Yesterday, the Minneapolis City Council approved the city’s 2023 budget, including an unprecedented $4.9 million for MPHA. Built into this budget was Mayor Frey’s new, one-time $2.7 million contribution to MPHA that will enable the MPHA team to bring five additional deeply affordable family homes online while also making important repairs and improvements to family housing scattered across the city.
The budget also included Councilmember Robin Wonsley’s amendment to send MPHA an additional $1.2 million to be the final funding needed to install fire suppression systems in all 42 MPHA high rises. Councilmember Wonsley, with the support of Councilmember Jeremiah Ellison and MPHA staff, championed the passage of the new $1.2 million by a vote of 12-1 during a Minneapolis City Council Budget Committee meeting last week.
“I commend Mayor Frey, Councilmember Wonsley, and the entire City Council for taking bold action to help address the affordable housing crisis in Minneapolis by allocating an unprecedented $4.9 million to MPHA in the city’s 2023 budget,” said Minneapolis Public Housing Authority Executive Director/CEO, Abdi Warsame. “It is going to take an all-of-the-above approach to address the issue and its many facets, and this budget reflects that reality. Mayor Frey led the effort to invest $3.7 million towards critical repairs in the agency’s deeply affordable family housing portfolio while Councilmember Wonsley championed the final $1.2 million needed by the agency to install fire suppression systems in all 42 MPHA high rises. This budget is a remarkable accomplishment, and it establishes a new highwater mark in MPHA’s partnership with the City of Minneapolis to tackle our region’s affordable housing crisis.”
Historically, MPHA has only received about ten percent of the funding necessary for major building improvements. In 2022, MPHA’s HUD-provided capital funding was $20 million, whereas the agency’s capital improvement backlog is now estimated at more than $210 million.
Despite the headwinds posed by its growing capital backlog, the agency continues to prioritize installing fire suppression systems in all 42 of MPHA’s high rises. The goal of this focused effort is to have sprinklers installed in every high rise by the end of 2025. And what began as an ambitious goal is now on the cusp of becoming a remarkable achievement in partnership. Yesterday’s vote to approve the City of Minneapolis’ 2023 budget marks a new era of partnership and collaboration to help overcome the woefully insufficient capital improvement funding MPHA receives from HUD.
Since 2020, MPHA has invested more than $16 million of its own capital dollars towards fire suppression installations. In 2021, Minnesota Housing contributed $2.4 million, the City of Minneapolis contributed $2.15 million across 2021 ($1.15M) and 2022 ($1M), and Minnesota’s federal delegation—led by Senators Smith, Klobuchar, and Representative Omar—secured a $2 million direct appropriation earlier this year to support this work. And with the new $1.2 million championed by Councilmember Wonsley, MPHA has secured the final funding needed for MPHA to install fire suppression systems in all 42 of its high rises. Learn more about MPHA’s progress installing fire sprinklers here (Page 330).
