Introduction

1. Although MPHA has still not had their 2018 MTW Annual Plan approved by HUD, they continue to push the same privatization agenda in their 2019 Annual Plan. This agenda is based on a misrepresentation of the facts, and was crafted without the input or support of residents. The following is a brief summary of the flaws, misleading statements, and legal shortcomings of MPHA’s 2019 MTW Annual Plan . This includes the following plans and issues they describe in their annual plan.

2. Strategic Vision & Capital Plan 2018–2020 & 2020-2030 HORIZON

In MPHA’s Strategic Vision & Capital Plan , which was presented to the MPHA Board of Commissioners on May 16, in spite of a lack of resident and community engagement as required by city, state, and federal rules, lays out MPHA’s plan to end public housing in Minneapolis as it has existed since 1937, using Section 8 to dismantle public housing and displace residents. In this report, MPHA named five properties to privatize and displace residents, Elliot Twins in Ward 6, Glendale Townhomes in Ward 2, Rainbow Terrace in Ward 5, Spring Manor, and Friendly Manor in Ward 3. In all of these properties, MPHA wants to use RAD, Low-Income Housing Credit, and other privatizing schemes. This plan is a far-reaching, trajectory-setting document, charting the course for conversion of ALL of MPHA’s over 6,245 public housing units from public housing funding to Section 8 funding and from public ownership to 99.9% private ownership and 0.01 % ownership by a non-profit corporation created by MPHA with heavily invested in by private interests and not subject to government requirements such as compliance with Minnesota’s Open Meeting Law and Government Data Practices Act.

MPHA already has densification and gentrification plans. This is bigger than MPHA; this is about the future of democracy in Minneapolis. Chicago is still haunted by the destruction of public housing there (including Cabrini Green public housing) which, Greg Russ, current executive director of MPHA also had a hand in. If the HUD, and our elected officials approve MPHA’s privatization plans, which will dismantle public housing as it existed since 1937, there will be no turning back.

MPHA states that: “The Strategic Vision & Capital Plan followed more than a year of engaging the community on the challenges we face and the protections that public housing residents deserve.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Public housing residents were not notified of this plan. Therefore, MPHA:

• Failed to mail letters in the past year to tenants in the five properties to inform them of their plans.
• Failed provide access to the document to tenants by mailing or delivering the documents to public housing resident.
• Failed to hold public or resident meetings to explain about their latest plan in Elliot Twins, Glendale, etc.
• Failed to provide 30-day notice for public comments.
• Refused to collect and hear public comments during their Board meeting on May 23, 2018 where they approved this policy without public input.
• Failed to provide transparent and fair community engagement therefore violating the public comments process.

MPHA’s Strategic Vision & Capital Plan has been prepared in secrecy by the MPHA staff and Board without the resident and community participation promised by the MPHA’s own public engagement policy, Minnesota’s Open Meeting Law, the “ City’s Core Principles of Community Engagement”, and City’s own resolution about Glendale which states: “any redevelopment or improvement plan for that area will follow a separate, open, transparent public process that will include participation of the neighborhood association and Glendale residents.”

MPHA gross misrepresentation of the actual level of resident involvement in the creation of the Strategic Vision and Capital Plan is a pattern that repeats itself throughout MPHA’s 2019 MTW Annual Plan. In fact, Greg Russ’s tenure at MPHA has been characterized by an insidious and systemic marginalization of residents crudely papered over with public statements about extensive public involvement. Importantly, no evidence for this resident involvement is ever offered, because it does not exist. MPHA continues to rely on a small number of handpicked residents – an anonymous “Tenant Advisory Board,” also knowns at Resident Advisory Board to speak for all residents in spite of the fact many MPHA residents have publicly stated that this Tenant ( Resident) Advisory Board does not speak for them and they don’t know who they are. It is clear that MPHA uses the “Tenant ( Resident) Advisory Board” to take advantage of vulnerable residents. In addition, the Tenant Advisory Board does not inform residents about the decisions MPHA’s Board makes. Residents’ feedback are excluded. MPHA’s Board of Commissioners who are very wealthy and majority white pro- developers don’t listen to residents or community feedback. They have authoritarian rule over MPHA because their developers’ network will profit from the sale, dismantling, displacement and the destruction of public housing. MPHA sent Strategic and Vision report to the City of Minneapolis Housing & Policy Committee on June 6, 2018 for review. MPHA contradicts itself. One minute they say it is a plan, the next minute they say it is not a plan it is a vision. They are misleading the public as well as the elected officials. The City of Minneapolis Housing & Policy Committee voted to table this report to further study the legal oversight City of Minneapolis over MPHA. At this meeting, residents from Glendale and Elliot Twins gave public comments about the lack of resident engagement, MPHA secrecy and misleading of tenants. On July 25, 2019, The City Attorney’s office presented their findings to the Housing & Policy Committee about the city’s legal oversight over MPHA. The findings corrected the notion that MPHA is a completely, and irrevocably an independent political body from MPHA. The report found that MPHA is not an independent political body from City of Minneapolis. It is clear from this report that MPHA remains subject to City Council ordinances and monitoring as underlined by the City Attorney’s report. For full analysis, see the following links, https://www.dgphc.org/2018/07/11/mpha-strategic-vision-analysis/

https://tinyurl.com/Comments-6-6-18-Housing-Comm

https://tinyurl.com/Comments-7-25-18-Housing-Comm

3. Section 18 Disposition of Scattered Sites into Private Fourplexes
   This section of the analysis explains in detail MPHA’s plans on privatizing over 730 single family homes that are in excellent condition through Section 18 Disposition & Demolition. MPHA attempts to hide this from the reader by titling this section “Preserving and Stabilizing MPHA Scattered Sites through ‘Section 18,’” conveniently leaving out that Section 18 authorizes the demolition and disposition of public housing. Characterizing the demolition and disposition of public housing as preservation is indicative of MPHA’s persistent and pervasive use of misleading and dishonest language in an attempt to deceive public officials, residents, and the broader public about their activities.

Public housing authorities usually apply for Section 18 from HUD when properties are in such bad physical conditions that the housing authority can’t repair or rehab them, making the properties unsuitable to house families. This is not the case with MPHA’s scattered sites. These homes are in great shape. Public housing families who rent these homes will be told to move out in 3 months or so, and MPHA will give them Section 8 vouchers to look for housing elsewhere. Therefore, MPHA is displacing thousands of families with children from their homes and community putting them at risk of homelessness, and due to gentrification, private landlords no longer rent to Section 8 families. MPHA is implementing this program for political reasons. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey has proposed a plan to allow for the construction of fourplexes throughout the city which is also endorsed by his 2040 Comprehensive Plan, and MPHA has included this component of their plan in order to win his political support, and transform the scattered sites into the fourplexes. Importantly, Section 18 does not allow MPHA to dispose of their 730 scattered site homes. Section 18 specifically limits the number of properties that can be demolished in a 5 year period to “the lesser of 5 dwelling units or 5% of the total public housing dwelling units owned by the PHA.” MPHA has declared their intention to pursue activities they are not authorized to do. Again, MPHA is misleading the public and elected officials. Here is a fact sheet about their plans.

4. RAD- Elliot Twins: Leads to displacement of seniors that are not informed. Restart the discussion before application is filed.

(R.A.D) Rental Assistance Demonstration Program is a voluntary program from HUD. MPHA does not need to apply. But it is clear MPHA wants to apply to transfer and sell Elliot Twins to private investors where the investors will own 99.9 % of the buildings. Elliot Twins are attractive buildings to investors because of its location in downtown Minneapolis walking distance from the U.S. Bank Stadium. MPHA’s plans to pursue RAD at Elliot Twins is one of the most misleading parts of their 2019 MTW Annual Plan. MPHA hid the plans from Elliot Twins seniors to sell the buildings and displace residents. MPHA did not notify the residents or the public. The residents of Elliot Twins are majority seniors, elders, East Africans, and African Americans who have major disabilities, and receive a fixed income of $750 a month from social security.

MPHA needs to stop the application process for RAD because Gregory Russ began applying for RAD in 2017 without Elliot Twins notification or approval. On April 2017, MPHA submitted a LOI ( letter of interest) for the Elliot Twins to HUD, and have spent hundreds of thousands of our tax dollars on consultants specifically tasked with developing privatization plans for the Elliot Twins. MPHA has done this without notifying or collecting feedback from the residents of Elliot Twins, or the broader public. MPHA purposely hid this decision from Elliot Twins, the public and elected officials. Here is a Letter from Elliot Twins East African Seniors wrote to MPHA complaining about how they are excluded from any decision making. At this time, residents had no idea that Greg Russ had already sent LOI to apply to RAD. In this letter, residents mention when Greg Russ visited Elliot Twins during June of 2017, he told them they will receive section 8. See a short clip of a video taken during this meeting where Greg Russ does not mention that he applied to RAD, and says residents will receive Section 8 vouchers or residents will move to other public housing units. Section 8 Vouchers…Greg Russ Said it! Greg Russ knows Section 8 does not work, and the waitlist for other public housing units is 7 years long. Residents rejected Section 8, and said they are not going to move. Significantly, MPHA did not include this activity of applying RAD in their 2018 MTW Annual Plan, which also has not yet been approved by HUD. MPHA has submitted this application without specific and explicit authorization to do so. Even though, there has been no board approval of an application to apply for RAD, and residents have not been notified whether or not MPHA Board of Commissioners approved RAD, Greg Russ made the decision to mislead residents and make them think that the Board had approved RAD.

For 15 months from April, 2017 to July, 2018, MPHA excluded Elliot residents from the planning and decision making process to apply for RAD. On July 28, 2018, Star Tribune published a profile about Greg Russ where he announced his plans to use RAD on Elliot Twins, and plans to privatize the rest of the Minneapolis public housing using RAD and low-income housing tax credits to attract private investors. Greg Russ knows majority of the residents do not read the Star Tribune and cannot read or speak English, or are disabled, and have no idea about these plans because MPHA failed to engage and inform them 15 months ago when he started this process. MPHA continues to violate language proficiency laws for residents who speak Hmong, Oromo, Spanish, Amharic, and other languages, as well as the rights of residents who are disabled. To minimize damage, MPHA invited Elliot Twins residents to attend RAD information meetings on August 8th and 9th 2018 which failed because residents walked out due to MPHA’s misleading presentation, and the hiding of RAD’s negative impacts on communities all over the nation :

• Residents of Elliot Twins, Glendale Townhomes and allies protested these meetings because these meetings were not legitimate. MPHA excluded Elliot Twins residents for 15 months from the planning and the decision making processes involved in applying for RAD.
• Residents of Elliot Twins stated that resident council and tenants ( resident) advisory board or Minneapolis High Rise Council ( MHRC) does not represent them and never have. MPHA said they met with these groups at other buildings to get permission to apply for RAD. But MPHA failed to notify residents at Elliot Twins directly or get their permission since it is their building. Complaints about these groups were filed by Elliot Twins’s residents as early as March of 2018 which MPHA ignored. Greg Russ handpicked few people to push his plans in violation of residents rights.
• Residents of Elliot Twins found out for the first time at these meetings that MPHA is rushing to submit the RAD application because it is due to HUD on September 2018. Residents had no idea about the details of this application, or its deadline.
• MPHA failed to translate the meetings and the rights of residents in the diverse languages spoken at Elliot Twins.
• MPHA sent mixed messages. On August 8th, MPHA said that residents will move out of Elliot Twins during RAD conversion, and some will receive Section 8 and others will be put on a waitlist at other public housing buildings.
• Residents stated that this will lead to displacement and homelessness because private developers do not rent to Section 8 anymore, and the waitlist is 7 years long which is over 17,000 people. MPHA had no response to this.
• On August 9th, with the same PowerPoint presentation, MPHA did not talk about Section 8 or the waitlist, and could not answer specific questions about displacement during the RAD process.
• MPHA hid from residents of Elliot Twins and the rest of the public housing residents (GAO) U.S. General Accounting Office report that studied the negative impacts of RAD. This report found that RAD is putting public housing residents at risk of chronic displacement around the nation, and HUD does not have the mechanism to make sure that residents are protected. According to the report, due to RAD, residents are facing displacement, high rents, and they are not coming back to their communities. Here is the GAO Report . In addition, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California), stated her deep concerns about RAD, and how residents rights are not being protected. MPHA failed to notify residents of these findings from GAO report..
• Residents from Elliot Twins clearly saw that MPHA was misleading them and violating their civil rights. As a result, residents walked out of both meetings, and recognized these meetings as dishonest, misleading and illegitimate. See this Statement about MPHA’s illegitimate RAD meetings.

MPHA is hiding that residents will be displaced from their community, and they will face homelessness because MPHA plans on giving residents Section 8 vouchers (which don’t work), or residents will be added to the public housing waitlist, which is 7 years long. MPHA has not fulfilled their Fair Housing and Civil Rights requirements, as outlined by HUD. MPHA is also violating their own “Guiding Principles,” which promises “MPHA will encourage active and meaningful resident and community participation throughout the planning and implementation process.” MPHA further violated the requirement to notify residents “at the very beginning” of the of any planning process including any discussion or LOI regarding RAD.

MPHA is rushing RAD process in violation of HUD and City policies. Residents are being misled, and lied to. Residents have not consented to go ahead with the RAD application. MPHA is rushing this decision while it violates their own community engagement policies, as well as those required by HUD and the City. This is a violation of the rights of residents.

In order to build trust with residents and the rest of Minneapolis community, MPHA must stop lying to the community and residents of public housing. MPHA must be transparent as to why they want to use RAD at Elliot Twins, which is not about the lack of funds, but it is about selling well-built and rehabbed buildings to developers because it is near U.S. Bank Stadium. MPHA must be honest that Elliot Twins community will lose their community, and will be displaced once they are forced to move out. There is not sufficient information available to the residents and community members to allow a through and transparent discussion and evaluation about RAD. Residents and community need time to learn and discuss the impact of RAD on seniors and disabled residents if the Elliot Twins are privatized and residents are displaced. Residents and community members must regularly meet with Gregory Russ and the rest of his team in transparent, community-wide public meetings in compliance with MPHA, City, and HUD policies in order to learn about RAD and its impact on our elders before any application is accepted at HUD.

5. Lack of Resident and Community Engagement

MPHA sent a letter notifying public housing residents city- wide that the 2019 MTW Plan has come out. MPHA stated in the letter that if residents want to comment on this report, they have to comment online by sending an email or in writing. MPHA knows a majority of public housing residents do not have access to computers, and may not have emails accounts. Residents who are disabled cannot attend the meetings and cannot write comments, so how is MPHA ensuring that their voice is heard? There is absolutely no effort to communicate this plan to disabled residents.

MPHA knows that almost half or more of its public housing population do not speak or read English. It’s not good enough to tell these residents to go read their report, especially when they only provide a Somali translation for the introduction of their MTW (which makes up less than 1/5th of the entire MTW report). There is no translation into any other language, including Oromo, Spanish, or Hmong. Therefore, MPHA violated its obligation for Limited English Proficiency, which is a part of federal and state laws by failing to notify residents about this meeting including the notices, and interpreting. Yet, MPHA policy states: “All MPHA activities related to the Moving To Work Plan, and approval process will be consistent with MPHA’s obligation under its limited English Proficiency LEP Plan.”

Minneapolis High Rise Council ( MHRC) failed in Glendale Townhomes because just like Elliot Twins, they became a tool to push MPHA lies about RAD in 2015 at Glendale, and when residents found that MHRC was not looking out for their best interest nor advocating for them to protect their rights, residents cut ties with MHRC. As a result, there needs to be a full audit and accountability assessment of MHRC’s mission, their budget, and their role misleading public housing residents. Majority of the residents in public housing do not know who the Resident Advisory Board ( RAB) also known as Tenant Advisory Board and (MHRC) who they are or what they do. They failed to advocate for residents, and they can’t approve any plans without a public transparency and without the consent of all of the public housing residents.

6. MPHA’s Misleading and Questionable Budget

In MPHA’s Strategic Vision & Capital Plan, MPHA says that they don’t have funds to continue to keep public housing public. As result, MPHA says they must privatize public housing. But MPHA properties are rated 98 out of 100 by HUD inspectors. MPHA has one of the best kept properties in the nation. MPHA has always balanced their budget. For many years, HUD did not raise capital funds, and they balanced their budget. But for the first time in years, MPHA received a 45% increase in capital funding in 2018. The current Senate spending bill increases this funding. MPHA considers their 45% increase in Capital Funding “no kind of victory.” MPHA does not want to talk about their capital funding because this contradicts their narrative that is intended to manipulate public opinion so they can sell off public housing.

MPHA spent millions in consulting fees for network of private developers that are connected to Greg Russ to create plans to privatize MPHA. In addition, MPHA is hiring a lot of people from the private sector. If MPHA has funding crisis, why don’t they have a hiring freeze? On page 71, MPHA claims capital needs of over $500 million over the next 20 years. In spite of the fact that this number is presented without evidence, and that MPHA has refused independent audits of their capital needs, this number is misleading for several reasons.

MPHA received about $15 million dollars in Capital Funding from HUD during 2018. If we extend this level of funding out for 20 years, MPHA will receive $300 million from the federal government alone. This is assuming there is no increased funding for public housing, which seems unlikely given the increased interest in affordable housing demonstrated by the increased funding in 2018 and the emergence of a new bipartisan Congressional Public Housing Caucus. If MPHA privatizes their housing right now, just as a federal movement to restore funding for public housing is growing, future generations will look at this decision as one of the worst mistakes in the city’s history.

Furthermore, Minneapolis is able to provide MPHA with a levy of up to $8 Million a year. MPHA told the city to cut this levy in 2010, which is interesting given that they now are claiming that they are so short on funds. If MPHA reinstated the full levy, MPHA would receive an additional $160 million over the next 20 years. This leaves a gap of about $80 million over 20 years, or $4 million per year. The Minnesota Housing Finance Agency is already able to issue $10 million per year to support public housing across the state. In fact, on page 78 of this document MPHA outlines how they received $2.2 million from Minnesota in 2018 for capital repairs, meaning that if we were to extend the same federal funding and state support, as well as a fully restored levy, MPHA would actually run an annual surplus of $200,000. The revenue and fees collected from public housing residents, which is a large portion of MPHA’s revenue, is not even included in this calculation. In addition, in 2016, Rep. Phyllis Kahn introduced a $5 million bonding bill by Kahn to support Glendale as public housing, and MPHA refused to lobby to access these funds.

Even if we uncritically accept MPHA’s numbers, it is quite easy to come up with funding models that keep public housing public. There is huge support for affordable housing in Minneapolis and in Minnesota, and it would be relatively simple to access the funding necessary to maintain public housing as a public good. Therefore, MPHA does not have money issues. MPHA does not want to preserve Elliot Twins, Glendale Townhomes, or other public housing properties as a public good through available public funds. MPHA wants to “Sell, Sell, Sell” as their consultant Peter Hendee Brown advised.

7. “Approved” MTW Activities includes many activities that are not approved
   Page 38, which is headlined “Approved MTW Activities,” contains many items that have not been approved. Out of the 30 total MTW Activities listed on this page, 7 have not been approved. MPHA’s 2018 Annual Plan has still not been approved by HUD, making them the only MTW agency in the country without an approved annual plan. MPHA attempts to hide this by placing their unapproved activities inside parentheses.Only one activity (“Release of the DOT to Preserve Public Housing”) does not have any year at all in the “Approved” column. This is because MPHA has been specifically instructed by HUD that they do not have the authority to pursue this activity. In spite of this, MPHA lists it here on a page titled “Approved MTW Activities.” This is beyond misleading – it is a lie.

   MPHA breaks this page into 4 categories: “Implemented Activities,” “Activities Not Yet Implemented,” “Activities On-Hold,” and “Closed-Out Activities.” We will briefly analyze each category below:

   1. “Implemented Activities”
      5 of the 16 (or about 1 in 3) activities in this section have not been approved by HUD. How has MPHA implemented these activities without HUD approval?
   2. “Activities Not Yet Implemented”
      This section is used to hide the fact that HUD has blocked MPHA’s plans to release DOTs by bundling that activity in with other activities that MPHA has not implemented due to other reasons. This activity should be put in a 5th category titled “Activities Not Approved by HUD.”
   3. “Activities On-Hold”
      MPHA describes Activities that they implemented in the past, but have now put on hold. “Alternate Income Verifications” and “Public Housing Earned-Income Disregard” were both placed on hold, with the potential to be implemented again in the future. MPHA does not give adequate explanations for why these activities were placed on hold, or why they might implement them again in the future. The 3rd activity, “Soft Subsidy Initiative,” is a failed public-private partnership with Alliance Housing. This highlights the dangers to residents who are put into experimental public-private programs.
   4. “Closed-Out Activities”
      This section contains many cancelled programs that benefitted residents, like home ownership programs, transitional housing, and public housing self-sufficiency programs.

8. Conclusion

Reject MPHA’s 2019 MTW Annual Plan. MPHA must go back and rewrite this plan. MPHA must write a 2019 MTW Annual plan that is honest, transparent, and that will not mislead over 11, 000 public housing residents, their families, citywide residents of Minneapolis, elected officials, and HUD. MPHA’s hidden and dishonest plans to sell public housing & its communities to private developers for profit, and that will displace public housing residents are thereby full rejected because this will create one of the biggest housing, gentrification, social and economic crisis this city has seen.