I worked at CNIA in the Central Neighborhood for 8 years and we as a neighborhood organization began a no housing loss initiative and fought against rehab assessments MCDA would put on homes to authorize demolishing them.
One time, we did a tour which is on video archive at the NRP office, done by John Akre of MPHA homes slated for demo...we found fresh paint, with tape still on the walls...newly finished wood floors, new kitchens, baths, etc...all 10 slated for demo...with huge rehab costs attached to them. One such house on Chicago, Southside NHS had to find items to improve to get authorization to purchase from the MCDA. Needless to say we saved a majority of the houses. We fought against waste and we predicted a housing shortage...where do people go when you tear down homes. Many folks thought that these intiatives were "preservation based". Some were, most were economic...much smarter and less waste to rehab. then to simply bulldoze over and come up with no creative solutions. The CNIA Housing Committee and Boarded and Vacant Task Force developed a partnership with Southside Neighborhood Housing Services to purchase and negotiate with MCDA, then created a boarded and vacant program to provide gap financing with our NRP dollars. We also worked with Honeywell to create the HOMS initiative which also assisted us in rehabbing boarded and vacant houses. This Initiative, championed by Andre Lewis when at Honeywell, supported the neighborhood in housing stabilization and allowed this creative program to evolve. Andre, brought in partners and supported the 4 partnering neighborhoods to bring in $100's of thousands of dollars to leverage NRP funds and private investment. In 1995, on a block x block assessment with then Housing Chair Richard Barrett, we had 144 board and vacant houses in a 72 block neighborhood. These were only ones you could see, not ones up for sale or abandoned...by 2001, we had only 11 left on the list to address....it was a stunning accomplishment. We also created an Information system called the Minneapolis Early Warning System to identify what causes a house to become vacant. We had folks coming into our offices when their homes were in foreclosure, needing help and it was far too late. We hoped that this Information System would allow us to identify homes in need and get resources to folks to help BEFORE they lost their homes and then they either became vacant or were snatched up through predatory lending or speculators. We also did an Intern project and report on how to creatively market vacant homes. These studies are available at CURA through Kris Nelson's program. Our housing committee then did a presentation to a City Council CD meeting on our accomplishment of addressing Boarded and Vacant (which would be on record) and got the Early Warning System footnoted in the Mayor's budget to develop a City Team to integrate it into the new up and coming City computer upgrades. Presently, Kellie Jones from Planning is staffing this interjurisdictional project. Thanks to Lori Murdock for her work on this report, she was a fabulous Humphrey intern, now housing professional...working on another creative housing project through Southside NHS in the Central Neighborhood supported by the James Ford Bell Foundation called the Central Initiative along the 5th Ave. Corridor. This project supports owners with assistance to address deferred maintainance needs and rehab/safety issues, as well as landscaping and interior improvements. Jana Metge/Executive Coordinator-CLPC _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
