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.

In our statement, we concluded MPHA’s self-described “development team,” bankrolled by McKnight, plans on transforming public property into commodified, investable real estate, and putting ownership interests up for sale – using the theoretical market-rate values of MPHA properties to lure private investors.  McKnight could not specifically refute this, because this is the truth. MPHA has acknowledged, across many venues and contexts, that the ownership structure it is pursuing involves selling ownership of public housing buildings (up to 99.99% of it, according to an April 2017 powerpoint [p.10], which MPHA has since removed from its website) to private investors. In doing so, MPHA would replace permanent protections under public housing’s current trust status, with weakened agreements that carve out loopholes for private investors to raise rents and displace families.

It was only after public housing residents questioned MPHA’s proposed ownership structure that MPHA began to conceal its plans behind deceptive public relations messaging. McKnight continues this trend by refusing to publicly respond to DG&PHC’s statements, much less engage with them point-by-point. In fact, in an email newly acquired by DG&PHC through a public records request, dated September 26 (just before McKnight’s award to MPHA was announced), McKnight went so far as to ask MPHA for a “heads up” “if any reporters start poking at the Glendale angle and McKnight’s role in that.” Lack of transparency is essential to pushing through MPHA’s privatization scheme, and the McKnight Foundation knows it.

In last week’s email to City Council, McKnight attempted to justify MPHA’s plans by stating that “federal funding for public housing has fallen short,” citing “an estimated $130 million in capital needs.” It’s not clear how MPHA arrived at those estimates, but what is clear is that contrary to McKnight and MPHA’s claims, the City of Minneapolis does have the resources to make repairs while keeping public housing fully public. This is underscored by the newly revealed document sent in April to MPHA by development consultant Peter Hendee Brown (also on McKnight’s payroll), in which he revealed an MPHA plan, set for May 2018, to “ask the City to levy taxes required to back a major bond issue of approximately $90M in support of the first phase of capital improvements.” DG&PHC expects this $90 million in bonding will not directly repair public housing under its current public ownership protections, but instead will serve as a deal-sweetener for prospective private investors.

As we’ve stated before, MPHA (under Gregory Russ) and federal HUD (headed by Ben Carson) are using a carrot-and-stick routine to force through their shared values of privatization. Gregory Russ is selling Ben Carson and Trump’s plans to Minneapolis City as a progressive plan.    DG&PHC believes that if the City of Minneapolis can raise $90 million in the name of public housing to privatize, these funds should instead go toward directly repairing and funding public housing, as public housing – not lining the pockets of private real estate speculators. We are confident Minneapolis taxpayers agree.