April 26, 2018 — The six-year record of MPHA’s Moving to Work (MTW) expenditures for capital needs of its properties, compiled by Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition, reveals MPHA’s de facto policy of depriving the Glendale Townhomes neighborhood of a fair share of the MTW Capital Improvement funds spent by MPHA in that period.  As the following table documents, over the course of this six-year period (2013-2018), MPHA’s under funding (non-funding, actually) of Glendale’s capital needs totals $2,757,840. In this period, in fact, MPHA has directed no MTW funding whatsoever ($0.00) to address Glendale’s housing capital needs, while directing $91,928,000 for capital projects elsewhere in its system.

During this period, MPHA has been able to operate quietly and surreptitiously, and without community or City Council oversight.  As a consequence, MPHA’s systematic disinvestment in Glendale (i.e., non-funding of capital needs) was able to lay the foundation for MPHA’s disingenuous argument that the only ‘realistic’ option for Glendale was MPHA’s long-cherished plans for Glendale: demolition and replacement by a gentrified (“mixed income”), densified development, luxury apartments for the wealthy  and phase-out of family public housing in Minneapolis altogether.

However, we have evidence that despite MPHA’s blockade and ongoing denial of its fair share of capital needs, Glendale is in better shape than majority of MPHA’s other family homes and properties, all things considered.  We can cite the HUD physical inspection scores for that – they gave Glendale a score of 97/100, as it continues to receive high scores from HUD inspection.  In addition, there is the very helpful work currently being done at Glendale—not by MPHA but by the Sustainable Resource Center (SRC) and CenterPoint Energy—which not only is upgrading energy efficiency and comfort by installing insulation, but also includes repair and replacement of furnaces and upgrades to the ventilation system. This is in addition to residents taking care of their homes themselves, including maintenance work MPHA fails to do such as painting, etc.

Despite Glendale overcoming this neglect, it’s clear MPHA has systematically neglected Glendale to try and force privatization—all while they had a $23 million surplus sitting in their banks.

Below is a five-year record of how much MPHA was supposed to spend on Glendale compared to the actual funding they received from HUD from 2013 to 2018.  It clearly shows MPHA chose to spend zero dollars on Glendale, even while they had plenty of money allocated for Glendale.  The question is, why? MPHA wanted to push residents out and sell Glendale to developers.  We recently exposed that MPHA will be receiving more funding than it expected from the federal Omnibus Spending Bill, including a more than 40% increase for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Public Housing Capital Fund.  In addition, MPHA is sitting on a $23 million surplus.  This clearly proves that MPHA’s narrative—that they don’t have enough funds for Glendale—was false. MPHA has more funds than the public realizes, but they are creating the illusion of a dire financial situation in order to privatize, sell public housing to private investors, and push low-income families of color out of Minneapolis. According to MPHA’s latest reports, they are acknowledging their plans to privatize, lease and sell public housing properties such as Glendale, Elliot Twins and more, each year.

 

 

MPHA DISINVESTMENT IN GLENDALE 2009-2018
YEAR	TOTAL AMOUNT OF FUNDING MPHA SPENT ON CAPITAL NEEDS[1]	AMOUNT OF FUNDING GLENDALE SHOULD HAVE RECEIVED (3% OF TOTAL)	AMOUNT OF FUNDING GLENDALE ACTUALLY RECEIVED[2]	AMOUNT OF FUNDING GLENDALE IS OWED
2018	$10,623,000	$318,690	$0[3]	$318,690
2017	$17,390,000	$521,700	$0	$521,700
2016	$20,660,000	$619,800	$0	$619,800
2015	$14,460,000	$433,800	$0	$433,800
2014	$8,480,000	$254,400	$0	$254,400
2013	$20,315,000	$609,450	$0	$609,450
TEN-YEAR TOTALS: 2009-2018	$91,928,000	$2,757,840	$0	$2,757,840

^[1]   Source: MPHA’s MTW Annual Plans and Reports for those years, which for 2009-2017 are online at https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_housing/programs/ph/mtw/mtwsitesand for 2018 is online at https://www.dgphc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/MPHA-FY2018-Moving-To-Work-Plan-2017.-final-submission-to-HUD.pdf.

 

^[2]   Source: same as above.

 

^[3] The $200,000 MPHA plans to spend on the Head Start building’s roof does not reduce housing-related capital needs at Glendale Townhomes, and was therefore not included in this table.