Ten Minneapolis residents are suing the city, alleging that its enforcement of housing code violations discriminates against communities of color in north Minneapolis neighborhoods.
The plaintiffs include a delivery man who reported property violations along his route, a single mother turned housing advocate, and a couple closely tracking years of neglect in their neighborhood, among others.
In a 44-page complaint filed on October 24 in Hennepin County District Court, the lawsuit claims that property violations recorded by the city did not accurately reflect the plaintiffs’ experiences, that city inspectors are less effective in neighborhoods that are majority people of color, and that there is a lack of enforcement against predatory landlords.
“They’re suing the city to stop the racial discrimination that infects the way the city of Minneapolis enforces or doesn’t enforce its housing code,” said Ben Kappelman, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. “And what they want out of the lawsuit is the court to agree that that is racial discrimination, that it’s unacceptable, and then to order that it stop.”
City officials issued a brief written statement denying the allegations, but did not address specific claims in depth.
“The City denies that it discriminates against BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) renters,” said the statement. “The City works cooperatively with landlords to try to remedy issues on rental properties in order to protect tenants, minimize the loss of low income rental housing, and avoid displacing residents.”
Kappelman said the city filed a motion on November 9 to dismiss the lawsuit; a decision has not been issued on the matter. A hearing in the case is scheduled for February 9.
The plaintiffs are not requesting a monetary reward from the city, he added.
The first part of the complaint analyzes data compiled from the city’s Regulatory Services Department, which handles property violations. The department publicly reports complaints the city receives through its 311 non-emergency phone service, and records for property inspections by city staff that occur either annually or every five years based on maintenance history.
The suit breaks down property complaints by City Council ward, and alleges that the city does not allocate enough inspectors to handle the number of complaints in Wards 4 and 5 in north Minneapolis.
“There’s no conceivable way they’re delivering the same quality of job for tenants in north Minneapolis compared to south Minneapolis, just based on the sheer number of complaints coming from each of those respective areas, and the amount of resources the city is giving the two respective areas,” said Mike Norton, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs.
The city violated its own ordinances that aim to ensure livable housing, and violated the Minnesota Human Rights Act and the Minnesota Constitution by failing to equally protect and enforce housing codes, according to the lawsuit filed pro-bono by the law firm Dorsey & Whitney LLP.
‘They hurt everyone’
Chase McKay, 32, grew familiar with the houses he saw on a daily basis while working as a deliveryman in north Minneapolis in 2019. It was common to find houses with broken front steps or missing handrails. But eventually, McKay said the signs of neglect and worsening living conditions angered him.
McKay reached his breaking point about a year and a half ago. He walked up some stairs to make a delivery at an apartment building and tried not to fall. There were no handrails and the stairs were crumbling. He saw an apartment filled with garbage and the front door had fallen off the hinges.
The apartment complex, which was across the street from the Lucy Craft Laney Community School, had a missing front door knob, he added.
“The city’s not looking—they’re not checking these buildings,” he said.
McKay said he emailed the city’s 311 reporting system to file complaints about property violations. Oftentimes, he said, he would come back to houses he reported and see no improvements.
Once, he said, a complaint of his prompted a city inspector to install flooring in an apartment complex, but that took months to resolve. The conditions of most houses in south Minneapolis, where McKary also worked, were a stark contrast, he added.
“It just infuriates me, because of the nasty things like the human waste, missing doorknobs, missing handrails, broken steps” in north Minneapolis, McKay said. “I never saw a single building in [zip code] 55405 that was even close to that. That’s just what floors me.”
McKay referred to neighborhoods near Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles in Ward 7, which includes the Kenwood, Harrison, and part of Lowry Hill neighborhoods.
The suit alleges that the distribution of inspectors across Minneapolis “does not mirror the gravity of inspection demands vis-à-vis [versus] the complaint data.” The lawsuit made the allegations by comparing the number of property complaints in City Council wards with the number of city inspectors the plaintiffs’ lawyers believe are assigned to those wards. However, the city does not assign inspectors by City Council wards.
According to the city, there are 33 inspectors across Minneapolis assigned to “complaint districts,” which are boundaries drawn using the volume of complaints from the previous year. The district boundaries stretch across different City Council wards, with some districts encompassing parts of multiple wards.
There are 19 inspectors assigned to north Minneapolis and 14 assigned to south Minneapolis, according to the city. Five more inspectors are split between the two areas of the city. The size of the area and travel time are some of the factors considered when assigning inspectors, according to the city.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys told Sahan Journal that they “estimated” the number of inspectors handling complaints in each City Council ward. The plaintiffs’ attorneys explain in the lawsuit that two complaint districts and “a small portion” of a third district match up to Wards 4 and 5 in north Minneapolis.
The suit alleges that “roughly seven” inspectors handle a disproportionately high volume of complaints in Wards 4 and 5. The plaintiff’s attorneys also explain that wards 11, 12, and 13 in south Minneapolis match up to two complaint districts and half of a third district, and have “seven-and-a-half” inspectors who allegedly handle significantly fewer complaints.
However, a city spokesperson said in an email that each ward “probably” has about one to two inspectors handling complaints. Since the city does not assign inspectors by ward, the city spokesperson said, “It depends on where the actual complaints are coming from rather than the boundary overlap between complaint districts and wards.”
‘No relief whatsoever’
Shanika Henderson, a plaintiff in the lawsuit, came home from North Memorial Hospital in October 2017 with her premature baby and realized that she needed to move her family out of their rental home in north Minneapolis because of frustration and growing fear for her family’s health.
Her kids slept with extra blankets in the wintertime because the heat didn’t reach their rooms upstairs. They sweated during the summer, even though Henderson installed fans and air conditioners. There was growing mold in the basement.
When her baby was three years old, Henderson said, her landlord found signs of asbestos in the vents, prompting her family to stay in a hotel for a week and a half.
Henderson said she reported the problems to her landlord in the first several years but saw little improvement. She hadn’t reported them to the city, she added, because she didn’t know about the 311 reporting process.
There was “no relief whatsoever” in the house, she said. As a single mother with four children, she felt her options were limited. Moving her family out of north Minneapolis meant leaving behind her community, relatives, and friends.
“Over the years, I got depressed in a state that I just didn't care anymore, and I didn’t feel like I would have any type of help that would get us out of that situation,” she said. “I felt less than a mother—to be able to protect my kids—and it was just out of my hands.”
Then came a knock at her door in 2020. Henderson was approached by three housing organizers from Inquilinxs Unidxs Por Justicia/United Renters For Justice, a nonprofit that works to support renters’ rights in Minneapolis.
Henderson was initially hesitant to get involved with the housing organizers, but with their help, she eventually filed complaints with the city to compel her landlord to make repairs. She attended community meetings about tenant organizing and listened to other renters, mostly Black single mothers like herself, who were experiencing similar issues.
Henderson now works for United Renters For Justice as a housing organizer.
Although it took a few years, her family moved into a new house last July.
Henderson said that before she moved out, she met with city inspectors six or seven times to resolve the complaints about her rental home. Yet, she said, some of the problems she raised went unaddressed, including broken windows, mold in the basement, and cracks in the foundation, among others.
“I think it's my duty to stand up for people around me to be able to change my community. We need to voice how we're living, how we're being treated,” Henderson said. “You know, just because we're renters doesn't mean we can't make our house a home.”
‘I feel hopeful because people are listening’
Deborah Wagner and her husband Dennis Wagner have owned a home in north Minneapolis for nearly 40 years. Both have been involved in the Jordan Area Community Council and were volunteers for the citizen inspector program, where they reported boarded up and vacant houses in the neighborhood.
They also filed complaints with the city for many years about the growing number of property violations. Deborah is a realtor, and said she lost some home sales and saw her business affected by lower property values because of the condition of nearby rental properties.
“I feel like we're trying to do so much, and we're working so hard to help uplift the people in the community,” Deborah said. “But we just never get anywhere because of this kind of attitude from the city that, ‘This is the way it should be in north Minneapolis. What do you expect, right?’”
At the same time, the plaintiffs also expressed hope for north Minneapolis.
Arianna Anderson, another plaintiff in the lawsuit and a former renter in north Minneapolis, said she and her five children experienced years of poor living conditions, including exposure to lead. They had to call the fire department once when the bathroom door broke, locking her son inside for about an hour.
Anderson said she repeatedly reached out to the city to resolve the ongoing problems in her north Minneapolis rental home. She met with a few city inspectors, and said they did not take her concerns seriously and did little to pressure her landlord to make repairs.
She now lives in Crystal, a suburb northwest of Minneapolis.
“I feel like, had the city enforced these regulations… I feel like our family would have never had to endure that abuse or neglect for so many years,” Anderson said. “Right now, I feel hopeful because people are listening.”
Several plaintiffs said they hope the outcome of the lawsuit changes negative perceptions about north Minneapolis.
Data reporter Cynthia Tu contributed to this report.
