Glendale Townhomes is a public housing property managed by the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA). It is located in the Prospect Park neighborhood of Minneapolis and surrounded by many businesses, light rail and bus access, schools, green space, and community assets used by current residents. There are 184 units in Glendale Townhomes, distributed across 28 buildings on a 14.5-acre site. Inspired by Hubert H. Humphrey, Glendale Townhomes is one of MPHA’s most historic properties. It has been the home of many famous athletes, city leaders, and a University of Minnesota community extension education program in the 1960’s. These elements make Glendale Townhomes the perfect resident-driven candidate for the City of Minneapolis’ historic preservation designation.

Glendale Townhomes continues to serve as the home and community of thousands of low-income families and, in recent history, as a cultural space for Southeast Asian and East African refugee families who have immigrated to Minnesota. It is this racial and economic make-up of Glendale Townhomes – a community of low-income people of color – that also makes it a vulnerable target for MPHA’s future redevelopment plans. Residents are experiencing disparate impact discrimination through neglected repairs, little to no resident engagement by MPHA, and the threat of displacement.

Glendale Townhomes continues to maintain good structural design, physical elements, and during HUD inspections Glendale received a 98 out of 100 from HUD. But MPHA continues to disinvest from routine maintenance and repairs at the historic site (as well as block all funding from state and city), in order to demolish the homes for developers to profit. Glendale residents demand and organize for the upkeep and maintenance of plumbing, heating, and sewer lines, appliances, painting and electrical systems. Through MPHA’s own admission, they have neglected the above mentioned maintenance on purpose. MPHA tries to justify their disinvestment by saying “the design and construction of the homes creates major challenges for energy efficiency”. Yet, after resident organizing and support from elected officials, the Sustainable Resource Center began insulating the homes, and providing energy efficiency for each of the 184 units. While they are trying to find ways to demolish Glendale and profit up to 108 million dollars by displacing residents, we can’t trust them to maintain or upkeep Glendale unless there is stronger oversight and regulation from City and HUD in order to comply with Fair Housing Act.

In their June 2016 report for MPHA on the physical state of Glendale Townhomes, Sherman Associates stated that all necessary improvements to fix and repair Glendale would cost $27 million. But it was soon discovered that Sherman Associates (which had connections to MPHA’s Board of Commissioners) was interested in buying and privatizing the property, which would result in displacing public housing residents. Sherman came up with four options for the site, and only one option preserved public housing. This option would have cost $27 million. The rest of the options were all various privatization schemes that added market-rate housing to the site at a far greater cost – as high as $108 million.  It was also discovered, through actual estimation models of similar homes in St. Paul, that the budget estimate to fix and repair Glendale was inflated.  Assuming basic rehab would cost $30,000 per home, and major rehab would be around $80,000 per home, the total cost for the 184 homes in Glendale would be between $5.5 to 15 million. This is a lot less then the Sherman estimate, which also includes things like consultant fees. As a result, Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition (DG & PHC) responded to the Sherman report, stating that the only way to truly to save Glendale public housing was to go with the Defend Glendale Option to fix and repair the units, and see the updated version, here.

It was also discovered that MPHA made very little effort and devoted no staff capacity to acquire additional dollars to maintain Glendale Townhomes’ physical structures. For example, the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) provides $20 million annually for public housing in the state. This is done through a program called POHP, or the Publicly Owned Housing Program, where Public Housing Authorities and Agencies (PHA’s) all over Minnesota apply for funds to fix, repair, and rehabilitate their properties. PHA’s use these funds in order to prevent neglect, demolition, and displacement, and to keep public housing public. Depending on the need of the properties, funding ranges from $60,000 to $2 million per PHA per year. This report obtained by DG & PHC reveals that from 1992 to 2016 MPHA failed to apply a single POHP dollar to fix and repair Glendale, despite receiving millions of dollars through this program. All the money was spent on other MPHA properties. Yet, MPHA claims that Glendale is currently in such a state of disrepair that they don’t have the money to maintain or preserve it. If that is the case, then why didn’t MPHA apply for POHP grants specifically for Glendale? This is more evidence that the intent has long been to neglect our homes. Why? To demolish and sell Glendale for profit to private developers connected to MPHA’s Board of Commissioners.

Recently, MPHA has been pushing to lease or sell Glendale Townhomes to private developers, who would receive tax credits from the federal government in exchange for renovating the property and keeping less than 20% of the homes at “affordable” rates for a certain number of years. The rest will be luxury apartments for the rich. These tax credits are known as Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. Under federal guidelines, residents would have to make a certain income to qualify to come back to the buildings or homes, which developers call  “affordable units”. These units are not affordable for public housing residents because, unlike in true public housing, their rents are based not on an individual household’s income. Instead, private “affordable housing” bases rents on a percentage of the Area Median Income (AMI).  AMI is the average income of the entire Twin Cities metro area, which ends up being around $90,000. Due to the Twin Cities’ huge racial disparities, AMI discriminates against people of color who on average make far less than that. Private developers rely on AMI to set “affordable housing” rates as a way to exclude and displace low-income people of color.

Depending on what percentage of AMI is being used, families may have to earn up to $68,000 (as a family of four) to actually afford these “affordable” new units. Even the most generous AMI-based housing, set at 30% of AMI, would require a family of four to earn $27,120 annually. The average income of MPHA’s working households is $20,496 per year. The average income of all public housing families is even lower at $14,201 per year. Seniors on social security receive only $750 a month, which comes out to a yearly income of $9000. Clearly, the math doesn’t add up. The average public housing resident does not earn enough income to be able to afford even the lowest rents that the private developer would charge.

In addition, there is no legal guarantee of a right to return from MPHA because as soon as the MPHA lease expires during the transition, families are out of the hands of MPHA.  MPHA can’t renew the leases under the public housing structure of residents paying 30% of their actual income for rent because the buildings/homes will be 99% under the ownership of the private developer. See this chart from MPHA’s powerpoint presentation on April 2017.  MPHA claims that all families will be able to return to Glendale, no matter their income, but has not provided any specific explanation or legal contract on how because they know they will have 1% ownership and private developer will have 99% ownership to build condos for Minneapolis elite, so they can’t make any legal agreements for residents come back. In order to keep up the lies, MPHA came up with a clever plan and lies to push residents out of their homes. To understand how MPHA plans to displace 1000’s of low-income residents, people of color, refugees, Somalis, Oromo, Hmong, Asian American, Native American, disabled and elderly, please see this fact sheet on MPHA’s steps to displacement.

COMMON QUESTIONS, MISINFORMATION, AND INADEQUATE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT BY MPHA:

For the past 4 years, Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s lack of comprehensive and thorough resident community engagement has created confusion and mistrust among MPHA residents, Minneapolis citizens, nonprofit housing organizations, and even local elected officials.

MPHA has engaged in some of the worst community engagement of their residents, and fellow agencies in the history of Public Housing Agencies ( PHA’s) and community planning. This lack of community engagement has created an environment of fear of displacement, disenfranchisement, marginalization, family trauma, racism, disparate impacts, and treatment.

Defend-Glendale & Public Housing Coalition (DG&PHC) has been the driving force around community organizing and empowerment of public housing residents citywide that are under the threat of privatization and displacement by MPHA. MPHA and their developers are pushing Trump and HUD Secretary Carson’s plans to dismantle public housing, and refusing to accept public funds such the funds accepted by the Minneapolis Parks and the Vikings Stadium.

DG&PHC continues to release lived experience and data by actual residents and not agency Public Relations media spin.

Here is Defend-Glendale & Public Housing Coalition’s real time information from the MPHA website (formerly known at the “Myths”-website section) about the change happening to Glendale Townhomes without the input and engagement of residents.

Question to MPHA: When is the Redevelopment of Glendale Townhomes happening?

DG&PHC Answer: Gregory Russ, Czar of Gentrification & Privatization is the new Executive Director of MPHA. Gregory Russ is pushing Trump and Carson plans by trying to manipulate and mislead MPHA residents and Minneapolis public at large. MPHA claims that change to Glendale Townhomes could be years away. They tell residents of Glendale and other high-rises “you will not be displaced.” Glendale Townhomes residents are being asked to trust that their families will not be displaced this year, but it could happen years from now. MPHA claims no changes to Glendale Townhomes would happen without more community conversations, but their record of accomplishment shows how they silence community voices with community meetings where residents are presented the information with little to no chance to respond and no follow-up on their questions has been provided. The facts are, MPHA held two community meetings on August 17 and 22, 2017. In these meetings, Greg Russ was trying to manipulate and scare MPHA residents. His team silenced and intimidated residents, and did not provide adequate interpreting services. These meetings presented Gregory Russ’ new plans to privatize all of MPHA’s public housing properties starting with Glendale.These plans are called “Guiding Principles for Redevelopment and Capital Improvement at MPHA” and “2018 MTW Report to HUD”. These plans include waiving the Declaration of Public Trust that protects public housing from privatization and selling public housing properties to developers through Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, which is corporate welfare for the rich. While Gregory Russ tells residents will not be displaced, he offers no legal contract to prove this, and he wants HUD and City of Minneapolis to approve these plans effective 2018. Therefore, in real time, displacement of Blacks, Black Muslim, refugees, immigrants, disabled, seniors, low- income and working class families from Glendale and targeted high-rises will be the first phase of displacement starting 2018 if HUD and City of Minneapolis approve these plans. MPHA needs both HUD and City of Minneapolis to approve in order to start the displacement plans.

Question to MPHA: Hasn’t MPHA already decided what they are going to do with Glendale Townhomes?

DG&PHC Answer: Yes. The reality is in 2016 MPHA paid Sherman Associates $75,000 to develop a plan that creates and markets a narrative that Glendale Townhomes is too costly to rehab and repair ($27 million) when the real cost is actually 5.5 to 15 million. And, their idea of the most feasible solution is a $108 million tax dollars expensive and non-feasible full redevelopment of high end market rates with no 100% guarantee of existing resident retention.  By MPHA’s own admission, Glendale Townhomes residents would experience changes years down the road. Yet in 2016, they stated that their Sherman and Associates report caused them to explore options. Then in 2017, MPHA Board voted to privatize all of the Minneapolis Public Housing Properties including Glendale, 42 high-rises, 730 homes, and more proprieties, over 6040 units which will impact over 26,000 low-income MPHA residents through a plan called “Guiding Principles for Redevelopment and Capital Investment at MPHA”. This included  displacement plans such as offering developers Low-Income Housing Tax Credits and waiving Declaration of Trust (DOT) from all public properties (the law that protected the public ownership of properties) in order to sell the homes to private developers. Residents know the ONLY true assurance and guarantee MPHA can rebuild trust with Glendale Townhomes is for the MPHA Board take a formal vote stating that they will adopt the “Defend Glendale Option to  fix and repair all homes in Glendale Townhomes” but MPHA has refused to do that. Instead, they are planning to displace all Blacks, Black Muslims, refugees, immigrants, displaced, and the elderly. All MPHA residents continue to live in fear, including Glendale. MPHA plans to privatize and push out all people of color from Minneapolis are in line with the Trump/ Carson agenda. MPHA, under the leadership of Gregory Russ from 1% of Wall Street, wants follow the Trump plans to privatize public housing, and they want to call it “Progressive”

Question to MPHA: What will MPHA do with the “Sherman Report”?

DG&PHC Answer: The Sherman report was requested by MPHA through Sherman Associates in which the agency claims they paid $75,000 for new ideas to add to a conversation about Glendale Townhomes. MPHA has engaged in inefficient and unprofessional resident engagement to start conversations with Glendale Townhomes’ residents and continue to not share their ideas or involves residents as partners in the future of their homes. The MPHA Board of Commissioners has not voted on the Sherman plan and decided to table it in 2016.  But after Gregory Russ was hired in February of 2017, MPHA voted for a more severe policy to privatize not only Glendale but all of the Minneapolis Public Housing through the “Guiding Principles for Redevelopment and Capital Investment at MPHA”. The Sherman Report was the test trial, but the real plan behind this was to get rid of all public housing. Due to public pressure, even though Sherman Associates did not release a public statement, as of today they are not part of the conversation publically. They are no longer claiming to want to buy Glendale. This does not mean that Sherman Associates is completely gone away. They may be silent now, but they will probably come out later if and when MPHA recovers from their public relations scandal they created by revealing their plan to dismantle all public housing and having their abuses of vulnerable residents exposed.

Question to MPHA: Why haven’t residents and the community at-large heard from MPHA?  What’s Going on?

DG&PHC Answer: MPHA does all of their plans in secret and they conduct few community information functions. Even when they do, the agency does not have a track record of fully involving, engaging and empowering residents throughout any of its lengthy processes. MPHA claims there is no action happening towards Glendale Townhomes, yet they state the process should be “rushed.” They voted to dismantle public housing, but they deny this. MPHA claims they are happy to provide updates, but they do not state the types of updates, or an actual resident engagement plan on the future of MPHA and its properties.They specialize in misleading MPHA residents and the public at large that MPHA is not required by any authorities to go beyond their standard track record of little to no community engagement. In addition, they hired a PR team to go after residents leaders, and they use the Minneapolis High-rise Council (which they fully fund) to manipulate and intimidate residents from speaking out.

Question to MPHA: Will MPHA evicts Glendale Townhomes residents and put them out of their homes to the street?

DG&PHC Answer:  Yes, MPHA is a public agency with a Board of Commissioners that has close ties to developers that want to buy Glendale and political allies. MPHA has been going after Glendale as early as 2010. MPHA will put residents out of their homes to the street which will increase homelessness. As of now, over 17,000 are on wait list to access housing from MPHA. See this fact sheet on steps MPHA will use to mislead and displace residents.

MPHA to Question: If you do redevelop at some point, would residents have to leave during construction?

DG&PHC Answer:  Here is where MPHA is manipulating and misleading. The truth is, residents will be told to leave during the construction, which is not being undertaken for the purpose of rehabbing the homes for public housing residents to come back, but rather for the purpose of turning over the properties to developers. MPHA has no plans for residents to come back because residents will be out of the MPHA leases. Research from the U of M’s Center for Urban Regional Affairs (CURA) states that 1 out of 4 may come back if they can afford to. But MPHA has no legal contract with residents to prove to them that they will come back to their rehabbed public housing homes. On their website, MPHA states “Possibly” as the answer to this question. As previously stated, MPHA does not have any resident relocation and retention planning.  MPHA’s answer for this question brings up concepts such as: “some residents might prefer to stay” and “if they wished [to stay during construction]”. Their answer implies other agency options might be presented for residents to relocate from MPHA properties or that families might have the ability to move during development. But MPHA fails to tell the public that their real plans are to get the residents out to the homes, and to lie to them until they leave. Therefore, residents will not come back because they will be out of the lease. MPHA discounts and marginalizes the experience of family displacement as an inconvenience instead of viewing it as a reality that impacts a family’s entire livelihood and as a traumatizing experience. The real story of what will happen to residents is here.

Question to MPHA: If residents are temporarily relocated, will their monthly rent increase?

DG&PHC Answer: Yes, residents will no longer pay 30% of their income for rent. The properties will change from DOT (Declaration of Trust) which protects the rent at 30% of income which is public housing rate to LURA (Land Use Restriction Agreement) which will privatize the homes.

LURA is based on Area Median Income (AMI). Therefore, residents will have to pay rent based on Area Median Income of the Twin Cities. In 2017, AMI is based income on white  middle class families from the Twin Cities metro area which is  $90,400. The median income for black families is just $30,300. The average income for working public housing residents is $20,656 a year. The average income for public housing residents is $14,201. Seniors on social security  receive $750 a month, with total income of 9000 a year. Rents will change, and residents will pay 30% to 60% of the current AMI of 90,400. This means residents rents will go up. The lower the income, the greater the rent increase.

• A four-person family earning the average MPHA working household income of $1,721/month currently pays $516/month on rent. They would be charged $705 to $1,410/month for a three bedroom apartment (depending on the AMI threshold). This represents a rent increase of 37% to 173%, and means up to 82% of their monthly budget would go towards rent.
• Seniors who currently earn $750/month from Social Security and pay $250/month on rent would be forced to pay $475 – $949/month for an “affordable” studio apartment, a rent increase of 90%-280%.

People with no income are protected under a DOT and currently pay MPHA the minimum rent of $75/month. If DOTs are replaced with LURAs, their rent would also increase to $475 – $949/month, a percent increase of 533% to 1,165%. These individuals would simply lose their home.

Question to MPHA: If residents are temporarily relocated, will they be able to return?

DG&PHC Answer: The MPHA says yes but we know from research and real data that residents never come back. Also, MPHA does not take into account the impact of the redevelopment of a tenant’s home and how the process can impact their ability to “meet the requirements” to reside in their properties and it does not provide any assistance or support for their family stability. Once MPHA displaces residents out of their home, the homes/land such as Glendale will be privatized and private developers may rent to only 20% of the residents, and only if they qualify depending on their income. The higher the income, the greater the chance of them returning. See our fact sheet that explains steps to displacement.

The real fact is there is no place for residents to go in Minneapolis because they can’t afford the high rents in the marketplace, and Section 8 vouchers have been denied by landlords who want to kick people of color out to turn the properties to higher market rates. Also, there are no strong city ordinances to protect Section 8 vouchers from housing discrimination, as private landlords are notorious for committing. In addition, MPHA does not have additional housing available in Minneapolis. MPHA wants to get rid of all of their housing in Minneapolis, and sell it to private developers especially if they are located in expensive neighborhoods. MPHA is no longer interested in protecting the poor and the vulnerable disabled, seniors, etc.

Question to MPHA: Will MPHA help residents find replacement housing before beginning rehabilitation or redevelopment?

DG&PHC Answer: No. There is no guarantee that MPHA will find replacement housing. Former Director of MPHA Cora McCorvey said in a public meeting in June of 2015 that we don’t know where residents will go, but that some may be offered Section 8 vouchers. It is clear that private landlords have been discriminating against Section 8 renters in Minneapolis which means residents have to move out of the city and away from their communities. MPHA has no tenant retention plan in place because they want to dismantle public housing.

Question to MPHA: Is MPHA intentionally cutting back on maintenance and repairs so that Glendale Townhomes will deteriorate to the point where it must be demolished?

DG&PHC Answer: Yes, MPHA has provided no exploration planning with Glendale resident engagement towards the upkeep and maintenance of Glendale Townhomes. Residents have experienced reduced maintenance services, heating and insulation services, electrical services and heating services. DG&PHC had to fight for a year to bring in the Sustainable Resource Center (SRC) to insulate the homes and to protect children from low heat and health hazards.  Resident leaders have met other organizations and discovered that MPHA has not been applying for funding such as the Publicly Owned Housing Program (POHP) from MN State’s Housing Finance Agency, nor explored any other options. MPHA decided to spend tax dollars on consultants rather the spending our tax dollars on keeping up with the repairs at Glendale.  MPHA purposefully chose to have “zero budgets” for Glendale repairs even though they have the funds available.

Question to MPHA: Does MPHA have the resources or the ability to find replacement housing if residents temporarily relocate? The Section 8 waiting is already long, and many landlords are unwilling to accept vouchers.

DG&PHC Answer:  MPHA wants residents to move out of Minneapolis. They are implementing part of the gentrification plans developers and key city officials are pushing. They want to target predominantly East African neighborhoods such as Cedar Riverside. MPHA is not building new public housing. MPHA wants to get out of managing public housing. MPHA wants to turn over the residents to suburban private companies that provide income based housing that is not guaranteed. The private companies sign deals with HUD to get public funds in order to provide income based housing for 15-30 years through the use of Low Income Housing Tax Credits. Therefore, MPHA wants to push residents out of their community, gentrify the neighborhood, and then turn the residents to private companies that do not provide permanent income based housing.

Question to MPHA: Doesn’t MPHA receive federal money for capital improvements at Glendale Townhomes? What has happened to this money?

DG&PHC  Answer: Previously MPHA stated, HUD money is decreasing locally and nationally, MPHA and HUD have been requested by Glendale resident to conduct an audit to show the lack of capital improvement money towards Glendale Townhomes. MPHA never asked funds from City or State to help meet any budget gaps. We have documents that shows MPHA never requested money from the MN Housing Finance Agency for Glendale Townhomes even though funds are available. Through MPHA’s own admission, funds are prioritized to each property.  Maintenance and upkeep at Glendale Townhomes has not been a priority for MPHA. For the last 10 years, MPHA’s investment in Glendale was zero. This is done on purpose while funds are available. MPHA has not deemed Glendale Townhomes to be a priority property with the immediate life, safety, and building infrastructure needs, despite residents’ demands to fix and repair all 184 units. MPHA used the funds for private consultancy companies to create blueprints to privatize Glendale and high-rise buildings. MPHA also states they have used capital funds towards: “major elevator rehabilitation and controls, and domestic piping and ventilation systems, fire suppression systems, and security cameras and surveillance equipment for other properties and not Glendale. Yet the contradiction of MPHA is clear here as they say Glendale is in need of repairs and they don’t have funds to make the repairs, yet they use the funds for other buildings, and for private consultants.

Question to MPHA: Doesn’t MPHA just want to sell Glendale Townhomes to private developers so that it can have extra money in its bank account?

DG&PHC Answer:  MPHA wants to become a private investor and sell / profit from Glendale. They want to dismantle the concept of public housing so private developers can profit.

Question to MPHA: Isn’t this part of the desire for “gentrification,” driving low-income and immigrant families out of the neighborhood?

DG&PHC Answer: Yes, MPHA wants to push residents out of Minneapolis to build condos for the rich. In fact, this conversation has had little to no involvement of Glendale residents in the past, present, and future exploration/ planning stages. If MPHA was a true steward of public housing for all low-income families, then MPHA would engage all levels of government and community partners towards resident retention, family stability, as well as repairing and maintaining 184 units as public housing as it is. Instead they have conversations with private developers on redevelopment. They would get available state and city dollars as other public housing agencies do if they left Glendale alone as public housing homes as they are now.

Question: Can’t MPHA use Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) to capitalize improvements at Glendale Townhomes?

DG&PHC Answer:  Low-Income Housing Tax Credits are used to give private developers tax breaks and free public housing properties to profit off of and turn into condos. It does not meet the needs of housing public housing residents and low- income residents. MPHA has many options to get public funds at the state, county and city level for Glendale. They don’t want to. MPHA wants to neglect Glendale and sell the land to private developers.

Question: Doesn’t the City of Minneapolis own Glendale Townhomes, while MPHA is only responsible for management, operations, and maintenance?

DG&PHC Answer: The land is under public trust, or Declaration of Trust ( DOT), that is overseen by HUD. Without permission from the City of Minneapolis, the public land can’t be sold. It is still under city jurisdiction. There is a charter between the City of Minneapolis and MPHA. Several decades ago, MPHA was a department of the City of Minneapolis, but then MPHA became a separate department. But under HUD and State law, there is still a legal charter between City of Minneapolis and MPHA. Therefore, the City of Minneapolis still appoints its Commissioners and approves the hiring of its executive directors.