpha-and-city-of-minneapolis-have-shown-a-lack-of-community-engagement/?fbcli

New Public hearing on November 18, 2020 without public input

∙          An ally noticed on the MPHA website that MPHA is holding another public hearing on the 2021 MTW Annual Plan and Statement of Policies on November 18, 2020;  https://mphaonline.org/annual-policy-update.

∙          Public housing residents have not been notified about this hearing.  MPHA knows the majority of public housing residents do not have access to computers, the internet, and face language barriers.  MPHA sends letters via mail to notify residents.  As public housing residents, we have not received any letter from MPHA regarding this hearing nor community meetings to answer questions before the hearing on November 18.  

∙       We as public housing residents have to right have public meetings for MPHA to explain their plans.  We submitted comments asking a lot of questions about the 2021 MTW Annual Plan, and MPHA is not responding. 

∙         How are we able to provide comments if we don’t understand what we are commenting on, and MPHA is refusing to hold community meetings to explain. 

The new Section 18 lease MPHA refuses to explain

∙         Scattered sites residents are confused about the Section 18 Demolition & Disposition – Section 8 Project-Based Lease. 

∙         MPHA Property managers have been harassing and intimidating residents to sign the new lease without explaining what is in this lease to English and non-English speakers;  https://www.facebook.com/DefendGlendale/posts/1866933266805855.

 ∙        MPHA is now sending out threatening letters of lease violation to scattered-site residents;

https://tinyurl.com/MPHA-threats-to-Scatteredsites.

∙         Scattered-site residents continue to ask for public meetings for MPHA to explain the lease before they sign; https://www.facebook.com/DefendGlendale/posts/1872602349572280.

 ∙         Yet again, MPHA is not responding and refusing to hold community meetings.  MPHA property managers are not able to answer residents’ questions, but they expect residents to sign the lease. 

∙          Even though this is a violation of residents’ rights, MPHA continues on this path with no accountability from the City of Minneapolis or the State of Minnesota.

∙          If the public housing residents were white and wealthy, the City of Minneapolis and the State of Minnesota would respond immediately.  

MPHA, will you hold public community meetings to explain 2021 MTW Annual Plan and Section 18 Demolition & Disposition – Section 8 Project-Based Lease before another hearing? 

defendglendale @ gmail. com | www.dgphc.org | facebook @ defendglendale    | twitter @ defendglendale

| Instagram @ defendglendale

P.O. Box 14616, Minneapolis, MN 55414

612 -389-8527

October 26, 2020

MPHA recently announced their privatization of over 700 scattered sites (single-family and duplex) public housing homes in Minneapolis using HUD’s Section 18 Demolition and Disposition program. This is an unprecedented attack on our city’s public housing in the middle of a pandemic and an affordable housing crisis.

Section 18 converts public housing to private, Section 8 voucher housing. MPHA claims that nothing will change for residents: that they will stay in their homes and pay the same amount. But the new lease they are forcing residents to sign suggests otherwise.

Let’s walk through the major red flags one by one. Read the full lease here:

https://tinyurl.com/Sec18-Lease-Oct-1-2020

🚩#1 – RENT INCREASES

Nowhere does the new lease state that residents will continue to pay 30% of their income toward rent. Instead, it claims that rent can be adjusted based on MPHA’s MTW agreement (MTW is a status that exempts MPHA from some HUD rules). What’s to stop the new owner of the properties, Community Housing Resources (CHR), from raising rents? Nothing!

🚩#2 – RANDOM RECERTIFICATIONS

The lease states that MPHA can reexamine tenants’ incomes and family size at any time, even if they have just recently been certified. This is invasive and disrespectful to residents, who are already certified annually and are required to report changes as they occur. This is harassment and an excuse for MPHA to increase rent or evict tenants.

🚩#3 – SLUMLORD FEES

MPHA says privatizing over 700 public housing units via Section 18 will bring in more money for repairs. But the new lease forces RESIDENTS to pay for repairs on top of their rent, up to $5000!

The lease contains three whole pages of maintenance and repair fees that residents will be responsible for. All CHR has to do is claim it was the residents’ fault. THIS IS NOT NORMAL! Tenants should not have to pay for upkeep – that’s what they pay their landlord for and that is what the rent is for and all the millions MPHA is getting for Section 18 and 42% increase of repair budget MPHA received from HUD yearly since 2017.

This is meant to price residents out! Displace and evict!

It also raises the question: if the extra money that’s supposedly being brought in by privatizing the homes isn’t going toward repairs, where is it going? Who is pocketing the money?

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Those are the biggest red flags we noticed in the new lease. But we have other questions:

❓ Why weren’t residents given the option to purchase their homes? MPHA sold the homes to CHR for $1 each. Why weren’t residents given that option?

❓Why is MPHA forcing residents to sign the new lease when it hasn’t even been translated into languages all residents speak? Why does MPHA refuse to answer questions and provide clarification about specific parts of the lease and hold community meetings to explain the lease.

❓What will happen to residents who refuse to sign? Will they be given a voucher and kicked out of their home? It’s practically impossible to find housing that accepts Section 8 vouchers anywhere in the city.

❓Why is MPHA privatizing over 700 homes, opening them up to investors who could take over and displace residents, instead of asking the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, and the State of Minnesota for additional funding to keep public housing public? If money is an issue! But the more we dig this the more we find out funds is not a problem because MPHA is sitting over 23 million in surplus plus the millions they will receive from HUD for Section 18 and the 42% increase in their repair budget they receive yearly.

❓Where are elected officials at the local, county, state, and federal levels as MPHA sells off Minneapolis’ most vital housing resource and public assets? They are all complicit in this disaster, which will disproportionately impact Black, Black Muslim, and Hmong families.

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Our governments have enough money to keep public housing public. Elected officials need to step up and advocate for their constituents who are low-income public housing residents. We need to build more public housing, not destroy it!

In the meantime, MPHA needs to provide residents with a new lease that guarantees that rent (including all fees and utilities) will be NO GREATER THAN 30% OF RESIDENTS’ INCOMES and that residents WILL NOT BE DISPLACED! And they are not responsible for the extra charges MPHA is putting on residents that residents can not afford because they are too poor to pay.

MPHA claims on their public website that residents will continue to pay 30% of their income on rent after Section 18 privatization. So why isn’t that guaranteed in the lease? Why are they saying one thing in public & another thing to residents in private?

We demand answers from all of the elected officials in this email that have allowed this crisis to take place and the rest who have been complicit!

WE DEMAND A NEW LEASE!

Check out this opinion from DGPHC & Coalition members:

https://mndaily.com/262294/opinion/opinion-the-mpha-and-city-of-minneapolis-have-shown-a-lack-of-community-engagement/?fbclid=IwAR1huBvuSVWfro-f1aF54Nl_pQEE7PauwMfjNsgQZ47SLJvQmaQ5lAlVla0

Dear Allies: On Wednesday, August 26, after a disastrous public hearing by MPHA on their 2021 MTW Annual Plan, DG&PHC sent MPHA an email asking them to let us know if they will extend the public comment period and hold community meetings to explain this plan to public housing residents and to the concerned public to ask questions about the large scale RAD privatization plans they are proposing in this plan. We asked them to please reply back by Thursday, August27. As usual, MPHA decided to ignore public housing residents and chose not to reply back to our email.Prior to the public hearing, similar to our request Prospect Park Association ( PPA) sent MPHA this letter, https://tinyurl.com/PPA-Ltr-to-MPHA-MTW-2021, requesting to hold community meetings, translate the document in relevant languages, and extend the comment period. On August 27, MPHA decided to reply back to PPA rejecting the request: Link –> https://tinyurl.com/MPHA-rejects-comment-extension. Minneapolis residents are witnessing MPHA a public agency funded by HUD, State of Minnesota, and the City of Minneapolis that has gone rogue, and doing their best to silence public housing residents. The City of Minneapolis has oversight and legal charter of accountability over MPHA that is not being implemented. The City of Minneapolis is witnessing a Mayor, City Council, State, and Congress elected officials that deliberately chose not to hold MPHA accountable.

Dear Allies: — Here is a letter from Prospect Park Neighborhood Association (PPA) sent to MPHA and our elected officials regarding MPHA’s 2021 MTW Annual Plan. PPA is asking MPHA to extend the comment period of the 2021 MTW Annual Plan, hold public meetings so residents and the public can ask questions, and translate this report so public housing residents can understand what is in this report. This request is in line with the City’s Core Principles of Community Engagement and public transparency. The question is: will MPHA and the City of Minneapolis stay true to the City’s guidelines of community engagement?

https://tinyurl.com/PPA-Ltr-to-MPHA-MTW-2021

MPHA’s 2021 MTW Annual Plan/Report: More privatization without public input Stop this illegitimate process

The 2021 MPHA MTW Annual Plan is a report Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) has to send to HUD annually for approval. It explains their operations and plans. In previous years, MPHA held community meetings for the public to explain the report, answer questions, and to collect comments and input. 

This year, MPHA decided to skip the public meetings and go straight to a public hearing on Zoom https://zoom.us/j/99846552063 on Wednesday, August 26, 2020, where the MPHA Board of Commissioners will vote to approve 2021 MTW Annual Plan/Report. Therefore, MPHA blocked the opportunity for public housing residents and the general public to understand this report and ask questions before the vote.  

We are asking our allies and residents of Minneapolis to contact your elected officials and MPHA to pause, hold community meetings and extend the comments period.  We are also asking you to attend MPHA’s public hearing on zoom and demand that MPHA reschedule a public hearing, hold community meetings, and extend the comment period till October 31, 2020.

MPHA has not been transparent about this plan, which proposes significant changes that would impact thousands of public housing residents, and has not provided adequate time for residents or the public to ask questions. MPHA is rushing this process, but residents and the public need time to read the plan and ask questions. Public Housing residents and the public have a right to ask questions about such an important document.

●     MPHA’s offices are still closed to the public due to COVID-19, yet they want us to respond to another round of privatization attempts that includes 23 high rises and Glendale Townhomes in a rushed annual report that will be the blueprint for next years’ privatization schemes once approved by HUD.

●     MPHA can hold community meetings in the parks and via zoom so public housing residents, community members and neighborhood organizations can ask questions before a public hearing or comments are submitted.

●     Many residents do not have access to wifi or computers in order to read this report.

●     MPHA knows there are language barriers and many residents don’t understand this report, as dozens of languages are spoken in public housing.

●     Even English speakers cannot understand this 81-page report, which is full of industry jargon and requires consulting other HUD and MPHA documents to fully understand.

●     In this plan/report, MPHA wants to form a regional partnership and use 450 vouchers for public housing in the suburbs (pg.25). This is taking resources away from Minneapolis during a housing crisis through gentrification schemes.

●     MPHA says that they have no plans for extensive rehab at the high-rises where they want to use RAD to privatize (pg. 10), but RAD is supposed to be a program for housing in need of repairs. They need to clarify this, which is why we need MPHA to provide community meetings and extend the comment period for 60 days.

●     Contact your elected officials and MPHA to stop this illegitimate process; see below contact sheet, links to the MTW report, and public hearing via zoom.

Moving to Work (MTW) and MPHA

MPHA 2021 MTW Annual Plan

Zoom Link to Public Hearing on Wednesday August 26, 2020

Contact Elected Officials Here

Please watch our press conference here: https://www.facebook.com/DefendGlendale/posts/1812345162264666

Here are some points made by public housing residents and organizers:

— For the past few years, elderly residents have been lied to by the City of Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and especially their former Council Member Abdi Warsame who is now Executive Director of MPHA.

–Warsame swore on the Quran – the religious textbook of Muslims, during the month of Ramadan – saying MPHA would not displace any residents and that they could trust him.

— The City of Minneapolis and MPHA are using Elliot Twins as their first project of the voluntary RAD privatization program and if successful, will continue to do the same with the rest of public housing stock in Minneapolis.

— In 2017, the City hired Greg Russ, the Czar of Privatization and Gentrification to implement RAD at Elliot Twins, and he was also hired to privatize the rest of Minneapolis Public Housing stock through RAD and Section 18.

— Between 2018 to 2019, Mayor Frey, CM’s Abdi Warsame, Andrea Jenkins, Cam Gordon, Jeremiah Ellison, Kevin Reich, Jeromy Schroeder, Lisa Bender, and Lisa Goodman authored and voted for a resolution and MOU to privatize the entire stock of Minneapolis Public housing starting with Elliot Twins.

–According to Greg Russ, MPHA Board, and the City of Minneapolis, RAD is a success at Elliot Twins.

–As a result, July of 2019, Greg Russ quit his job at MPHA and moved to NYC to dismantle and privatize NYC Public Housing Authority (NYCHA ) with the endorsement of Secretary Ben Carson and the Mayor of NYC.

–Greg Russ is responsible for dismantling public housing in cities like Cambridge, Massachusetts, Detroit, Chicago, and displacing thousands of public housing residents across the nation since the ’90s. — Due to RAD, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is now the new owner of Elliot Twins with 99.9 % ownership, and MPHA leased the land to the Royal Bank of Canada for 99 years; https://www.dgphc.org/2020/06/25/its-is-official-mpha-and-the-city-of-minneapolis-privatized-and-sold-elliot-twins-public-housing-apartments-to-the-royal-bank-of-canada/, https://www.dgphc.org/2020/06/25/its-is-official-mpha-and-the-city-of-minneapolis-privatized-and-sold-elliot-twins-public-housing-apartments-to-the-royal-bank-of-canada/

–There are currently more than 22 empty units at Elliot Twins, and residents were displaced to make room for remodeling through RAD for the Royal Bank of Canada to attract higher-income renters.

— During this press conference, there was a tent encampment set up next door at Elliot Park while there are empty units in Elliot Twins.– Now there are construction crew members going in and out of the occupied apartments & doing remodeling for RBC during COVID-19.

— 3 elders currently died of COVID-19 in one of the buildings within the last 2 weeks. All of the residents are majority elders, Black, Black Immigrant/ Muslims, and people with disabilities on fixed SSI income.

— In the middle of a hot summer and the global pandemic, residents were told to close their windows so construction could be completed outside for the transfer of the buildings to RBC. There are elders that can’t afford to buy AC’s.

— MPHA is putting the health and lives of elders at risk in the middle of a global pandemic and there is no one to go to at the City or MN State to hold them accountable. Elected officials continue to ignore this crisis while they want us to vote for them. If the residents of Elliot Twins where white and wealthy, would this be allowed? No.

–There is no accountability whatsoever to the abuses, racism, bullying carried by the City Council, Mayor Jacob Frey, MPHA Board/Staff, and the Executive Director of MPHA Abdi Warsame in order to silence public housing residents that are organizing to stop the privatization of their homes and the displacement of their communities.

— Residents of Ward 6 want to know why MPHA and the City of Minneapolis are putting the lives of its residents at risk?

— Mayor Frey, City Council, MPHA Board, and Abdi Warsame care more about the Royal Bank of Canada than the residents they are hired to serve and protect.

— In the middle of a hot summer and the global pandemic, residents were told to close their windows so construction could be completed outside for the transfer of the buildings to RBC. There are elders that can’t afford to buy ACs.

Below are Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition’s demands to pass resolutions, ordinances, policies, and bills at the City of Minneapolis and State to keep public housing public housing & build more public housing permanently !

• Protect all public housing and build more: Create a permanent-public policy, county, city-wide ordinances, and state bills to keep all public housing units as public housing in Minneapolis and build more public housing. This includes 42 high rises, over 740 homes, Glendale Townhomes, more public housing homes, and over 6,040 current public housing units. Prohibit the sale, or lease of land to private developers/investors, or MPHA becoming a private investor, charging market prices for profit through Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, or Land Use Restrictive Agreements, etc. Adhere to the permanent protection land trust Declaration of Trust (DOT).
• Stop the sale and lease of public housing buildings: Public housing properties are currently the first target of conversion by MPHA to private developers and investors. This includes Elliot Twins,  Glendale Townhomes, Cedar-Riverside Public Housing,  Horn Towers, etc. This also includes public housing buildings in Wards that predominantly Black and Brown, elders/ seniors and people with disabilities that are the first target, and all public housing properties.
• Eliminate future displacements: Build more public housing as is 30% of income for rent for low- income tenants, and stop the privatization of public housing to minimize displacement, homelessness, the housing crisis, social & economic crisis. And, approve Glendale Townhomes’ application for local historical designation at Minneapolis City Council.
• Fund public housing as a public good: Access public funds from the State, County, and City to keep public housing public. Funding for public housing (through the City Levy, County Funs, Affordable Housing fund, etc.) must be added to the City of Minneapolis, County, and State legislative agenda. Public funding to private developers that build temporarily limited-income-based housing for low-income families must be eliminated. Instead, that funding should be used to build more public housing, as well as funding & sustaining public housing, which provides a long-term safety net, and provides social and economic stability to low-income residents of Minneapolis.
• Hold MPHA accountable to fix & repair all public housing properties  and stop using the fund to privatize 
• Investigate MPHA: Investigate the legal/working relationship between MPHA and Minneapolis City Council, including the shift in mission in MPHA’s “Strategic Vision and Capital Plan for 2018-2020”, which inappropriately abandons the provision/mission of public housing for low income/poor families, in favor of housing for wealthier persons whose income is 50%-80% AMI, which far exceeds the income of MPHA’s current tenants, including MPHA’s proposal for construction, management, and ownership of high-end market-rate housing by MPHA as a public agency. 
• Fill all current public housing vacancies with unsheltered people immediately.
• Specifically, fill the 22 empty public housing units at Elliot Twins that are set aside for RAD privatization by MPHA and City of Minneapolis. These units are one-bedroom and studio.
• Minneapolis should seize vacant units created using taxpayer money like the low-income housing tax credit and affordable housing funds and run them as public housing units with MPHA managing them as a public good to house unsheltered people.
• All residents with zero income must be housed in public housing units.
• All residents who are able to pay rent must pay not more than 30% of their actual income for rent which includes all utilizes and fees.
• Seize back all privatized public housing and cancel all contracts and programs meant to privatize public housing.
• Fund the construction and maintenance of high-quality public housing as a public good.
• Continue the creation of public housing to meet the need for housing unsheltered people.
• Reverse all the privatization resolution, MOU, etc. The city of Minneapolis approved without the approval of public housing residents and the community at large.                                    

Dear Allies:

Here is a photo of a notice from last week to Elliot Twins residents from MPHA. A resident from Elliot Twins emailed us this photo of the notice.  The resident wanted us to know the safety and health crisis MPHA and the City of Minneapolis are creating due to the  RAD construction.  While vulnerable residents are dealing with COVID19 Pandemic, MPHA is ordering residents to close their windows for three weeks as they complete the outside construction for the RAD renovation and redevelopment.  As you can see in this photo, this is a short notice, and residents were not giving enough time to prepare. According to the contract between MPHA and the new owner Royal Bank of Canada, Elliot Twins is under construction to attract wealthier residents that earn between  60% to 80% of AMI; https://tinyurl.com/Sale-of-Elliot-Twins-to-RBC.MPHA is rushing the construction,  not safeguarding the health and well being of the seniors and disabled public housing residents that are on a fixed income and can’t afford air conditioners. The resident who sent this email to us is afraid of dying from heat exhaustion because they don’t have an air conditioner in their unit. We all saw the 5 people that died in Cedars public housing building due to MPHA’s intentional neglect.  Is Elliot Twins next?   The neo-liberal DFL  including Mayor Frey, the entire Minneapolis City Council, Congresswoman  Ilhan Omar, Gov. Walz, Senators Hayden, Champion, Dziedzic, Representatives  Hassan,  Nor,  Dean and Commissioner Conley do not care about Elliot Twins. Public housing residents have always been invisible to them.  #VoteThemOut.