In their 2018 Moving to Work Annual Plan, the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) says it will ask the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to waive the Declarations of Trust (DOTs) on its properties and replace them with Land Use Restriction Agreements (LURAs). It sounds complicated, but the bottom line is this move would privatize Minneapolis public housing and displace thousands of low-income residents. Continue reading →
Will Minneapolis Let Trump Privatize Public Housing And Call It “Progressive”?
Some are already calling the incoming Minneapolis city council the most progressive in the United States. That means the new council will be determining, through its actions, the meaning of the word “progressive”. Working class and marginalized folks in Minneapolis will be watching closely.
We’ve watched as cities sold off public property on the cheap, to private speculators who quickly brought them up to market-rate, telling citizens that no, this wasn’t corruption, it was simply “innovation.”
We’ve watched as “affordable housing” became a meaningless slogan in cities where loophole-filled schemes catering to real estate speculators meant the rents deemed “affordable” are still rising, day after day.
These same speculators for decades have drooled at the prospect of acquiring ownership stake in Minneapolis public housing, complete with pathways to massive profits through raising rents, displacing families, and transforming public land into private real estate.
The project of neoliberal and right-wing politicians has always been to facilitate the privatization and plunder of public resources. Trump and his Housing and Urban Development (HUD) chief, Ben Carson, have made it clear that privatization is their objective for public housing across the country.
Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) director Gregory Russ is trying to sell the Trump/Carson plan to Minneapolis as “progressive.” He tells us privatization is the only “pathway to preservation” for public housing. But we know this carrot-and-stick approach is how neoliberals have always forced their schemes onto the public. Greg Russ no doubt learned these techniques of manipulating the public during his tenure at shadowy Abt Associates.
In reality, Russ and the Trump administration are working in lockstep, with the privatization of public housing as their shared objective. MPHA’s latest plan submitted to HUD openly admits to this.
Minneapolis city council could stop these plans. Funding exists that could truly preserve public housing for the public, not for private speculators.
But will they do it? Will the new “progressive” city council save public housing for residents and the public, or will they sell us out to Russ, Carson, and Trump, and transform “progressive” into yet another empty buzzword? Working class and marginalized folks in Minneapolis will be watching closely.
References: In its annual plan submitted to HUD on 11/13/17, MPHA states its privatization initiative “is consistent with the strategies expressed by Secretary Carson during his June 9, 2017 Congressional testimony, ‘The old model was the government came in with a whole bunch of money and said, build this facility for people with AIDS. Build this facility for low‐income people in this area, etc. The new model is government seeds the program and then facilitates public‐private partnerships by creating win‐win situations.'” (pg. 39-40 of the PDF pages ) http://tinyurl.com/MTW-FY2018-
Gregory Russ, Executive Director of MPHA: Who Does He Really Work For?
In late 2016, Gregory Russ was appointed the new Executive Director/CEO of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority, (MPHA). According to a Nov 10, 2016 Star Tribune article announcing the appointment, Gregory Russ worked previously as the executive director of Cambridge Public Housing Authority, as well as a “consultant to public housing agencies both on his own and for Abt Associates.”
Who are Abt Associates?
Clark Abt, a former Raytheon engineer and manager, started Abt Associates in Cambridge in the 1950’s. Abt Associates is a for-profit consulting firm that contracts primarily with corporations, non-profits, and governmental agencies (including the Department of Housing and Urban Development ( HUD) and local Public Housing Authorities). With a revenue of $501 Million in 2016, Abt Associates has close ties to both the financial and government sector. Gary Perlin, the current Chair of Abt’s Board of Directors, is the former CFO of both Capital One and the World Bank, as well as the former vice president and treasurer of Fannie Mae.
Abt Associates “in the forefront of efforts to measure the condition of the public housing stock and the costs of bringing this resource up to a standard state.” According to their website, they presented some of their findings to Congress in 2011. They claim there is 26 Billion in large scale capital improvements needed for public housing across the country – this came from Meryl Finkel’s 2010 “Capital Needs in Public Housing”. Is this behind the push to MTW & privatization?
According to Sourcewatch – Abt Associates worked as a consultant with the CIA to develop techniques to destabilize leftist governments (including Allende in Chile in 1970’s).
Jeff Lubell (director of housing and community initiatives for Abt Associates) wrote a book with Henry Cisneros (of Hollman vs. Cisneros!) and Janis Bowdler of JP Morgan Chase.
Cisneros is a founder of CityView, “a premier investment management and development firm which targets complex multifamily housing opportunities in densely populated urban markets primarily in the Western United States. The firm prides itself on its ability to be a part of revitalizing neighborhoods within metropolitan areas while at the same time striving to generate meaningful returns for its institutional investors.”
A 2015 article in the Cambridge Day highlighting a pay increase for Gregory Russ revealed that, on top of his nearly $200,000 annual salary, his contract with the Cambridge Public Housing Authority allowed him to work up to 80 hours a year as a private contractor.
So who does Gregory Russ really work for? Is he accountable to the residents of MPHA, or is he working for a shadowy government contractor controlled by the same large financial interests that prey upon ordinary people and low-income families? Is Gregory Russ an agent of Wall Street and the 1% or public servant that is here to keep public housing public? The residents of MPHA, resident of Minneapolis, elected officials from the City Hall to MN State deserve an answer!
References:
http://www.startribune.com/public-housing-veteran-recommended-to-lead-minneapolis-agency/400754941/
http://www.abtassociates.com/Projects/2008/Capital-Needs-in-the-Public-Housing-Program.aspx
http://abtassociates.com/AbtAssociates/files/a7/a776f7a5-02d4-4716-aac9-bd3e453e5c92.pdf
https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Abt_Associates
http://tinyurl.com/cambridge-day
http://tinyurl.com/star-tribune-greg-russ
Dear MPHA, Developers and Minneapolis Elite:
Dear MPHA, Developers and Minneapolis Elite:
The hard working class of public housing residents that you want to displace, and make homeless so you can build condos for your elite lifestyle, are the ones who drive school buses so your children can go to school on time, who take care of your elders in nursing homes, who clean your hotels and hospitals, and who cook in the restaurants you fancy. They are the moms that are going to school and raising their children. These are the hard working people you want to displace, gentrify, and push out of Minneapolis so you can profit from the destruction of their homes and communities.
Hello world!
