A new report from the Minnesota Housing Partnership shows that nearly half of renters in the state are stretching their wallets to cover housing costs, and that the state’s racial gap in homeownership continues to persist.  The partnership, a community development nonprofit, compiles research and provides resources to advance equitable housing across the nation. The March report, “2024 State of the State’s Housing Profile with Key Minnesota Findings and Trends,” provides a snapshot of housing trends across Minnesota, including homelessness, evictions, rental costs, and homeownership rate ..read more

A judge rejected Camp Nenookaasi’s request to put a temporary stop to evictions of the homeless encampment while it sues Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey for alleged constitutional violations.  U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud issued his ruling Monday, saying that the camp’s motion for a temporary restraining order was moot because it was not specific to the camp’s current location, and because there is a lack of evidence that the city has impending plans for another eviction.  The camp’s attorneys and a camp organizer did not immediately return messages seeking comment Tuesday. A city ..read more

Camp Nenookaasi residents are taking their case to court a second time this year, hoping that a judge will rule in their favor and block the city of Minneapolis from evicting the camp for the time being.  U.S. District Judge Eric Tostrud heard arguments from attorneys representing the camp and city during a hearing Thursday in federal court, but did not immediately issue a decision on the matter. Tostrud said he expected to make a ruling “relatively quickly,” but did not specify his timeline.  Lead attorney Kira Kelley is representing four plaintiffs from the homeless encampment: Ch ..read more

The cause of the fire that destroyed the Camp Nenookaasi homeless encampment in south Minneapolis late last month is “undetermined,” according to a news release issued by the city Wednesday.  The fire burned down camp residents’ personal belongings, yurts, and supplies such as propane tanks and firewood. The fire also damaged siding on two nearby buildings. The city said there were dozens of illegal open fires and propane cooking devices discovered in the debris.  “Due to the overwhelming amount of possible ignition sources in the area of origin and that there was still a large amou ..read more

Camp Nenookaasi resident Melanie Hanks lost all of her belongings in a fire that tore through the homeless encampment Thursday, including her birth certificate, social security card, and clothes. She’s struggled to secure stable housing the last six months after losing contact with outreach workers, and feels more lost after recent events. “It’s horrible. It’s like you don’t have nothing, like you’re all alone” she said Friday. Hanks, 47, has lived at Camp Nenookaasi since it formed last August, moving to new locations each time the camp was evicted by the city earlier this year, and settling ..read more

Brandon Elias was asleep at Camp Nenookaasi Thursday afternoon when the yurt next to him lit up in flames. The fire spread so quickly that Elias fled his yurt without shoes on, leaving all of his belongings behind. The fire destroyed the homeless encampment in south Minneapolis shortly after 12 p.m. Two people were treated at the scene for non-life threatening injuries, one for minor burns and another for smoke inhalation, Minneapolis Fire Chief Bryan Tyner said at a news conference. The cause of the fire remains under investigation, he added. A fire destroyed most of Camp Nenookaasi on Thurs ..read more

Haji Osman Salad was running a business in December 2020 purporting to cook thousands of meals to feed needy children, raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars each month in government reimbursements.  Haji, 34, ultimately received more than $16 million in reimbursements from the federal child nutrition program, according to a federal indictment charging him with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering.  With money pouring in, he turned to real estate investment in early 2021.  That was poor timing for Deming Lai and Xiaoling Chen, a Chinese-im ..read more

Some Minneapolis City Council members and homeless camp organizers are criticizing the city for dumping piles of concrete rubble across two former sites used by Camp Nenookaasi, which was evicted from city lots three times in four weeks this year.  Minneapolis officials authorized trucks to dump the rubble onto sites at E. 26th Street and 14th Avenue S. and near E. 22nd Street and S. 16th Avenue “to deter encampments forming at those lots in the future,” according to a city spokesperson. The concrete was added either the day Camp Nenookaasi was evicted from the sites or the day after, ac ..read more

This story was produced in collaboration with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. The excitement that Abdinoor Igal felt after buying a five-bedroom house in a new development in a suburb south of the Twin Cities was short-lived.  At the time, it was the realization of a long-held dream — a spacious, modern home for his wife and seven children to call their own. And Igal, a 37-year-old long-haul trucker, had saved for a house for years. But like many practicing Muslims, he had avoided paying or profiting from interest as a matter of faith, and th ..read more

Faced with the challenge of providing housing and services to the residents of south Minneapolis’ large Camp Nenookaasi homeless encampment, the city of Minneapolis tried a new strategy: bypassing its traditional partnership with Hennepin County and instead awarding a nearly $1 million contract to a relatively unknown, for-profit group called Helix Health and Housing Services. There was no competitive bidding process for the contract. Rather, the city based its decision on its experience working with Helix co-owners Adam Fairbanks, a consultant for Red Lake Nation, and Carrie Johnson, th ..read more