Laurie Aylward has seen the agency—and the world—through decades of societal change, technological advances, and organizational shifts. But despite all the changes, the mission of the agency remains the same: to provide safe, stable, and affordable housing to Minneapolis residents.

Laurie earned here human services degree during a societal shift in the elder care. The trend was to offer more choice in the types of care and living facilities for aging. Additionally, Laurie lived through organizational growing pains as the public housing sector saw dwindling federal funding despite the need for support growing as buildings aged and the population grew.

Stationed in the same building she was at in the 80’s, Laurie recalls how different the office technology was with typewriters and carbon paper being used instead of today’s more advanced and efficient tools. Rent was collected in cash, pre-dating the proliferation of credit cards, direct deposits, and electronic transfers.

In her first role with the agency, Laurie a social service provider, worked with tenants to remain lease compliant and helped residents get connected with social service resources. As the organization’s needs shifted, so did its staffing structure. Over time, MPHA added more personnel dedicated to managing the public housing buildings on-site. And as her career progressed, Laurie was promoted into high-level roles in building management, managing a growing number of staff. With these changes Laurie saw the positive impact: residents had better access to building staff and the team had a more direct line of site into the issues on-site.

In her earlier years as a supervisor, Laurie learned a lot from the maintenance staff’s technical expertise on the logistics of operating a high-rise. And those learnings have served her for decades as she managed more buildings, witnessed the high-rises age, and having seen new generations of tenants move in and out.

Reflecting back on her MPHA career, she is appreciative of all the people she’s gotten to know—both co-workers and residents. Enjoying building relationships with people of all walks of life, Laurie feels like she has been able to experience so much more of the world than she ever would have imagined.

“I really enjoy meeting all the people,” said Laurie. “I’ve met so many people from all over the world. I feel like I haven’t really traveled the world, but I’ve met the world through all the residents and staff that I’ve met and gotten to know.”

“Through the years you meet so many different residents who have come with all different kinds of life history. I just love it when I can sit with a resident and hear about their life, it’s always just so amazing. It really, really touches me a lot when you hear how grateful for their housing they are, too,” said Laurie.

MPHA has been the place Laurie—along with many others—has built her career upon. MPHA is an agency where team members support one another and encourage each other to reach their professional goals. The agency has also consistently invested in internal talent, promoting them to higher positions and supporting them through every season of their careers.