The sad truth is that Wizard is correct, and Steve Meldahl is correct. Steve is acting in a responsible manner in leaving his apartments open if a suitable person does not apply. The neighborhoods have requested, begged and threatened to get other rental property owners to act as responsible as Steve indicates he is doing. Landlords have been vilified and their property confiscated on a wholesale basis if they did not aggressively screen. They have to, or see their building taken. How could anyone possibly object to that action?
Steve is also correct in stating that there is no longer a housing shortage in Minneapolis for people, who could pay the rent, and who you could rent to without endangering your economic investment in the building. What are left are 1) some fine families with 8, 9, and sometimes 10 kids attempting to rent two bed room apartments, 2) people with so many unlawful detainers, 3) those engaged in criminal lifestyles, and 4) sadly those mistaken for those previously mentioned. There are for rent signs all over south Minneapolis. Houses and duplexes from private property owners regularly rent for less than 75% of what "Non-Profits" charge for rents on two bedroom apartments. The most draconian and least sympathetic land LORD a renter will ever encounter is a Public Housing or Quasi- Public Non-Profit Housing providers. Look at the real rents they charge (renter's plus subsidy) and their treatment of renters. Private rental property owners cannot enforce the draconian methods that Public Housing and large Non-Profit quasi public housing providers can. The courts have shown that they will crucify any private landlord who attempts to be half as aggressive in enforcement. Private landlords are threatened with loss of their investment if they do too much, or if they do too little. Non-profits also regularly allow buildings to continue to be rented with crime problems so bad that a private provider would have his ownership of the building threatened. When was the last time a large non-profit such as PPL was dragged into court for their ownership of a problem property? NOT IN THIS LIFETIME! As is usually the case, City government is attempting to, at present, deal with the horse after it left the barn two years ago. Neighborhoods, on there own, have already dealt with the issue of rental shortages for those who "qualify" to rent apartments. Ventura Village has already approved, (before the present Mayor and City Council) projects that would add several hundreds of housing units. More than all units supplied in year 2000 by MCDA, even if you count the shelter beds as they did. This "List" has been replete with discussions of the millions of tax dollars the past City Government spent on housing with their developer buddies, and is not even touching the millions for Non-Profits. The new Mayor and Council will take credit for them, but there were already thousands of units of market rate and Affordable housing in the works before they took office. We beat up on Sharon and Company not because those things were not in the works but because they waited to long to do it and gave the development projects to their buddies. What RT and the Council have missed is the AFFORDABLE HOMEOWNERSHIP. Sustainable affordable housing by necessity includes mostly ownership status. Rental Affordable Housing is simply not "Sustainable". It is a continual drain on the resources of the family and the public, where after 20 years of investment the family is still in poverty and the public coffers are drained. Most communities are talking about this when they say we need more affordable housing. Opportunities need to be created for poor people and minority people to own their housing. It is the way you stabilize family life, (especially large families) and you stabilize communities. A common heard social service lament is that there is not enough minority involvement in neighborhood activities. Well the reason is that there is not enough minority ownership in those communities. People of color who regularly attend and strongly participate are not always, but usually homeowners. Marx was correct in at least one aspect; it is the ownership and control of capital resources. If you own you shelter you control a good deal of your life, if you don't you are forever at the mercy of "owners" as well as life. The mission of "Affordable Housing Providers" is supposed to be to stabilize families and provide quality places for these people to live. This would be at least believable and the mission would be much more quickly realized if they had programs that created "Supportive Home Ownership. Off course this would shortly remove them from being an economic resource for the Non-Profit. You really have to commend Habitat and GMMHC for their realization of this and their incredible work to create long-term sustainable "Affordable Housing". Jimmy Carter, nationally, and our own Carolyn Olson understand creating dignity while permanently taking a family out of poverty. The secret is "ownership"; the cost is even less long term. RT and the Council need to look at these programs and those like them if they are doing more than playing politics as usual with our tax dollars. Large multi-family Non-Profit housing projects might be profitable for their friends but small ownership is what addresses the problem. Now isn't it amazing, that neighborhoods that are girding for battle against the Council and Mayor on their plans for "Affordable Housing" would be overwhelmingly supportive if they used the "Habitat" and GMMHC model. That was what we were fighting for when you got elected, and with NRP. Neighborhoods KNOW where their needs are and what their problems are. Centralized "Downtown" control and "City wide Plans" are nothing more than centralizing misappropriations and the forcing of square pegs into round holes for political buddies. Remember folks; neighborhoods never designed Cabrini Greens or the projects that resulted in the Holman Decree. Centralized planning designed those. Still, I am glad that responsible rental providers are willing to screen and act responsibly. We just need to get the City to do the same. Jim Graham, Ventura Village _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
