Press

‘Long overdue’ task force for missing and murdered Black women established in Minnesota

Minnesota has become the first state in the country to establish a task force on missing and murdered African American women. Advocates say the initiative is long overdue. Gov. Tim Walz made it official in a ceremonial bill signing earlier this week. The 12-member panel includes representatives from the courts, law enforcement and victim advocacy groups.

MPR News: Spotlight on Black Trauma and Policing

On June 3, Call to Mind, Minnesota Public Radio’s mental health initiative, presented a live virtual community conversation to address the need for healing and action in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death. Hosted by MPR News’ Angela Davis, the conversation covered the history of racial injustice that led to Floyd’s murder and how trauma and policing affects Black Americans.

Mapping Disinvestment & Displacement: A Conversation with Dr. Brittany Lewis

If you looked at a map of Minneapolis unfolding over time, you’d see waves of demographic changes sweeping across the city. You’d see large sections of the city that are affordable to lower income folks shrink and then disappear. Zooming in on North Minneapolis, you’d see neighborhoods of Jewish immigrants moving in and then out, followed by Black families. You’d see evictions and foreclosures spike during the 2008 recession, but in only a few spots. You might wonder: why?

Conversations aim for criminal justice reform, Black healing

George Floyd’s killing last year sparked a renewed push to reform Minnesota’s criminal justice system.

Joi Lewis and Brittany Lewis are leading an effort called “Time of Reckoning,” a series of community engagement sessions that will culminate in a policy roundtable in June on criminal justice reform. 

The effort, backed by a group of Minnesota Black community leaders, aims to center Black voices and conduct the sessions in a way that’s also healing. 

Changes In Twin Cities Neighborhoods Have Some Residents Fearing Displacement

Neighborhoods across the Twin Cities are changing, but some say that’s not always a good thing. Longtime residents of now “up and coming” areas could be getting forced out. That was one finding of a University of Minnesota research project put on by the Center for Regional and Urban Affairs (CURA).

“Minneapolis renters; input informs new housing-instability proposals” Published on June 12th in MinnPost.

The struggle between rent and circumstance is familiar territory for anyone who’s read about evictions lately. Three years ago, when sociologist Matthew Desmond’s award-winning book on evictions in Milwaukee came out, the narrative shed new light on how poor people survive in most American cities.

The book’s main characters, mostly African-American women, struggle to escape the complex cycle of poverty and substandard housing in their Milwaukee neighborhoods. As the stories unfold, small circumstances, like an unexpected funeral, or allowing a friend to stay on a couch, throw the book’s subjects into eviction courts, where added fees can lead to an endless cycle of instability.

“How Minneapolis Freed Itself from the Strong From the Stronghold of Single-Family Homes” Published on July 11th in Politico Magazine

Cities across the country are booming, but their growth is exacerbating an already critical lack of affordable housing for the middle class and poor alike. The solutions being proposed in many cities run the gamut from rent control to federal subsidies, but Minneapolis has landed on something even bolder that strikes at the heart of how cities have grown and defined themselves over the past century. Single-family-only neighborhoods, a staple of city and suburban planning, are woven into the DNA of the American dream: the leafy, peaceful street lined with stand-alone houses, green lawns and plenty of elbow room.

“Northside landlords exploit poor Black tenants, study shows” Published on July 28th in the Spokesman-Recorder

Single Black mothers face the highest risk of eviction in the United States. North Minneapolis is no different. From 2013 to 2015, about 50 percent of Northside renter households were hit with at least one eviction filing from their landlord.

Single Black women with children living below the poverty line lead more than 60 percent of the Black households in North Minneapolis. As a result, according to University of Minnesota researchers, 67 percent of residents are on some kind of county and federal assistance.