Today we are organizing a phone zap for Representative Ilhan Omar! We are asking that all of our followers and allies call her office and ask her to write a public letter to HUD to stop section 18! All the directions are in the photo below. Once you have called Rep. Omar’s Contacts, please post using the #StopSection18 tag. This application has gone on too long and too far. Let’s stop it together.  Please contact 10 of your friends, family, or coworkers to make the call and ask them to contact 10 people they know to make the call.  

What is section 18?:

Section 18 is a privatization program offered by HUD to public housing authorities. Minneapolis Public Housing Authority is using it to privatize 717 single-family homes, by removing the housing from the public trust and transferring it to a private entity. Once this occurs, the subsidy will change from public housing to section 8. Subjecting our public housing to the whims of the market could lead to devastating results for residents. It will risk long term affordability and rents may increase to 80% of AMI for new residents. 

What does this mean for Minneapolis?:

Minneapolis is currently in the midst of a major housing crisis, the city needs MORE public housing, not less. These homes will be sold for a dollar each to a non-profit, which will allow private market speculators to gain equity ownership in our public housing. This move will result in the gutting of resident protections and could result in tenant re-screening and potential rent increases for residents. These homes are spread out in different neighborhoods across the city, with a majority in North Minneapolis. Once these homes are privatized, the gentrification already taking place in Minneapolis could intensify, and the city will be forever changed.

How to Stop It:

We are asking for everyone to call Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s office today Tuesday, February 11th and ask she writes a public letter to HUD stoping Section 18. Below is a sample script, and the number of her staffers. Once you have called, post on social media using the #StopSection18 tag.
#StopSection18 Sample Script:Hello, My name is [Blank] and I live in your congressional district. I am calling to ask that Ilhan Omar writes a public letter to HUD to stop the Section 18 Disposition of 717 single-family homes by Minneapolis Public Housing Authority. This conversion will privatize necessary public housing in our city, which could result in rent increases and the displacement of the most vulnerable families in our city. Rep. Omar needs to stop section 18 now. If she supports public housing, she needs to support it in her city. Stop Section 18 now!

Numbers to Call:

Ilhan Omar’s DC Office: (202)-225-4755

Ilhan Omar’s Minneapolis Office: (612)-333-1272

Connor Mcnutt, Chief of Staff: (507)-412-9461

Kendall Killian, District Director MPLS:  (651)-270-3832

Once you’re done, post to social media using the#StopSection18 tag.Thank you for supporting public housing! 

Council Member Abdi Warsame will be leaving his elected position as a council member for Ward 6 to head the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority; http://strib.mn/36BCS12. Jacob Frey and Abdi Warsame’s leadership pushed for MPHA’s privatization and displacement plans. Warsame authored the privatization resolution; https://tinyurl.com/Warsame-s-Resolution, and MOU https://www.dgphc.org/…/minneapolis-city-council-passes-me…/. In 2019, when seniors and vulnerable residents from his ward at Elliot Twins asked to meet with him several times to stop RAD privatization plans that will displace residents, he ignored them. After MPHA could not silence the voices of residents from Elliot Twins, MPHA sent Abdi Warsame. He met the residents in late April of 2019 and promised that he will support them and stop RAD. This was the last time Elliot Twins residents saw their council member. Abdi Warsame has a long record of misleading and oppressing the voices of low-income residents in his ward, especially within the East African community. Currently, no one supports him as a leader in his Ward or outside of his Ward. Abdi Warsame is not qualified to lead MPHA because he is not about the people. He and his best friend Mayor Jacob Frey have been very divisive and toxic in the East African communities of Minneapolis. They both have made extensive efforts to undermine the public housing leaders of DG&PHC which are many Black women from the Somali community. Abdi Warsame does not have any experience in housing policy at the federal, state or local level, but he will receive almost double his current salary of 170k per year. Jacob Frey appointed Abdi Warsame without any transparent process or public notice. This is the type of cronyism that is stifling Minneapolis

In their board report, https://tinyurl.com/Appt-of-ED-MPHA-Board-Report, MPHA claims they sent out surveys to 500 surveys to public housing and 5000 surveys Section 8 residents about the kind of leader they want. They claim that 101 surveys were completed. In addition, they said the surveys were available online. This process is questionable:
1. We don’t know anyone is scattered sites, in Glendale or high-rises’ that received surveys?
2. We asked around and we have not heard of any onsite MPHA staff aware of surveys. But MPHA claims all of their staff filled out surveys. How and why was Warsame chose even though he is not qualified?
3. Residents were not notified by staff or via mail that surveys were available online.
4. MPHA knows the majority of residents do not have computers so they are not able to fill out the surveys.
On Wednesday, January 29th at 1:30 pm @ 1001 Washington Avenue North, 55401, MPHA will hold a public board meeting where Abdi Warsame’s name will be the only candidate presented, and the board is expected to approve. If Abdi Warsame could not successfully lead Ward 6, how is he going to lead MPHA that is facing local and national controversies as they push to privatize public housing through Section 18 and RAD which will displace thousands Black, Black Muslims, seniors and people with disabilities?

https://www.dgphc.org/…/12/10/the-new-faces-of-displacement/

Please read this letter from DFL SD 63 elected officials who have heard the voices of public housing residents and their constituents that are demanding to halt Section 18 Demolition & Disposition privatization plans by MPHA and the City  of Minneapolis:

January 15, 2020 U.S. Housing and Urban Development Agency 451 7th Street S.W. Washington, DC 20410 

The members of the Minneapolis State Senate Delegation urge the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to pause the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s (MPHA) Section 18 Demolition & Disposition process, until MPHA is able to demonstrate that the agency has a short and long term protection plan for the thousands of residents that currently live in these buildings. 

On August 16th, 2019, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) approved the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s (MPHA) Section 18 Demolition & Disposition application to remove 640 ‘scattered site’ buildings from Federal-protected public trust (Section 9 Housing) and move them into Section 8, which has fewer long term protections for the properties. This disposition will affect 5000 public housing residents, the majority of which are low-income African-American and East African families with children. 

Questions have been raised about the Section 18 submission approval process. There was no scattered-site resident council to monitor the application process. The Resident Advisory Board (RAB) approved the application, but no scattered-site residents sit on the RAB. Were scattered-site residents given the opportunity to review and discuss the application and participate in the process? If not, the plan may not have full community input and support. 

HUD Secretary Carson’s administration’s recent changes significantly weakened Section 18 regulations meant to protect residents. MPHA Commissioners Tessa Wetjen called for pausing the Section 18 application process because there is a great deal of confusion regarding MPHA’s Section 18 Application. What was the process to engage with all MPHA tenants during the application process? What steps are being taken to address and clarify the confusion around the application process? 

We have been told the number of properties that MPHA is seeking to privatize via Section 18 is 25 times larger than the cumulative amount of disposed properties from the years 2001- 2018. This disposition will affect more than 98% of existing housing and land on which scattered-site housing is located. MPHA provided HUD a timetable of the number of days from when residents will be displaced, which is 180 days from approval. As a result, MPHA has the authority to displace all affected residents by February 16, 2020. We are concerned about this 

short timeframe and would like to know if residents have been properly notified. The impact of this change could have devastating consequences to many families. 

We ask HUD and MPHA to halt MPHA’s Section 18 Demolition & Disposition process until these concerns are further reviewed and resolved. We look forward to hearing from you to learn more about your plan to address these issues. 

Sincerely, 

Sen. Patricia Torres Ray Sen. Kari Dziedzic Sen. Jeff Hayden 

Sen. Scott Dibble Sen. Bobby Joe Champion 

cc: Representative Ilhan Omar, U.S. Congress 

Mayor Jacob Frey, City of Minneapolis 

Minneapolis City Council Members Colleen O’Kane, HUD Congressional Liaison Region V Jane Hornstien, HUD Director of the Special Application Center Lucia Clausen, HUD MPLS Director of Public Housing Kelley Lyons, HUD Regional Public Housing Director Tracey Scott, MPHA Interim Executive Director Sharmarke Issa, MPHA Chair Mikkel Beckmen, MPHA Commissioner Andrea Brennan, MPHA Commissioner Cara Letofsky, MPHA Commissioner James Rosenbaum, MPHA Commissioner Tessa Wetjen, MPHA Commissioner Faith Xiong, MPHA Commissioner Tamir Mohamud, MPHA Resident Commissioner Abdullahi Isse, MPHA Resident Commissioner 

The Money Power Land Solidarity podcast featured one of our organizers Kaaha Kaahiye in their newest episode! In it she talks about our work and the status of public housing in Minneapolis. Take a listen!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fight-for-public-housing-w-kaaha-kaahiye-defend-glendale/id1477529471?i=1000462008768

Check out this wonderful article that describes the issues of funding Public Housing, and its future. Thanks, @alexisgoldstein for great reporting!
#KeepPublicHousingPublic

Prior to the December 13 meeting of the MPHA board, DG&PHC submitted comments to Mayor Frey and Minneapolis City Council about our deep concerns about the re-appointment of Cara Letofsky and the new appointment of Andrea Brennan as Commissioners of MPHA.  Despite lack of transparency and objection from public housing residents,  Mayor Frey and City Council ignored our concerns and voted to appoint Letofsky and Brennan as MPHA Commissions. 

See the full comments below and an email from Cara where she admits to her plans to tear down Glendale Townhomes.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/30/minneapolis-cedar-high-public-housing-fire?fbclid=IwAR09eD8gCu6wwM7om62WeyG5xNilYok17dgeVLGDI34eVgdLSszNreGdUl8

#FreyWarsameMustResign #MPHAHeadsResign #ShameoMinneapolisCityHall #VoteThemOut #SaveMPLSFromCityHall.
#WeDemandAnInvestigation

Defend Glendale & Public Housing Coalition demands that the MPHA leadership resign, and Mayor Jacob Frey and Abdi Warsame to step down. As public servants, they are not safeguarding and protecting public housing residents.

When Associated Press asked Jeff Horwich of MPHA why the building did not have a sprinkler system, Jeff Horwich said they are not required to have a sprinkler system due to the age of the building: https://abcnews.go.com/…/dead-hospitalized-fire-minneapolis….

All of the current Commissioners and the Chair of the MPHA Board need to step down. We don’t trust their leadership.

Tracy Scott: Interim Executive Director of MPHA
Jeff Horwich: The Communication & External Affairs Director
Mary Boler: The Director of Public Housing Division
and all of the racist staff that daily put the lives of public housing residents at risk must resign. They all have a long history of targeting public housing residents, bullying- harassing, and evicting Black and Black Muslims, and now causing deaths due to their neglect of not having a sprinkler system.
—–
Mayor Jacob Frey and Council Member Abdi Warsame need to step down. They have been complicit and allowed public housing residents to be bullied and neglected which led to the environment that caused this fire. Frey and Warsame spent $800,000 on a fence around this building that had no impact while they failed to protect their constituency in this building from Ward 6 and to make sure MPHA had a sprinkler system.
http://www.startribune.com/city-to-give-800-000-security…/…/

#FreyWarsameMustResign #MPHAHeadsResign #ShameoMinneapolis

Late last night, a fire started at the Cedar High Apartments, a public senior high-rise, leaving 3 seriously injured and 5 dead. We are so devastated for their families, for the Cedars, and for their memory. May they rest in peace.

The newly renovated building that the fire took place last night at Cedar Public housing highrise where five people died and at least 3 people seriously injured didn’t have a sprinkler system. MPHA, Mayor Frey and Abdi Warsame spent over $800,000 dollars on building this fence for this building; it was promoted as a safety measure. Jacob Frey and Abdi Warsame who lobbied for this fence and approved this funding must answer.

http://www.startribune.com/city-to-give-800-000-security-upgrade-to-cedar-riverside-public-housing/481961561/?fbclid=IwAR3hfffGr3rJd4jElzv9xOwbX5ofvbF96G9NqnI7jzWsptWZZ9Z1zheMovU

This is completely unacceptable. It is incredibly dehumanizing to spend enormous amounts of money to police and surveil disabled and vulnerable senior residents without any considerations for their safety or health.
When Associated Press asked Jeff Horwich of MPHA in this article
why the building did not have a sprinkler system, Jeff
Horwich said they are not required to have a sprinkler system due to the age of the building. https://abcnews.go.com/…/dead-hospitalized-fire-minneapolis….
But, this building was fully renovated recently so the City of Minneapolis failed to hold MPHA accountable yet again. This is clear evidence that the City of Minneapolis and MPHA do not care about vulnerable and disabled Black and Brown public housing residents. This is a travesty. We demand an investigation about this fire, the fence, and the approval process.
We are so devastated for families, for the Cedars, and for their memory. May they rest in peace.

Rep. Ilhan Omar has been ignoring the public housing crisis in her own constituency for years. Her bill is a good effort nationally, but it has no impact in Minneapolis now. The bill she introduced is not going to stop Section 18 and RAD that the City of Minneapolis and MPHA are planning to implement February 2020 to end public housing and displace thousands of Black, Black Muslim families, seniors, and people with disabilities. This is not acceptable. We want Rep. Ilhan Omar to act now. Here is the contact Information for Rep. Omar’s office: https://omar.house.gov/contact. #IlhanDoBetter

MPHA and City of Minneapolis can mislead all they want but the truth is in these numbers and maps. Here is a call to action from our rally today. Here are the exact Wards and neighborhoods that over 717 families and almost 5000 public housing residents majority of children will face displacement if we don’t stop Section 18 Demolition & Disposition now. Who approved Section 18? Mayor Frey, Lisa Bender, CM Jeremiah Ellison, and CM Cam Gordon, and the rest City Hall. Why? Because they are knowingly pushing Trump and Carson’s plan to dismantle public housing and gentrify Black people of out Minneapolis for developers and donors to profit.