Preventing Displacement

Core to my campaign is ensuring growth and development in the Northside without pushing out our neighbors and small business owners. Growth and development that explictly attacks racial and economic inequities in Ward 5 and across the city. 

That can’t just mean responding to the pressures that our neighbors are already feeling - a reactive strategy that slows but doesn’t stop the forces that push our community out of our homes. We have to also promote our own strategies for development that harness the Northside’s strengths while leveraging resources from the public and private sector.  Here’s the bottom line:

We want to Northsiders to drive development and growth in our neighborhoods, not be driven out by development and growth in our neighborhoods.

Strategic questions we will ask include:

  1. Which neighborhoods are changing quickest and should be addressed first and/or with the most resources?
  2. Which policy tools or activities should be implemented, and how should they be prioritized?
  3. How can explicit anti-displacement goals lead to the development of an entirely different set of priorities for the City of Minneapolis?

Specific policies and practices we will promote include:

  • Just Cause eviction ordinance that protects tenants in the face of displacement pressures.
  • Preservation and production of affordable housing in all of our neighborhoods in Minneapolis.
  • Study the benefits of pursuing a local, regional or statewide rent control policy.
  • Support non-market based approaches to housing and community development, especially cooperative ownership of residential and commercial properties.
  • Explore value capture policies that can leverage increased revenue in a neighborhood for explicit anti displacement goals.
  • No net loss policy that ensures the replacement of lost affordable housing units to building conversion or demolition.
  • Right of First Refusal policy that gives existing tenants a period of a 90-120 days to match any purchase offer the current owner is considering.
  • Require a Displacement Impact Assessment for any housing development proposed in the city.
  • Creation of a Renters’ Commission made up of a diverse group of Minneapolis renters  to advise  the Mayor and City Council on issues and policies of importance to renters citywide.