Despite some legal sabre-rattling by David Lillehaug, attorney for
Ventura Village, the Zoning & Planning Committee voted unanimously
yesterday afternoon to deny the appeal of the Planning Commission's
decision to permit the construction of a supportive housing facility
serving 128 persons and 2 commercial uses at the southeast corner of
Chicago and Franklin. Project for Pride in Living (PPL) is the immediate
beneficiary of this decision, which signals a willingness by the new
city council to get real about dealing with the pool of 5700 homeless in
Minneapolis so many of whom are families with children.
PPL proposes to build 16 units for disabled households with 4 additional
units selected for anchoring leadership qualities, not disability. The
progam is modelled in part on a successful example on St. Paul's East
Side named "New Foundations". Quoting from New Foundations' (NFs')
brochure: "A non-profit organization founded in 1994, New Foundations'
mission is to work in partnership with the families who come to New
Foundations and with the community to address the interconnected issues
of addiction, poverty, and homelessness. Through affordable housing and
comprehensive services, New Foundations helps create healthy, vibrant
communities with homeless women in recovery and their families." PPL
envisions the possibility of 2-parent disabled households within the
scope of their proposal, hence a maximum of 32 disabled individuals who
are heads of households. Both programs stress the value of having a
stable place to live, a supportive surrounding community, and access to
vital services. New Foundations lists recovery support, education and
employment, job retention support, family health/community building, and
children services as captions for a detailed assemblage of available
vital services.
Compelling testimony came from several folks who were themselves
examples of the success of supportive housing programs, taking exception
by their own personal stories to Ventura Village's hypothesis that these
vulnerable families would be doomed to failure because of the vexing
surroundings at Chicago and Franklin.
These voices in recovery signal the possibility of convincing "urban
renewal" - a renaissance based on human achievement, not just the
replacement of buildings or the transfer of populations. Of particular
note is that this outpost of a promising future is meant to serve as an
example of hope to that very surrounding neighborhood that Ventura
Village finds so nasty, a settled place comprised of people drawn from
that neighborhood but living with "new foundations".
This only works with the support of the larger community, not just with
the helping hands of non-profits like PPL and New Foundations, but
beyond that, good wishes and tangible support from many quarters. The
intrepid members of the Zoning & Planning Committee - Chairman Gary
Schiff and fellow council members Dean Zimmermann, Paul Ostrow, Lisa
Goodman, Dan Niziolek, and Robert Lilligren - have sent the admirable
signal to our city that our new leadership is of good heart in this
matter. Now it's up to the rest of us, including Ventura Village, to
ponder that significant message.
Fred Markus, Horn Terrace, Ward Ten
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