Is this just a NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) thing?
No. Low-income, marganalized, and historically oppressed Black and BIPOC communities cannot be grouped together with predominantly white, middle-class perspectives. In the same way that Black folks, as the marginalized voice, can't be defined as racist in our white-dominated culture. Silencing Black voices from asking for input and decision-making ability about their own community by pitting their needs against another marginalized group (people experiencing homelessness) is the act of the oppressor. There is no need for either/or here. Attempts to make the argument about one or the other shows the lack of commitment by the County to meet either set of marginalized needs.
There are other, mixed use buildings and shelter placements that would serve these women safely and well. We expect both to be accomplished by the city finding another available space with their 4.5 million in CARES money (as they did for the other new, upcoming shelters) and working with our community to address homelessness in a systemic way through a shelter placed in another building and with the Gordon Center soliciting RFPs from the community and ultimately used for youth programming, as it’s really built for.
There are other, mixed use buildings and shelter placements that would serve these women safely and well. We expect both to be accomplished by the city finding another available space with their 4.5 million in CARES money (as they did for the other new, upcoming shelters) and working with our community to address homelessness in a systemic way through a shelter placed in another building and with the Gordon Center soliciting RFPs from the community and ultimately used for youth programming, as it’s really built for.
Why is the BIPOC community so upset? Isn't this for them?
Despite political posturing, it is illegal to have a "Black prioritized" state-funded shelter. This is a sales pitch and a poor one. This Black women "prioritization" is not possible to carry out under current privacy, discrimination, and equal opportunity laws. Adult Shelter Connect, the emergency shelter servicing organization cannot verify or "check" race over the phone. If a white womxn calls in for shelter, she cannot be denied. This county-wide shelter will be open to all people identifying as women throughout Hennepin county. This shelter will centralize displaced women from greater Hennepin County on the Northside, not serve Black women specifically. On the Northside, many of our housing needs are around women that have children, not a population served by the proposed Gordon site.
Beyond the marketing language, this proposal has not included the Black community, or BIPOC leadership on the Northside. This will be the first high-volume, emergency shelter in a residential neighborhood in the City of Minneapolis. There is a long history of the BIPOC community voices not being consulted; once again, the BIPOC community was never asked where in the community would best serve the needs of women in our community or our residents. While we appreciate the primarily white City Council, School Board, and County Commission boards feeling that this is the best placement, we experience the lack of interest in hearing our voices as infantalizing and as white saviourship -you do not know better than we do about what our community needs and where. We know what we need.
We say no to using the Northside for an unprecedented zoning experiment
The Northside has a history of unusual zoning applications being approved and those rezoning decisions have historically hurt the Northside. It's why there are liquor stores where they should not be and other zoning anomalies. All this flows from the fact that the city’s low-income Black and BIPOC neighborhoods have not been fairly treated in the past and have few other avenues to affect housing development policy or other city investment decisions.
We have shelters in our immediate area that are women-only already:
We currently have two other shelters/transitional housing for women within 1 mile of the proposed site. There is no location to purchase food or water or heated public buildings within walking distance of this site. There are better placements for this shelter that are better positioned to meet the needs of shelter residents. This location simply eliminates the ability for the youth on the Northside to utilize one of our few neighborhood parks.
BIPOC leadership is firmly in opposition to this proposal.
Beyond the marketing language, this proposal has not included the Black community, or BIPOC leadership on the Northside. This will be the first high-volume, emergency shelter in a residential neighborhood in the City of Minneapolis. There is a long history of the BIPOC community voices not being consulted; once again, the BIPOC community was never asked where in the community would best serve the needs of women in our community or our residents. While we appreciate the primarily white City Council, School Board, and County Commission boards feeling that this is the best placement, we experience the lack of interest in hearing our voices as infantalizing and as white saviourship -you do not know better than we do about what our community needs and where. We know what we need.
We say no to using the Northside for an unprecedented zoning experiment
The Northside has a history of unusual zoning applications being approved and those rezoning decisions have historically hurt the Northside. It's why there are liquor stores where they should not be and other zoning anomalies. All this flows from the fact that the city’s low-income Black and BIPOC neighborhoods have not been fairly treated in the past and have few other avenues to affect housing development policy or other city investment decisions.
We have shelters in our immediate area that are women-only already:
We currently have two other shelters/transitional housing for women within 1 mile of the proposed site. There is no location to purchase food or water or heated public buildings within walking distance of this site. There are better placements for this shelter that are better positioned to meet the needs of shelter residents. This location simply eliminates the ability for the youth on the Northside to utilize one of our few neighborhood parks.
BIPOC leadership is firmly in opposition to this proposal.
- Kerry Jo Felder, our School Board District President is against this proposal.
- NRRC, our community council (whose name was used in the application for approval) stands against this proposal.A Mothers Love, Mad Dads, and many other local BIPOC grassroots organizations stand against this proposal. Northside leaders find the Application for Land Use disturbing as it creates an impression to the City Council that there is Northside community (particularly NRRC) support, a support that this proposal firmly lacks.
Hasn't the school been closed since the 90's?
No. The school was decommissioned in 2005. The most recent reopening of the Center was proposed in 2014 and failed because the money promised was never delivered. Read about that here and here. The most recent community proposals (with marked phases and committed funding) were proposed to city officials this past fall, 2019. They were not entertained under the premise that the building would need to remain "storage".
Doesn't the Northside care about homeless women?
Yes. This is a red herring, meant to pit disenfranchised groups against each other so the County does not have to field inconvenient feedback that this placement will hurt the BIPOC community in ways they did not foresee, and that there are alternative sites we will work diligently to help the County find and set up, WITH community support. We refuse to fall trap to this false either/or. Both are possible. This is about politics and optics in the face of a housing crisis, not about the communities advocacy for women experiencing homelessness. As BIPOC women, the organizers rejecting this proposal similarly reject this narrative.
What women shelters are there in Minneapolis?
It's complicated. There are women-only wings of larger mixed use shelters that may come up in a google search, but are still considered mixed-use. Advocates also differentiate between city-funded and county-funded shelters as well as private shelters. Most shelters, as people think of them, are not "technically" emergency shelters. They may also be called transitional housing if they allow longer stays or have some beds set aside for longer stays. There are also differences between emergency shelters and even emergency shelters that do and don't take county funding. The County has used those categorizations to paint a distorted image of the amount of beds both on the Northside and in relation to the Willard site. You can fact-check Commissioner Fernando's bed count and statements here
However, there are technically only three, truly women-only shelters or transitional housing, in Minneapolis. Tubman (they technically take men and youth as well but we will still count them here), St. Anne's, and Ascension. The last two are within a mile of the Willard/Gordon site. If the Gordon approval gets passed, three out of the four will be in the same neighborhood, within the same radius. The rest of Minneapolis will have one. Only 30% of people experiencing homelessness cite their last address as one in North Minneapolis. 37% of people experiencing homelessness identify as Black.
However, there are technically only three, truly women-only shelters or transitional housing, in Minneapolis. Tubman (they technically take men and youth as well but we will still count them here), St. Anne's, and Ascension. The last two are within a mile of the Willard/Gordon site. If the Gordon approval gets passed, three out of the four will be in the same neighborhood, within the same radius. The rest of Minneapolis will have one. Only 30% of people experiencing homelessness cite their last address as one in North Minneapolis. 37% of people experiencing homelessness identify as Black.
What would you do with the building anyways? Isn't it run-down?
We believe in the coming year we could solicit public and private support and raise the funds needed for reconditioning the building. We would like the year to submit RFPs (proposals for use) and raise the funding needed. We believe we can utilize the building in a way that lifts up our immediate community and youth. We can't wait to show you what we can build if you can trust our voice and give us a chance to meet our own needs while another, more dynamic space is found for the short-stay shelter.
"I do NOT support this proposal especially when I know that local organizations and developers have previously sought to purchase this building /campus and the school board denied them outright. Several proposals were discussed, one by Asian Media Access, another from Project Sweetie Pie and another from a local BIPOC developer....all rejected even though the organizations had sought their own funding resources. Each idea touted community engagement and focused on the needs and culture of the northside. In addition, this site is not the best location for this type of facility" -community member's public post on facebook
"I do NOT support this proposal especially when I know that local organizations and developers have previously sought to purchase this building /campus and the school board denied them outright. Several proposals were discussed, one by Asian Media Access, another from Project Sweetie Pie and another from a local BIPOC developer....all rejected even though the organizations had sought their own funding resources. Each idea touted community engagement and focused on the needs and culture of the northside. In addition, this site is not the best location for this type of facility" -community member's public post on facebook