Northside: Reverse institutional harms caused to the Northside community by building on the many assets of the community while also prioritizing community wealth building in the form of housing, small business, public safety, youth opportunities, and environmental justice.
THIS POLICY SUPPORTS GOALS:
THIS POLICY RELATES TO TOPICS:
The City of Minneapolis recognizes the institutional harm it and other governing systems have had on the community in North Minneapolis. To begin the process to remedy these harms and move towards reconciliation, the City is committed to doing its part to build individual and community wealth in North Minneapolis.
With the 2008 foreclosure crisis and the 2011 tornado, large amounts of the Northside’s housing stock has been rapidly converted into rentals causing the housing stock to disproportionately extract wealth rather than build it. To leveraging leverage homeownership as a wealth building strategy on the Northside, the housing stock must first be stabilized. Beyond housing as a wealth building strategy, housing is also a basic human right. Further, displacement causes the Northside to lose its greatest asset - Northsiders, particularly seniors, community elders, and families with children.
While the City strives to produce and preserve more affordable units, it is necessary to balance that with increasing people’s wages to be able to achieve housing stability in a real estate-based economy. Small business development is also a wealth building opportunity. Research has shown small business owners of color and/or from the neighborhood are more likely to hire other people of color and/or from the neighborhood. Small business development can also be leveraged as a form of local job creation. Overall, this will increase Northsiders’ access to jobs, goods and services in their neighborhoods.
Public safety is also a top concern for many Northside residents. The public health approach to public safety includes prevention, intervention, enforcement, and reentry efforts. A comprehensive public health approach with evidence-based practices will help to sustainably interrupt cycles of violence and crime.
ACTION STEPS
The City will seek to accomplish the following action steps to reverse institutional harms caused to the Northside community by building on the many assets of the community while also prioritizing community wealth building in the form of housing, small business, public safety, youth opportunities, and environmental justice.
- Take actions to stabilize housing stock by increasing homeownership in interior residential areas with a focus on supporting first-time, first generation homebuyers, and provide “right to return” supports to homebuyers with historic ties to the community, such as those displaced by rising rents or foreclosure or returning home after completing higher education.
- Increase access to affordable housing options in neighborhoods, particularly multifamily housing along transit corridors.
- Increase access to financially-accessible youth opportunities in the neighborhoods.
- Support Northside entrepreneurs to become small business owners and leverage small business development as job creation opportunities.
- Invest in the public health approach to public safety to get to the root of violence in the home and out in the community, as well as address childhood and community trauma.
- Write a Tenant Bill of Rights to lower the disruptive impact of unjust evictions on Northside residents and families.
- Work alongside Northside community members to ensure the Upper Harbor Terminal redevelopment project is both an asset and wealth building opportunity for the community, as well as a destination for visitors to the Northside.
- Address environmental racism through investing in improvements in environmental health and green space on the Northside.