- who do deserve options. How about lower income families?
Reactions welcome to a new report from the UofM describing problems on the
North Side. There's an interesting discussion on Facebook going on -
describing long standing problems with absentee, sometimes out of state
landlords AND resistant housing inspectors who allow landlords to defer
maintenance for years. Here's what one person in response to this report
" I lived there for ten years, biggest problem is the city wont hold
landlords accountable and won’t vote for a moratorium on how many
units/homes a landlord can rent out. We had a very terrible property next
to us and the code violations and conditions were constantly being reported
and instead of seeing progress, we saw evictions and then he’d move in
someone even more vulnerable. It got to the point where he (landlord who
lives in Florida) started only housing L3SO’s.
The city goes aggressively after homeowners when trash and furniture gets
left on our properties, but does very little to hold landlords accountable."
http://spokesman-recorder.com/2019/07/18/northside-landlords-exploit-poor-black-tenants-study-shows/?fbclid=IwAR3yJmlDvZkHe0pUdz1z3elbKEyQOeD7vmK8KFAM5LPmzDLzLG-YfTF0YDs
Single Black mothers face the highest risk of eviction in the United
States. North Minneapolis is no different. From 2013 to 2015, about 50
percent of Northside renter households were hit with at least one eviction
filing from their landlord.
Single Black women with children living below the poverty line lead more
than 60 percent of the Black households in North Minneapolis. As a result,
according to University of Minnesota researchers, 67 percent of residents
are on some kind of county and federal assistance.
These families are one financial crisis away from losing their homes.
Researchers at the school’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA)
led by Dr. Brittnay Lewis commissioned a study to figure out why North
Minneapolis residents experience eviction filings at a rate almost 25
percent higher than the neighboring 55402 ZIP code.
In the study, “The Illusion of Choice: Evictions and Profit in North
Minneapolis,” the researchers say this high rate is especially eye-raising
because the region contains only eight percent of all rental units in
Minneapolis.
In short, North Minneapolis landlords, the researchers find, bully
low-income, largely Black tenants into changing their housing agreement, or
completely kick them out, to turn a quick buck.
“North Minneapolis is a community manufactured to contain undesirable
populations through housing discrimination, decades of urban disinvestment,
unfair lending practices, and disproportionate evictions,” reads the study.
Eviction filings are not typically used to kick people out. Landlords use
eviction filings as a tool to threaten tenants into changing their housing
agreements. Only 22 percent of the tenants interviewed for the study
received a writ of removal.
“There is a fear premium attached to North Minneapolis,” said a 58-year-old
White male property manager quoted in the study. “Because what’s the
stereotypical image people have of North Minneapolis? I could tell you:
bang bang.”
Worse yet, the study states, options for low-income North Minneapolis
residents of color are constrained by “power brokers who can aid or disrupt
opportunity at any point.” Unlike landlords in other regions, North
Minneapolis property owners are nearly unchecked in making decisions driven
by profit instead of housing rights and social impact.
Housing stability for tenants becomes “secondary” when decisions are
money-driven, the study said of North Minneapolis landlords.
CURA recommends extending the length of the eviction process, creating a
“humane and timely approach to emergency assistance,” and ending Hennepin
County Shelters requiring people to pay per bed."
What kind of political will is there in Mpls to hold accountable those
landlords renting to low income families?
Joe Nathan
St. Paul