Dear Allies:

Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition supports the self-determination of the homeless families living at the Hiawatha encampment.  As the housing crisis for the most vulnerable intensifies, it is clear that the City of Minneapolis needs to fix this, and listen and enact real sustainable  solutions that come from residents that are impacted by the current housing crisis.  If not, we will continue to see more homeless camps all over this city.  We need more public housing, not less for low- income and homeless families.

As the leaders and residents of public housing, we have been fighting for the last four years to save public housing in Minneapolis from being demolished, dismantled, and privatized in order to avoid a social and economic crisis that will lead to more homelessness and tent cities. Unfortunately, Mayor Jacob Frey let us down, and we are still waiting on the City Council to act to keep public housing public and to protect public housing residents from displacement through privatization.

We also note that the Hiawatha encampment came to exist at a time when luxury development in Minneapolis is at an all-time high.  All around the city luxury units sit vacant, while the people displaced by the gentrification that accompanies luxury development are forced to live in tents.

This is why communities have to self-organize to save themselves because we have lost confidence in elected officials.  We are in support of self-determination of the Hiawatha encampment.

On September 11, 2018, the Star Tribune published an editorial by (MPHA) Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s  Executive Director Greg Russ, who does not agree with the newspaper’s recent coverage of MPHA’s privatization plans. http://www.startribune.com/counterpoint-public-housing-in-minneapolis-is-being-preserved-not-privatized/493000811/

In particular, he does not like the newspaper’s description of reality, which is privatization.  MPHA’s intention to transfer 99.99% ownership of publicly owned public housing properties to private hands is privatization. Privatization of public housing results in the dismantling of public housing, the displacement of thousands of public housing residents, the destruction of communities, homelessness, and gentrification. Greg Russ is hoping that if he hides all of these facts, that the public will buy his falsehoods.

Greg Russ attempted to hide his privatization plans with misleading and false statements. The following is an analysis of what Greg Russ says in this article, compared to the real facts,  and the actual rules governing RAD conversion, as well as what MPHA has told public housing residents in the past.

1. Greg Russ says: “The federal government, unfortunately, now funds only 10 percent of the repair costs these buildings need.”This statement is misleading.MPHA has refused to conduct an independent audit of the actual conditions and repair needs at their buildings. MPHA claims that their roughly $15 million in annual capital funding from HUD represents 10% of their capital needs. This would make it seem as if each year HUD only funds 10% of the capital needs MPHA accrues. This is not the case. If this were the case, MPHA would need to accrue $150 million dollars in capital needs each year, which is not the case. Their entire budget, which is balanced each year, is around $107 million. They only need about $14 million a year in capital funds, which is what they receive from HUD currently.MPHA says that they don’t have funds to continue to keep public housing public.  As a result, MPHA says they must privatize public housing. But, MPHA properties receive ratings of 98 out of 100 by HUD inspectors. MPHA has always balanced their budget.  MPHA received 45% increase in capital funding in 2018 and will receive the same in 2019. MPHA has $23 million as surplus. MPHA spent millions in consulting fees for a network of private developers that are connected to Greg Russ to come up with plans to  privatize MPHA. In addition, MPHA is hiring executives with high salaries over $100k. If MPHA has funding crisis, why don’t they have a hiring freeze?MPHA claims capital needs of over $500 million over the next 20 years.  This number is presented without evidence, and 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 and the same for 2019.  If we extend, this level of funding out for 20 years, MPHA will receive $300 million from the federal government alone. MPHA was and is able to receive a levy for up to $8 million per year, but MPHA told the city to remove the levy in 2010. If this levy is reinstated, MPHA would receive $160 million over the next 20 years. This leaves a gap of $40 million over 20 years, or $2 million per year. MPHA received $2.2 million this year from the State of Minnesota, a representative amount of funding they can receive from State funding bodies. Projected forward, this funding model would meet all of MPHA’s stated $500 million dollar capital need, with $4 million left over. This does not include the revenue collected as rents and fees from tenants. MPHA has refused to lobby for available public funds such as city and state levies and bonds to keep public housing public. In 2016, Rep. Kahn introduced a $5 million bonding bill at State HF  3112 and SF 3127 to support Glendale as public housing, and MPHA refused to lobby to get these funds. MPHA does not have money problems. They have privatization on their mind.
2. Greg Russ says: “Are we selling our buildings? No.”
   
   This is a misleading statement that relies on a technicality to avoid being an outright lie.
   
   MPHA’s plans, shared with public housing residents, show that they intend to transfer 99.99% ownership to a private investor, with the remaining .01% being owned by a non-profit MPHA intends to create. This non-profit would not be a public agency. Greg Russ uses the fact that an independent non-profit will hold a .01% ownership stake in privatized buildings to make the deeply misleading statement that MPHA is not selling their buildings.  Corporate non profits is private.(See slide from MPHA’s presentation here: https://tinyurl.com/MPHA-s-Pathways-to-Destruction)
3. Greg Russ claims that they will not give control of “operational policies, resident rights, (or) setting rent levels” to anyone.
   
   This is a false statement.
   
   Under the ownership schemes MPHA has proposed at Elliot Twins, the private investor would have the right to choose who manages their properties. Greg Russ admitted as much when discussing the potential risks of RAD at MPHA’s May 16, 2018 Board meeting, saying “the investor does have the right to come in and remove the property manager if they feel we’re doing a bad job. So that’s a risk.”
   
   Although MPHA promises that they will continue to manage their properties, their proposal to privatize their properties through RAD would take this decision out of their hands. In other words, Greg Russ is making a promise that he and MPHA will not be in a position to keep.
4. Greg Russ says: “Can public housing residents, under any scenario, lose their federal housing benefits in this process? Once again, categorically, no.”
   
   This is a false statement that relies on the word “process” to mislead readers.
   
   RAD rules do state that residents cannot be rescreened and lose their housing benefits as a part of the RAD process. They also clearly state that following the completion of this process, the new owner has “the ability to rescreen tenants at the time of a tenant’s annual or interim recertification in accordance with their screening/eviction procedures found in their policies.” In other words, the residents at Elliot Twins absolutely can be forced out of their homes as a result of RAD conversion when MPHA turns the building over to the private developer who will own 99.99% of the building and control decisions about how the buildings are managed and maintained.
   
   This fact has also been observed by US Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who has issued comments highly critical of the RAD program, saying “despite RAD’s potential to have serious, negative impacts on tenants (such as changes in rent or relocation), HUD is failing to adequately track these impacts and monitor potential violations of resident rights under relevant statutes and HUD policies.” Her comments followed a report from the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) that clearly stated the negative impacts of RAD. This report found that RAD is putting public housing residents at risk of chronic displacement around the nation, and there is no mechanism to protect residents’ right. Therefore due to RAD, residents are facing displacement, high rents, and they are not coming back to their communities.
   
   You can read HUD’s RAD Guideline’s here (see page 13 for relevant info): https://www.hud.gov/sites/documents/RAD_PBRAQUICKREF.PDFCongresswoman Water’s full comments can be found here: https://democrats-financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=401258The GAO report is here: https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-123
5. Greg Russ says: “We recently applied to preserve and make major renovations to one of our oldest high-rise properties, the Elliot Twins.”
   
   This statement is misleading. By describing the Elliot Twins as “one of our oldest properties,” Greg Russ makes the false implication that the buildings are in disrepair and in desperate need of renovations. In fact, the buildings were renovated as recently as 2014. The buildings are in good condition.
6. Russ asserts that “RAD itself simply converts the underlying federal subsidy from one pool to another…”
   
   This is a false statement.
   
   RAD converts public housing to private ownership. The conversion of “the underlying federal subsidy” refers to the change from public housing funding to Section 8 funding private funding. By definition, the Section 8 program funds private landlords, not public housing.
7. Greg Russ claims “If we need to make major repairs, residents are guaranteed a comparable place to live in the meantime and an ironclad right to return when we finish the work.”
   
   This is a false statement.
   
   MPHA cannot promise to give residents a “comparable place to live.” Comparable would mean in the same location, surrounded by the same community that the disabled and elder residents rely on for support.
   
   Greg Russ stated in a meeting at Elliot Twins on June 3, 2017 that residents will receive Section 8 vouchers when they are being displaced from Elliot Twins. Private landlords are not accepting Section 8 in Minneapolis. Section 8 vouchers continues to displace public housing residents. MPHA’s “ironclad” right to return is an abstract right, separated from the reality of elderly and disabled residents who face permanent displacements from their home and community while MPHA and their private partners pursue an unnecessary redevelopment of their homes.See Greg Russ’s statement in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfMKXv5Btr4.
8. Greg Russ claims that Low Income Housing Tax (LIHTC) Investors would “share ownership” with MPHA.
   
   This is a false statement.
   
   The LIHTC investor would own 99.99% of the building, and an independent nonprofit would own the other .01%. To call this sharing is deeply misleading, and to say that MPHA would “share ownership” makes the statement an outright falsehood. MPHA would not retain even .01% ownership. That tiny ownership stake would belong to an independent nonprofit, not MPHA.
9. Greg Russ claims that “the buildings would remain publicly subsidized, publicly controlled, publicly managed, publicly owned and true to their public mission.”
   
   This is a false statement.
   
   Private developers will get the public subsidy to make only 20% of the building Section 8 or more likely Area Median Income (AMI), which is not affordable for public housing residents that pay 30% of their income for rent. The buildings will not be publicly managed. It will be managed by private companies that own 99.9% of the buildings through RAD, which violates the whole mission of keeping public housing public as a public good. Greg Russ is a lobbying for private investors getting public funds and public land.
10. Greg Russ observes that “nonprofit (and actually private) affordable housing providers across the state use Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LITCH)  to build and renovate affordable housing.”
    
    This statement is misleading.
    
    Nonprofit and for-profit developers use LIHTCs to build and renovate private housing when they choose to make it semi-affordable by providing about 20% of the units for Section 8 or AMI units. This type of “affordable housing” is not affordable for public housing residents. These private owners only keep their units semi-affordable as long as they are getting large amounts of  public funds and LIHTC. But once LIHTC or public funds are cut, these units vanish and residents are displaced. This is not the same for public housing that is publicly owned. For Greg Russ to compare the construction of new housing by nonprofit and for-profit developers  and the renovation of privately owned semi affordable housing to the conversion of existing public housing to private ownership is misleading. Private development has always been private and public housing has always been public. In fact, the LIHTC program has limited funding, and by competing to take LIHTC funds from private developers, MPHA would be taking funding away from private developers in order to subsidize the unnecessary conversion of currently existing public housing to private ownership, which will lead to loss of more low-income housing, public housing,  causing displacement, homelessness and gentrification .
    

Conclusion:  Greg Russ and MPHA Commissioners please resign.

Greg Russ continues to lie and mislead the public and public housing residents. Equally important, Greg Russ’s family are one of the largest owners and managers of federally subsidized LIHTC Low-Income Housing Tax credit properties in Minnesota through a company called Thies & Talle Inc., located in Chanhassen, MN. Greg Russ’s wife Laura Russ is the Vice President of Asset Management of this company, which is owned by her father (and Greg Russ’s father-in-law) Kenneth Talle.  This is a blatant conflict of interest. Greg Russ and the MPHA Commissioners who are involved with the private investors who want to grab public housing properties for free need to resign. This crisis they are creating for the purpose of greed is becoming a public policy and corruption ordeal that is hurting Minneapolis locally and nationally.

For more information about RAD at MPHA see this article:  https://www.weareubuntu.com/race-politcs/2018/8/24/minneapolis-public-housing-authority-prioritizes-profits-over-people

Link to .pdf copy of this article here: Response to Greg Russ’s Editorial by DG&PHC

Dear Allies:

Please follow this link to sign our petition with Color of Change!

Tanya Dempsey, a consultant from CSG Consultants, was present at MPHA’s Board meeting today, in support of Greg Russ and MPHA’s RAD conversion plans for Elliot Twins.

Tanya Dempsey, who will be the lead on many of the tasks MPHA has assigned CSG, previously worked for New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) while they underwent an extensive “portfolio modernization” effort not unlike the current “portfolio assessment” MPHA has undertaken. NYCHA hired CSG to act as a financial advisor during this process. Apparently impressed with CSG’s work, Dempsey decided it would be appropriate to apply for a job at CSG while continuing to work with them on behalf of NYCHA. According to NY Daily News, “for months, she continued signing off on checks for CSG and working with the firm on NYCHA projects while emailing back and forth about snagging a job at CSG.” She succeeded in changing employers, but was later forced to pay a $9,500 fine to settle charges filed by New York City’s Conflict of Interest Board.

See this article about her story https://tinyurl.com/MPHA-CSG-s-Corruption

To: MPHA, HUD, Mayor Jacob Frey and Minneapolis City Council

I am writing in regards to MPHA’s 2019 MTW Annual Plan that MPHA is planning to send to the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). This plan is full of flaws, hiding key information, misleading statements, and legal shortcomings. This plan would approve the privatization of all public housing, leading to the dismantling of over 730 homes, 42 high rises, the Glendale Townhomes, and more, as well as the displacement of over 11,000 public housing residents, and 17,000 on a waiting list. These are majority Black, Black Muslims, disabled seniors on fixed income, refugees, immigrants, and families with children. MPHA, led by their Executive Director Greg Russ, wants to start plans to privatize Elliot Twins in Ward 6 without resident and city council approval or notification. This is a violation of both HUD and City policies and ordinances.

As an elected and public official, I am requesting that you reject MPHA’s 2019 MTW Annual Plan as it is written now. Ask MPHA to go back and rewrite this plan. MPHA must restart the clock and write a 2019 MTW Annual Plan that is honest, transparent, and that will not mislead public housing residents, their families, city wide residents of Minneapolis, elected officials and HUD. See this link for an in-depth analysis of it’s misleading approach . MPHA’s hidden and dishonest plans are misleading residents and the public in order to sell public housing & its communities to private developers that will displace public housing residents. MPHA 2019 MTW Annual Plan is failing the City of Minneapolis, and its public housing residents for the following reasons, plans, issues and topics they describe in their plan:

1. MPHA’s Strategic Vision & Capital Plan 2018–2020 & 2020-2030: lays out a misleading plan MPHA’s plan to end public housing in Minneapolis as it has existed since 1938. MPHA refused to collect comments during the board meetings, failed to notify residents, and failed to provide a 30 day comment period. None of the residents in these buildings and townhomes were informed about this plan. This plan has been prepared in secrecy violating MPHA’s own public engagement policy, Minnesota’s Open Meeting Law, and City of Minneapolis’ resolution on Glendale, and its “Core Principles of Community Engagement”.

2. Section 18 Disposition of Scattered Sites into Private Fourplexes
   MPHA plans on privatizing over 730 single family homes 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 as a result displacing families providing them Section 8 Vouchers that private landlords are no longer taking. MPHA plans to follow Mayor Frey’s lead and turn these public housing homes into privately owned fourplexes. The fourplex plans outlined in City’s 2040 Comprehensive Plan. MPHA continues to use misleading and dishonest language in an attempt to deceive public officials, residents, and the broader public about their activities.

3. RAD- Elliot Twins: Leads to displacement of seniors that are not informed. Restart the discussion before application is filed. MPHA misled Elliot Twins residents about RAD and residents rejected RAD. (RAD) Rental Assistance Demonstration Program is a voluntary program that will displace residents, increase rents, and residents can’t come back to their buildings because the buildings will convert to private development with luxury apartments. MPHA began the planning process of RAD on April of 2017, and for 15 months until August of 2018, MPHA hid this plan, misled and excluded Elliot residents from the planning and decision making process regarding the RAD application to HUD. Residents saw that MPHA was not honest during RAD meetings on August 8th and 9th, 2018. During the meetings, MPHA sent mixed messages about residents using Section 8 to move out, or residents moving to other public housing buildings. MPHA knows this will lead to displacement because private landlords don’t take section 8, and the waitlist for public housing is 7 years long. Also, MPHA hid from residents U.S. General Accounting Office report report that stated RAD leads displacement around the nation. Residents were not informed about RAD. MPHA kept it a secret and misled them, and Elliot Twins protested and rejected RAD when they found out MPHA was misleading them.

4. MPHA failed to inform, provide access and engage residents

MPHA said in a letter public housing residents must go online to read or comment on the 2019 MTW Plan. Majority of public housing residents don’t have access to computers and may not have emails, and half of the population don’t speak English and a large number are disabled. How are they supposed to access this report. MPHA violated its obligation for Limited English Proficiency and the rights of disabled residents. MPHA failed to provide other ways for residents to access or understand this report, and the danger these plans present to the safety, well-being and housing stability of public housing residents. Resident Advisory Board or Tenant Advisory Board and Minneapolis High Rise Council ( MHRC) does not represent public housing residents in Elliot Twins, Glendale, etc., because residents don’t know what they do or who they are. Elliot Twins complained about MHRC that MPHA ignored. MHRC 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.

5. Misleading and questionable budget: MPHA uses false narrative about lack of funding to push to privatize public housing. MPHA has money and is able to access public funds as they have in the past, but MPHA does not want to keep public housing public which is why are not lobbying or accessing public funds that are available them. See here for full analysis of MPHA 2019 MTW Plan
6. “Approved” MTW Activities includes many activities that are not approved. This is totally dishonest and misleading. Public trust about MPHA’s leadership continues to deteriorate

MPHA’s 2019 MTW Annual Plan must undergo a rewrite to reflect honest and good public housing policy to keep public housing public, and thorough, transparent community engagement process before it is approved. I urge MPHA’s Board of Commissioners, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD), Mayor Jacob Frey, Minneapolis City Council, Housing Policy & Development Committee to fulfill their role as protectors of public housing and reject MPHA’s 2019 Moving to Work Plan for its lack of transparency and misleading approaches.

https://tinyurl.com/MPHA-2019-MTW-Analysis

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.

MPHA’s illegitimate meetings on the privatization process through R.A.D failed: They hid the negative effects of R.A.D from Elliot Twins & more

————————————————————————————————————-

What is (R.A.D) Rental Assistance Demonstration Program? It is a voluntary program from HUD that allows public housing agencies ( PHA’s) to demolish, transfer ownership of public housing properties that are in bad shape, and PHA can’t afford to take care of in order to demolish, sell the land or transfer ownership for free for private developers. Private developers then apply for tax credit to redevelop the properties into market rate, less than 25% of “affordable units” may be available at the discretion of private landlord. The previous public housing residents can’t come back because they can’t afford these units. R.A.D was supposed to be a selective pilot project for needed buildings only that are in bad shape that PHA’s can’t afford to rehab. But in the past decades, pro-developer lobbyists such as the current Executive Director of MPHA Gregory Russ, and MPHA Commissioners have embedded themselves in public housing agencies and pushed R.A.D to be applied to the best public housing properties for developers to take over, manipulate tax credits, and other affordable housing funds which led to massive displacement of extremely low-income public housing residents all over the nation.

Summary timeline about MPHA’s lack of resident engagement at Elliot Twins:

1. In 2015, Glendale Townhomes residents rejected R.A.D. MPHA targeted Glendale with intentions to sell the land to Sherman Associates because of the high-density boom happening in Glendale’s neighborhood of Prospect Park where the TCF Stadium, Green Line, and U of M are located.

2. It was recently discovered that the Elliot Twins public housing buildings next to the U.S. Bank Stadium are MPHA’s next target. Elliot Twins are in great shape and MPHA’s plan is to sell 99.9 of the building to private developers through the R.A.D program.

• On April 24, 2017, MPHA filed a letter of interest to HUD to apply for R.A.D without notifying tenants. MPHA kept this information hidden from Elliot Twins residents. DG&PHC found out recently from a blog of a developer that MPHA is pushing R.A.D on Elliot Twins.

From April 2017 to July 2018, MPHA excluded Elliot residents from all of the planning process and decision making for the R.A.D application to HUD.

• On July 28, Star Tribune publishes a profile on Gregory Russ and his plans to privatize all the public housing units in Minneapolis through, RA.D including selling the buildings through Low-Income Housing Credit.
• Residents at Elliot Twins would have to find out from this article that Greg Russ was planning to privatize their homes through R.A.D. Almost all of the Elliot Twins residents don’t have access to Star Tribune & many don’t read English.
• The following week, July 30, Greg Russ and MPHA sent letters to Elliot Twins residents informing them that there will be two information meetings about R.A.D held on August 8^th and 9^th.

3. The two informational meetings on the 8th and 9th of August weren’t legitimate because MPHA excluded residents from the planning and decision making processes involved in applying for R.A.D. Greg Russ made the decision to apply for R.A.D over 15 months ago.

• Elliot Twins residents, Glendale residents, and allies attended both of these meetings as part of Defend Glendale and Public Housing Coalition’s network and allies.
• During the two meetings, MPHA brought police and security to control senior disabled residents and their allies. MPHA announced that they have been planning this application for months, and that they spoke to residents in other buildings, the Minneapolis High-rise Council, and the tenant advisory team.
• Why would MPHA speak to residents in other buildings about Elliot Twins and not speak directly to Elliot Twins residents?
• Elliot Twins tenants who attended the meetings did not know what tenants groups or other buildings MPHA was talking about, or the tenant advisory team they said approved these plans. It was clear that tenant advisory team did not come from Elliot Twins, and that MPHA and Gregory Russ handpick them.
• In addition, Minneapolis High-rise Council (MHRC) does not represent, nor speak for the tenants of Elliot Twins. Elliot Twins tenants already wrote a complaint letter to MPHA about MHRC’s leadership Mary McGovern’s racist and xenophobic tactics including how MPHA covers for MHRC.
• Elliot Twins residents said that they don’t recognize any of the tenant groups MPHA creates because MPHA does not employ open and democratic process, which violates their own civil right.
• Elliot Twins found out for the first time at these meetings that MPHA is rushing to submit the R.A.D 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.
• During the August 8^th meeting, MPHA insisted that residents sign-in order to make public comments. When residents who don’t speak English or know how to write their names told MPHA that they would prefer to give their names orally, MPHA refused, saying residents could not make comments unless they signed in. When it was made clear that residents’ voices were being marginalized, residents walked out. Other tenants also refused to sign in because they did not approve of MPHA’s misleading process.
• During the August 8th meeting, MPHA said residents will receive Section 8 Vouchers, or they will go on a waitlist in other public housing buildings around the city. However, the waitlist for public housing is 7 years with 17,000 waiting to get in, and no one is renting to Section 8 voucher holders. Basically, MPHA was telling resident they will be displaced.
• During the August 9^th meeting, MPHA presented the same PowerPoint presentation. Residents walked out again because MPHA told a different story about R.A.D then what they said on the 8th of August. On the 9th of August, MPHA could not answer the questions about displacement. They did not want to answer questions about Section 8 and wait list. They changed the story. So residents saw MPHA was lying. After all the Elliot residents spoke, MPHA refused to listen to comments from Glendale residents about how they previously rejected R.A.D. Mary Boler, MPHA’s Director of Public Housing physically pushed a Glendale resident from the microphone who wanted to speak. Mary grabbed the microphone, pushed the Glendale resident, and blocked the resident from providing a public comment. In addition, Jeff Horwich would not allow allies to comment as well. MPHA attempted to kick out residents for calling out MPHA’s lies, which led to the second walk out in a row.
• HUD requires that MPHA hold two informational meetings. The first meeting to decide if residents want R.A.D, and second meeting for residents to approve any plans that were discussed during the first meeting. The meetings should be some time apart.
• MPHA violated this process and held two meetings back to back providing the same information about the decision they made to apply for R.A.D over 15 months without resident notification or approval. But, during the second meeting, they omitted information they shared the first meeting and failed to answer questions about displacement.
• For MPHA, this was all to check a box in order to move forward with their application, and to do so without resident engagement or participation in the planning process of the last 15 months that excluded Elliot Twins.
• Side note: The Elliot Twins went through a major rehab less than 10 years with additions such as wifi, modernization, etc. The Elliot Twins are in excellent condition. However, it is near the U.S. Bank Stadium in downtown Minneapolis that is very attractive to developers.
• Side note: MPHA has 23 million surplus, and they received 45% increase in funding from HUD in 2018, and this increase will continue in 2019.
• Side note: MPHA refused to lobby for extra funds from City of Minneapolis and State. MPHA did not lobby for the $5 million bonding bill former State Rep. Phyllis Kahn wrote for Glendale in 2016 to keep Glendale public when MPHA wanted to convert Glendale to R.A.D. Therefore, MPHA does not have money issues. MPHA does not want to preserve Elliot Twins as public housing and a public good through available public funds. MPHA want to “Sell, Sell, Sell” as their consultant Peter Hendee Brown advised.
• MPHA’s lack of funds is false narrative they want to use to sell Elliot Twins like they tried in Glendale. MPHA is using the same false tactics they tried in Glendale at Elliot Twins.
• Side note: Greg Russ also knows many union jobs will be lost once he finds a way to dismantle Elliot Twins, and the rest of the public housing.

4. MPHA’s meetings on August 8th and 9th were not legitimate because they hid GAO report findings about R.A.D from Elliot Twins and the rest of the public housing residents

MPHA didn’t share with Elliot Twins and the rest of the public housing population important information about US Government Accountability Office (GAO) report regarding how the R.A.D program is putting public housing residents at risk of chronic displacement around the nations. https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-123. MPHA purposefully failed to share this information.

GOA report states:

• “HUD does not systematically use its data systems to track effects of RAD conversions on resident households (such as changes in rent and income, or relocation) or monitor use of all resident safeguards. Without a comprehensive review of household information and procedures for fully monitoring all resident safeguards, HUD cannot fully assess the effects of RAD on residents. HUD officials stated that HUD intends to develop procedures to identify and respond to risks to long-term affordability, including default or foreclosure in RAD properties. However, HUD has not done so”

• Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California), who called for the GAO report, summarizes key

findings of the report as follows: “Despite RAD’s potential to have serious, negative impacts on tenants( such as changes in rent or relocation), HUD is failing to adequately track these impacts and monitor potential violations of resident rights under relevant statutes and HUD policies.”

As public housing residents, the experience of forced relocation is displacement, loss of community and gentrification. MPHA is using R.A.D as a tool to privatize, sell, gentrify, and displace low income senior community and tenants. MPHA is not using R.A.D to preserve public housing as a public good.

This is an important report because in MPHA’s presentation on RAD, on August 8^th and 9^th, to Elliot Twins residents, MPHA officials stressed that residents could count on MPHA keeping its R.A.D promises of no displacement, right of return, no rent change, etc.) because HUD will make sure MPHA honors these rights. We know that HUD can’t enforce MPHA to make sure residents are not displaced. We also know that once residents are displaced from their community at Elliot Twins, they will not come back. This is a national trend GAO report admits to. GAO finds that HUD does not have effective monitoring systems in place around these rights to make sure residents are not displaced. MPHA can’t make false promises to residents they can’t keep. MPHA knew about this nationwide study/ report, but MPHA never mentioned this report to its residents at Elliot Twins during August 8th and 9th R.A.D meetings, and they not inform other public housing about this report. MPHA hid this information from residents in order to mislead them to blindly accept R.A.D program. This is deception that puts residents at risk of homelessness and displacement. It is MPHA’s duty to share such important information with resident to protect their civil rights. We believe MPHA did this on purpose and violated residents’ rights to information to protect their rights in order to rush their privatization plans through R.A.D.

Conclusion:

In order to build trust with residents and the rest of Minneapolis community, MPHA must stop lying to the community and tenants of public housing. MPHA must be transparent as to why they want to use R.A.D 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. The GAO report stated that residents are facing displacement due to R.A.D. In addition, MPHA does not have any public housing homes for residents to move to currently once they move them out of Elliot Twins. MPHA can’t write a contract with the residents that state residents will move back to their same apartments with the same rent of 30% income as a public housing buildings. MPHA must be honest that they don’t want to access available public funds to keep public housing public, but that their main goal is to “Sell, Sell, Sell”. MPHA must admit that after MPHA turns 99.9% ownership of the Elliot Twins to private developers, MPHA will have no control over the buildings, leases, etc. After MPHA turns the buildings over to the developers, the buildings will be privatized to majority luxury condos with few “affordable units” at below market rate that poor tenants of Elliot Twins can’t afford to rent. The tenants can’t return to due to long waitlist, or they won’t be qualified to rent due to their low- income, and other barriers the private developers creates to deter low-income renters from coming back to their community. In the meantime, during conversion process to R.A.D, vulnerable seniors tenants of Elliot Twins who are majority disabled will be displaced because there are no public housing units available. MPHA has a waitlist of 17,000 people over 7 years waiting to access public housing currently, and no one takes Section 8 vouchers in the private market. These are the two false options MPHA offered to residents on August 8^th. MPHA is willing to say anything to convince residents to move out. After resident move out, they are out of MPHA’s hands, which is displacement. Who will be responsible for this intentional housing crisis that MPHA is creating?

Sources:

https://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-18-123.
ttps://www.dgphc.org/2018/08/02/sell-sell-sell-says-peter-hendee-brown-mpha-consultant-mpha-moves-quickly-to-dismantle-public-housing-and-displace-vulnerable-residents-starting-with-elliot-twins-in-ward-6/
https://tinyurl.com/HF3212-0-by-Kahn

The pro-forma, after-the-fact “process” that MPHA is providing for Elliot Twin Tower residents in two short back-to-back “information” meetings scheduled for August 8 and 9 is, of course, worse than no process at all.

MPHA’s scheduled meetings with Elliot Twin Towers residents, meetings at which residents will receive MPHA’s official line about HUD’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, the program that MPHA has already decided to use, without required resident and community participation, to convert Elliot Twin Towers from public housing status to privatized Section 8 properties, are no substitute for meaningful consultation. In fact, MPHA’s entire redevelopment process to-date (including MPHA’s “Strategic Vision and Capital Plan for 2018- 2020” adopted May 26, 2018 and subsequently-called Elliot Twin Tower resident meetings) is illegitimate, having been conducted in complete violation of the resident and public engagement requirements that MPHA publicly adopted last year.

In guidelines formally adopted by MPHA Commissioners on May 24, 2017, MPHA promised to promote active participation of residents and community members throughout the redevelopment planning and implementation process.1 In flagrant violation of these public engagement requirements, MPHA has blithely put a cynical cart before the horse, making key redevelopment decisions without resident and community knowledge and input to convert all its public housing properties to Section 8 properties under HUD’s RAD program, a program that MPHA leadership must know (but is unlikely to have shared with Commissioners and residents!) has received a strongly-worded review from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) in February 2018. The GAO found, for example, that HUD has failed to put in place responsible measures to ensure that resident rights are safeguarded under RAD.2

What is to be done? How about restorative justice?

Justice requires that MPHA’s violations of its resident and community participation obligations must have consequences. For every wrong, a remedy. And MPHA officials have publicly said (while perhaps not ever believing a day of reckoning would come) that they expects the community to hold them accountable to comply with these guidelines.

A reasonable restorative accountability consequence would be that MPHA do more than simply acknowledge its transgression, say “Oops! Sorry!” and move ahead with its secretly formulated RAD-reliant plans that residents and community members have no hand in evaluating and shaping. MPHA may yet be influenced to see the wisdom and justice of doing a complete re-set: to begin its redevelopment process over, this time proceeding as required by MPHA’s own guidelines, in an open, transparent fashion, actively encouraging resident and community participation throughout, from beginning (open selection of consultants to aid the process, if any) to conclusion, as MPHA’s guidelines require.

What a concept! Doing what they said they would do. Keeping their word.

Peter W. Brown

See also statement of U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California), member and former chair of the National Black Caucus (March 22, 2018):

Despite RAD’s potential to have serious, negative impacts on tenants (such as changes in rent or relocation), HUD is failing to adequately track these impacts and monitor potential violations of resident rights under relevant statutes and HUD policies.

1: See “MPHA’s “Guiding Principles for Redevelopment and Capital Investments at MPHA” online at http://mphaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Guiding-Principles-for-Redevelopment- and-Capital-Investments-at-MPHA.pdf in which MPHA pledges that it . . .

• “…will engage in a public, portfolio-wide planning process to assess the needs and mission- oriented opportunities at all properties owned by MPHA. . .”

• “…will encourage active and meaningful resident and community participation throughout the planning and implementation process, . . .”

• “…intends that residents participate and contribute to the planning and design discussions.”

2: See US General Accountability Office (GAO) Report (February 22, 2018):

HUD does not systematically use its data systems to track effects of RAD conversions on resident households (such as changes in rent and income, or relocation) or monitor use of all resident safeguards. ….. Without a comprehensive review of household information and procedures for fully monitoring all resident safeguards, HUD cannot fully assess the effects of RAD on residents. ….. HUD officials stated that HUD intends to develop procedures to identify and respond to risks to long-term affordability, including default or foreclosure in RAD properties. However, HUD has not yet done so.