Single black women are statistically the most evicted demographic in the Twin Cities, the majority of which come from two ZIP codes — 55411 and 55412 — in north Minneapolis. Minnesota has the fastest eviction rates in the country, via laws making it easy for a landlord to evict a tenant with just 14 days notice.
Those were but a few of the crucial findings of “The Illusion Of Choice: Evictions and Profit in North Minneapolis,” an extensive research project conducted by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University Of Minnesota.
The partial results of the project were presented Thursday evening in a conference room at the Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC) in the heart of north Minneapolis, which was packed out with a standing-room-only audience of teachers, students, social workers, mental health workers, and housing activists.
“North Minneapolis is a community manufactured to contain undesirable populations through housing discrimination, decades of urban disinvestment, unfair lending practices, and disproportionate evictions,” said Dr. Brittany Lewis, of the deep dive into a housing system “that wasn’t built for black and brown skin” that she and her colleagues conducted over the last few years. “The situation has become further exacerbated by the rise in distressed-property investment. Single black women with children living below the poverty line lead more than 60 percent of the black households in north Minneapolis.”
The research, partial findings, data, and recommendations for change can be found here:
“Are you experienced with homelessness or housing instability?” said student Taisia Cleveland (second from right). “Or discrimination or red-lining or gentrification? Well, you’re going to understand more about what everybody goes through, because the game is directed to people who haven’t been through it.”
“They were not being taken care of. There are people living in these conditions, and they’re real, and they’re evicted for reasons they may not have any control over. As Dr. Lewis said, it affects primarily black women and mothers. It’s a very important issue, and it’s becoming really terrible for mothers in north Minneapolis. My daughter is actually one of those people who have experienced this, and so I have some experience with it. I had to do this.”