Urban Homeworks 2023 in Review As we near the end of 2023, we want to take a moment to celebrate some of this year’s accomplishments together as an Urban Homeworks community! Your support and dedication have been instrumental in making this year a success.
Dignified Rentals We made progress on our Elliot rental property. After months of dealing with insurance and the City of Minneapolis, Urban Homeworks was able to demolish the duplex on Elliot that caught fire in the final week of December 2022. We are hard at work planning redevelopment that will best serve the community and look forward to sharing about that more in the coming year.
Credit: CBS
Nearly 400 residents found “home” in an Urban Homeworks’ dignified rental. Of those who rent from Urban Homeworks and disclose their demographics, 89% are BIPOC, 63% are families with children, and 30% where unhoused at the time of move-in.
Urban Homeworks is working in specific neighborhoods to address safety concerns. We continue to evolve our peacekeeping efforts in response to community feedback. We prioritized holding community listening sessions in 2023 to determine peacekeeping activities that best serve the specific needs of neighborhoods facing upticks in crime and violence.
Equity & Engagement Our Executive Director AsaleSol Young and Equity & Engagement Director Temi Ogunrinde were hard at work in this year’s MN Spring Legislative Session advocating for 6 policies that would improve housing stability for members of our community. Most notably, Urban Homeworks received a direct appropriation to drastically increase our production of deeply affordable homeownership options from 2024-2027, a historic breakthrough for the organization. We are hard at work fundraising for the funds needed to support this drastic increase in production!
We facilitated 2 Housing Justice Forums, providing residents with a platform to engage directly with legislators and hold decision-makers accountable for their commitments to the community. In the spring, we welcomed State legislators to witness live testimonies from renters advocating for Bring it Home, MN, a bill meant to ensure all Minnesotans get the rent support they need through rent vouchers. While the full need for rent vouchers was not funded, our advocacy brought us one step closer to meeting this need. $70 million from a new metro sales tax will generate close to 5,500 statewide vouchers. In our August forum, recognizing that all 13 Minneapolis ward seats were open for election, we hosted 12 councilmember candidates who shared their platforms and priorities with us so that our communities can make informed voting choices this November.
Our people-oriented development efforts expanded, and residents engaged with neighbors and partners in new ways. We launched a southside POD group in October, an expansion of our monthly POD meetings that drew in residents from mostly North Minneapolis. The specificity in building a southside POD is meant to strengthen ties between neighbors in South Minneapolis and address issues specific to southside neighborhoods. We also partnered with the Conflict Resolution Center to facilitate monthly restorative circles for all residents, meant to strengthen relationships among neighbors. Residents found these sessions to be some of their favorite gatherings of the year. In July, UHW staff supported residents in applying for the Nexus Community Partners’ Open Road Fund, a program that will award $50,000 to at least 800 Black residents in the region through 2031.
We strengthened our volunteer programming and hosted 3 BIPOC Think Tanks; a chance for BIPOC leaders and community members to collaborate and dream what a just housing system could look like. 168 volunteers donated 1,851 hours of their time so far this year, helping to keep our affordable rental units dignified, building a garage for one of the passive homes we’re building, and assisting with other neighborhood beautification efforts. Out of the volunteers who joined this year, 118 of them volunteered with UHW for the first time! We love welcoming new community members into our mission and vision through the power of volunteering.
Homeownership in Reach Two families became homeowners for the first time after purchasing single-family homes from Urban Homeworks! You may remember the development of two, side-by-side, new constructions on Bryant Ave that began in 2021—one sold in May 2022 and the second sold almost a year later in February 2023. Page 8 of our 2022 Annual Report tells an important story of why two identical homes would have such different stories. Amber, a mother of two, purchased the newly renovated home on Vincent Ave that was donated to Urban Homeworks at the end of 2021. We celebrated the completion of this beautiful renovation by inviting neighbors and supporters to walk through the home before it closed in May. Amber shared her story at our Perpetuate the Hope fundraiser in October, Check out our event recording to learn more!
The Real Estate Development team started construction on 8 new homeownership opportunities in North Minneapolis, to be sold in 2024. Five single-family passive-certified homes are underway throughout North Minneapolis following Passive House Institute US (PHIUS) standards. Check-out our podcast episode “Can Passive Housing Combat Climate Change?” to learn more about what a passive-certified home is and why UHW prioritized this building technology. Four of the five homes will be sold to families earning up to 80% of the area median income (AMI), with 1 home reserved for families earning up to 60% AMI. Additionally, 4 of the 5 homes will be long-term affordable in partnership with the City of Lakes Community Land Trust (CLCLT). Construction will also begin this fall on 1 multi-family Zero Energy Ready (ZERH) “townhouse style” building with 3 connected homes intended for limited-equity cooperative ownership. The cooperative is a pilot project owned and led by Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU) with goals to build on 7 additional lots for a total of 24 homes in the cooperative. The homes will be sold to families making at or below 60% AMI, and the cooperative properties will be long-term affordable in partnership with the City of Minneapolis Perpetually Affordable Housing program and the CLCLT. To learn more about the BLUU cooperative ownership model, check out our news stories linked on page 4.
Pre-development is underway on 4 new homeownership opportunities to be constructed in 2024 and sold in 2025. 1 single-family passive-certified (super energy efficient) home with gap funding from City of Minneapolis and Minnesota Housing, to be sold to a family earning up to 60% AMI, with long-term affordability in partnership with the City of Lakes Community Land Trust. 3 single-family homes with gap funding from the state Direct Appropriation awarded to UHW in 2023. These 3 homes will be the first of several phases of projects, between 2024 to 2027, utilizing the appropriation funds to develop deeply affordable ownership opportunities for families earning up to 60% AMI.
Noteworthy NEws Take a look at the some of our favorite media highlights Urban Homeworks received this year! “Plan to build triplexes in north Minneapolis runs into obstacles”
“Twin Cities Business: Outstanding Directors”
“2040 Plan Can Deliver on Denser Housing”
“What Happened to Rent Control in Minneapolis?”
“Here is MPLS: AsaleSol Young & Temi Ogunrinde”
“5 Amazing Volunteer Organizations In Minneapolis”
“North Minneapolis residents seeing uptick in crime displaced from Merwin Liquors, Winner gas station”
“North Minneapolis community members say AG’s anti-crime push at Merwin Liquors just moved the problem elsewhere”
“Minnesota nonprofits ditch the annual gala to appeal to younger generation of givers”