For too long, landlords in Minneapolis have operated with no real accountability. We will not allow landlords to exploit, evict, and abuse tenants in secret.
612 landlord watch
612 landlord watch
Who is standing with landlords, and blocking crucial tenant protections?
Real estate forces know that their primary interest — profiting off our homes — is in direct contradiction with the interests of the public: a housing system in which every person in Minneapolis lives in dignity, permanently safe from the threat of displacement or eviction. That's why Top Evicting Landlords bankroll the campaigns of candidates like Jacob Frey, and fund super-PACs which elect the Council Members who they believe will fall in line with Frey’s pro-landlord agenda.
If our Elected Officials are going to use their power to side with real estate interests and vote against tenants, they don't get to do it in secret. We will not let Minneapolis become a city that is run by landowners and forces of capital.
On March 3, the Minneapolis City Council passed “Pause Evictions, Save Lives” — a measure which would have extended the pre-eviction filing notice from 30 to 60 days, giving renters at risk of eviction due to Operation Metro Surge an extra month to catch up on rent before potentially losing their homes. The measure passed 7-5-1, but was vetoed by Frey just a week later.
On March 26, the City Council failed to override Frey’s veto. The six Council Members who voted to accelerate evictions — Michael Rainville, LaTrisha Vetaw, Pearll Warren, Elizabeth Shaffer, Jamison Whiting and Linea Palmisano — showed the people of Minneapolis that they, like Frey, are beholden to the real estate class of Minneapolis. With their vote, they showed us they are willing to betray the working people of this city to further enrich and embolden the landlords putting out neighbors at risk of homelessness.
who is evicting our neighbors IN MINNEAPOLIS?
There are many sources of data on evictions, landlords, and land ownership in Minneapolis — including The Eviction Lab, Hennepin County’s Eviction Dashboard, and the Hennepin County Property Search tool. Most eviction data we have comes through the Court System, but key information on evictions is not broken out by neighborhood. No public data captures informal evictions (for example, when renters are forced to "self-evict" before a formal eviction is filed), which are estimated to be about twice as high as the number of formal evictions
Neighborhood organizing against evictions — through tenant or labor unions, school or faith communities, or block-level formations — can create a circle around a family facing eviction and say: “We will protect you." Doing this means all of our neighbors are safer.
In the same way that the people of Minneapolis boldly enact sanctuary in the streets by our own commitment and courageous actions against the threat of agents of the state, we must enact sanctuary in Minneapolis together from the violence of the state on behalf of landlords, as they try to uphold property over human life by evicting families and children from their homes.
Neighborhood-level eviction data can be shared with neighborhood action teams and tenant unions every week, so that neighbors can organize in hyper-local structures to (1) Turn up the pressure on Evicting Landlords and (2) Build infrastructures of care to support families at risk of displacement.
