Cleaning up after the housing crash

Some boarded-up windows on Minneapolis’s north side could be pried loose.

On some blocks in the neighborhood, abandoned homes outnumber those with life inside, said Rep. Joe Mullery (DFL-Mpls), who presented HF3536 to the House Taxes Committee on March 18. The bill would expand Minneapolis’s authority to spend tax increments from housing replacement districts on vacant sites outside of the districts, if approved locally.

“We desperately need to find ways to finance the city’s efforts to redevelop these areas,” he said. “We are really having extreme, serious problems up there.”

Sherrie Pugh Sullivan, executive director of the Northside Residents Redevelopment Council, said her organization has provided mortgage foreclosure counseling for decades. In the 1960s, homeownership in the area was at less than 25 percent. The number rose to 60 percent in the early 2000s, she said.

“That has all been eroded since 2005. We have seen the foreclosures double in numbers,” she said. “We’ve lost good homeowners. We’ve lost good people in our community.”

The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the committee’s omnibus bill. Sen. D. Scott Dibble (DFL-Mpls) sponsors the companion, SF3534, which awaits action by the Senate Taxes Committee.

“I think this is a good idea, I’ve not heard a lot of objection to it,” said Committee Chairwoman Rep. Ann Lenczewski (DFL-Bloomington). “Certainly you need a lot more tools than this to solve the problem.”