Annual Report 2021

2021 ANNUAL REPORT

Who is Urban Homeworks?

The mission of Urban Homeworks is to perpetuate the hope of Jesus Christ through innovative community development.

Our vision is neighbors raising their collective voices to address injustice and overcome the barriers that perpetuate inequity.

Volunteering

Our Volunteer Program exists to educate and connect. Individuals interested in volunteering receive education on the systemic issues we face and the ways they can make a difference. Our community connects with one another to build relationships while participating in skill-building opportunities beneficial for all involved.

Dignified Rentals

With the partnership of Property Services and Solutions, Urban Homeworks provides quality rental housing that is both affordable and dignified. Partnerships with local social service organizations often add support to assist rental families in gaining greater stability.

Equity & Engagement

Equity and Engagement strives to give power back to the people whom we serve. By equipping our residents and community with the necessary tools to utilize their voices to make informed decisions, Urban Homeworks seeks to bring about transformative change in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.

Real Estate Development

Real Estate Development (RED) is responsible for conceptualizing and planning all projects, securing financing, and managing construction for both our single-family and multi-family homes. RED includes rehabilitation and new construction as well as project execution.

Homeownership within Reach

Dignified Rentals

OUR BOARD

Greetings friends and neighbors! As the board looks back on Urban Homeworks’ (UHW) year of work in the community, the reality that ‘where you sit from, frames what you see’ rings true. The value and wonder of what our work really means can sometimes get lost in the details of what we do.

The work we did in the past year was led brilliantly and bravely by UHW’s new Executive Director, AsaleSol Young. Nearly 500 people chose to make UHW’s rental housing their home. We recommitted and invested in those rentals to ensure our properties remain dignified and safe. Two families purchased beautiful, remodeled homes from us within their communities. We partnered with community leaders and organizations to reimagine pathways to diversified home ownership. We created innovative partnerships in North and South Minneapolis to address violence impacting neighborhoods. We welcomed new team members and volunteers.

What that work meant, however, is much deeper. Affordable rent allowed residents to pay student loans, bills, and car payments, repairing their credit for future financial opportunities. Working appliances in dignified and safe rentals made family dinners and celebrations possible. Homeownership opportunities for our Black and Brown neighbors allowed investment in further education, business, and generational wealth. The presence of Peacekeepers created safe spaces for children to feel joy and freedom while playing outside.

And, so, as we celebrate the accomplishments of the last year, we remind ourselves that none of this is possible alone. As a Board living in community with the people we serve, we do life differently. We take each opportunity we are given to listen, to grow, and to empower our community. We act knowing Jesus’ words are true, that an abundant life is possible for us all. We’re so grateful to each of you—for your trust, your generosity, your perseverance, your time, and the ways you challenge us to grow. It takes all of us working hand and hand to build a beloved community. As we look to the coming year, we know one thing for certain: we’ll be here. We hope you will be too.

- Claudia Oxley & Danyika Leonard, Urban Homeworks Board Co-Chairs

Collin Barr Terry Becker

Becky Landon Danyika Leonard

Claudia Oxley

Lee Schafer Shanelle Hall

Anne Ketz Azad Lassiter

Building Equity. Centering Community. Reclaiming Home.

Arian Arrola Communications Manager

AsaleSol Young Executive Director

Joshua Watson

Ashley satorius Volunteer Manager

Kelsey Dellwo Senior Accountant

Emily Lassiter

Tiffany dykes

Randy hanson Finance Director Ray Camper

Paul Vliem Development Director

Real Estate Development Director Real Estate Development Project Manager Senior Development Officer

& Engagement Director

Relations Manager

Director Of Client Services Community Action Partnership of Hennepin County

Ryan Companies

President Riverway LLC

Columnist Star Tribune

Director Education Evolving

Group, LLC

From the desk of AsaleSol

2020 called each of us in the realm of justice work individually and as organizations to do better, the how of the work and the why of the need. In 2021, Urban Homeworks dug into the reality change, we must work across communities and perspectives to bring clarity to the why.

We decided that we couldn’t do this work successfully without calling out racist and discriminatory while pushing folks to recognize that without eradicating intentional segregationist practices, continue for too many more generations. Guided by our mission statement, Urban Homeworks our housing and organizational structures, centering our work in a dignity reflective of love is what love looks like in public.”

We acknowledged that to see transformational change, we must do transformational work; of systemic injustice. This meant growing our Equity and Engagement Team from a staff of the housing policy space through resident-centered housing forums, amplifying the voices system. And it meant we needed to do this work internally, shifting our culture with anti-racist our organizational values, and developing policies that recognize the high level of staff programmatically, too. We revamped and reengaged with our People Oriented Development uncovered in 2020, creating a new understanding of the inclusivity and community reflection

2021 was a year of preparing our soil, and while the work of plowing and leveling is less exciting to ensure that our next steps are informed, collaborative, and led by those we serve and lead to the change that is needed in this time and in this era, right here and now.

We are growing our work to be more comprehensive dignified housing. We are extending sidewalks through community-centered peacekeeping and safety. We are strengthening deeply affordable ownership options. We are growing partnerships that can ensure the necessary are building toward greater resident power through stability, access, collective growth, and

Our hope is that in collective diligence we will learn to decommodify housing, heal and repair abundance for all to thrive.

As scholar-activist Angela Davis encourages us, “You have to act as if it were possible to do it all the time.”

AsaleSol Young

better, to do more, and to pay greater attention to reality that 2020 gave us: in order to create systemic

discriminatory housing practices, past and present, practices, the cycles of housing injustice would Homeworks began working to more deeply improve love and justice. As Cornel West writes, “…justice

to inspire and shift mindsets and understandings of one to a group of three. It meant advocating in voices of those struggling through a broken housing anti-racist cultural wellness trainings, updating burnout in this field. We began to do this work Development (POD) model as we adapted to the learnings reflection our volunteer program could bring.

exciting than seeding or harvesting, it is essential partner with every day. We know this work will

extending beyond the doorstep to the neighborhood strengthening our pipeline from deeply affordable rental to necessary resident education along the way. We and safety.

repair historic housing disparities, and leverage

to radically transform the world. And you have to

Building Equity. Centering Community. Reclaiming Home.

HOUSING IN THE TWIN CITIES

Rental Unaffordability

Growth in Apartment Demand Far Outpaced Additions to Supply Over the Past Year Units in Professionally Managed Properties (Thousands)

The affordable rent at minimum wage (seen as no more than 30% of household income) is just $520 a month. The fair market rent for a one bedroom, however, is $1,078 a month. Meaning, households would need to make 107% more to afford a one bedrooom apartment in Hennepin county.

Urban Institute

Rents for Both Apartments and Single-Family Homes Have Surged Year-over-Year Change in Rents (Percent)

The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

The Homeownership Gap is Present throughout the Two Counties Map shows tracts with at least 100 Black residents in 2018.

Urban Institute

In the Minneapolis metro area, 77% of white residents own homes, compared with 25% of Black residents—a 52-percentage-point difference, larger than in any other major U.S. city. Minnesota State Demographic Center

White Families Have Had Consistently Higher Homeownership Rates Overall

In Hennepin & Ramsey Counties, the share of Black families that own has declined from 31% in 2000 to 21% in 2018.

Urban Institute

Homeownership Gap

The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

Cost-Burdened

Rent stablization

Urban Homeworks’ 2021 Housing Justice Forum

In the spring of 2021, Urban Homeworks (UHW) hosted our first-ever Housing Justice Forum! Now held annually, these forums take a housing-focused issue or topic and put it under the spotlight for our community to engage with and build clarity around. Our inaugural Housing Justice Forum focused on rent stabilization.

The event began with an informative presentation from Ed Goetz, Professor of Urban Planning at the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, who shared data on the impacts of rent stabilization. The remainder of the event focused on answering audience questions about rent stabilization by panelists with varying perspectives. Panelists included Mayoral Candidate Sheila Nezhad, Mayoral Candidate Kate Knuth, Ward 5 Council Member Jeremiah Ellison, former Minneapolis Council President Lisa Bender, Chloe Jackson of Inquilinxs Unidxs Por Justicia (IX), and Qannani Omar of MPLS United for Rent Control.

By creating spaces for education and providing direct access to our elected officials, our Housing Justice Forums seek to hold our leadership accountable to the systems that impact the daily lives of residents and neighbors. It is our goal that elected officials who engage in these conversations take the shared lived experiences of our residents into consideration when writing and supporting policies.

Landlords the good, the bad, & the ugly

As a community-vested affordable housing provider ourselves, Urban Homeworks knows the value of stable, dignified, and safe rental housing, as well as the impact a caring landlord can have in helping folks transform their lives. In that, we recognize the harmful impact that predatory landlords have in manipulating systemic oppression for their gain, making the fight harder for families—most often our Black, Brown, and Indigenous neighbors—to move from survival mode to healthy, vibrant lives.

In 2019, Urban Homeworks joined Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid and North Minneapolis tenants in a class action lawsuit against Steven Meldahl of SJM Properties, LLC. We were asked by Legal Aid to join the lawsuit to provide stability for the tenants we had already been working with, as well as the case: Meldahl’s practices made it hard for tenants to remain in their homes. Having an organization with legal standing as a plaintiff helped cover the loss of plaintiffs as tenants escaped Meldahl’s housing atrocities.

Shortly after our lawsuit began, the Minnesota Attorney General also filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of former tenants of Meldahl for “preying on low-income tenants in a systematic and widespread

eviction-for-profit scheme.”

Though the focus of our case was getting a form of reparations for these tenants through Tenant Remedy Actions (TRAs), the Attorney General sought to remove Meldahl’s properties from his ownership—preventing him from harming another Minnesota tenant again.

code violation citations, and, in one year alone, had evicted 99% of his tenants.

Urban Homeworks is proud of the work we were able to do in fighting for justice for 267 Twin Cities neighbors, establishing ourselves as a willing deterrent and counter to unjust housing practices. In addition to providing stable housing for many former Meldahl residents, our lawsuit with Mid-Midwest Legal Aid recovered the financial losses of the remaining Meldahl tenants—those who hadn’t yet secured alternative housing.

In 2021, two years after the case began, a ruling on the Attorney General’s case was announced. Judge Patrick Robben found that Meldahl knowingly and in bad faith violated 267 families’ rights. The judge fined Meldahl $133,500 for his “disrespectful and unlawful treatment of vulnerable low-income residential tenants”, saying Meldahl engaged in “brazen and deplorable” conduct, forcing tenants to live with infestations of “biblical plague proportions”. Owning over 50 properties in North Minneapolis alone, Meldahl had over 1,300 city housing

As corporate investors increasingly purchase single-family homes in North Minneapolis and cities across the nation, Urban Homeworks remains committed to ensuring tenants are treated with respect and dignity, no matter who the landlord is.

“It was me and like 9 other people that were out of their homes because of this landlord who didn’t keep his properties up to par. I really appreciate this home, they [UHW] built this within three months for us because the houses was so messed up that it wasn’t safe for us to keep staying there. I really appreciate Urban Homeworks and the city for coming through and helping me, my mom, and my son over the past years. I really appreciate everything that you guys have done.”

- Joshlin Holliday, UHW resident

The Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies

Investors Are Buying Up a Record Share of Single-Family Homes Investor Share of Single-Family Sales (Percent)

URBAN HOMEWORKS’ 2021 AT A Glance

40% of UHW construction contracts were awarded to minority-owned businesses

In the fall of 2021, UHW received a donated house! Rehabilition of this North Minneapolis home will begin in 2022.

28% of households were unhoused at move-in

67% of resident households are families with children

63% of residents have a BIPOC head of household

Throughout 2021, Urban Homeworks housed 435 people, 193 of which are children, across 136 total rental units.

In 2021, Urban Homeworks started and completed construction on three single-family homes. Two of these homes were sold to two BIPOC single mothers.

Building Equity. Centering Community. Reclaiming Home.

Building Equity. Centering Community. Reclaiming Home.

to our supporters...

What a year 2021 was! Through the weight of an ever-changing world and an ongoing pandemic, we doubled down on our commitment to our neighbors, residents, and community members. Under the leadership of our new Executive Director AsaleSol Young, we expanded the Equity and Engagement program to support and empower residents, joined partnerships with other strong leaders to help shape policies that impact our community most, and explored alternative homeownership methods to help close the homeownership gap. Now it’s time we celebrate an indispensable partner in that work—you!

about our work last week, or are a part of our Stability Maker group, our supporters remain a crucial part of our work. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to create long-lasting change for our current and future neighbors.

We are so deeply grateful for everyone who donated, followed, supported, volunteered, spread the word, and contributed to this work in 2021. Our collective commitment to a world in which we all have a safe, dignified place to call home makes a difference in the Twin Cities.

We hope you will join us next year as we continue the fight for a more equitable future for ALL of us.

Whether you have been a part of the Urban Homeworks community for decades, just heard www.urbanhomeworks.org/donate

To view Urban Homeworks’ full list of donors and supporters please visit: www.urbanhomeworks.org/annual-reports

“If I could go back, I would do the same entire thing. You [UHW] make someone’s dream come true no matter what, whether you build credit and buy a home or live there forever. I would have lived there forever. Even though I moved out, I’m still UHW family and always will be UHW family.”

- Tira Smith, Former UHW resident

2021