Urban Homeworks

Rental programs -occupancy of housing:housing - rental programming - our restored units are well-built, maintained, affordable rental opportunities for individuals and families priced out of many twin cities rental markets. Partnerships with local social service organizations provide additional support by serving as advocates for the residents and providing necessary social services. Resources from these social service partners, combined with a supportive landlord and quality, dignified housing, weave a web of support for program participants. Through stable, dignified rental properties, individuals are able to become part of their community support structures, schools and economic opportunities.housing - ownership programming - project: reclaim preserves existing affordable housing by capturing properties that have not been maintained as viable units by market forces, and restores them to their highest use: perpetually affordable homeownership opportunities that are contributing physical assets for the neighborhood. Project: reclaim mitigates the economic and social impact of underutilized, vacant and/or foreclosed single family homes. Project: reclaim hinges on a responsible contract for deed which allows families to begin living in the home while they participate in financial literacy training carefully designed to provide the opportunity for adequate credit repair and deep financial education tied to financial stability and home ownership. * nearly 400 residents found home in an Urban Homeworks' dignified rental apartment. Of those who rent from Urban Homeworks and disclose their demographics, 89% are bipoc, 63% are families with children, and 30% where unhoused at the time of move-in. * Urban Homeworks was able to demolish the duplex on elliot that caught fire in the final week of december 2022. We are hard at work planning redevelopment that will best serve the community and look forward to sharing more in the coming year. * Urban Homeworks is working in specific neighborhoods to address safety concerns. We continue to evolve our peacekeeping efforts in response to community feedback. We prioritized holding community listening sessions in 2023 to determine peacekeeping activities that best serve the specific needs of neighborhoods facing upticks in crime and violence.

Community engagementuhw executive director asalesol young and equity & engagement director temi ogunrinde were hard at work in this year's mn spring legislative session advocating for 6 policies that would improve housing stability for members of our community. Most notably, Urban Homeworks received a direct appropriation to drastically increase our production of deeply affordable homeownership options from 2024-2027, a historic breakthrough for the organization. We are hard at work fundraising for the funds needed to support this drastic increase in production! * we facilitated 2 housing justice forums, providing residents with a platform to engage directly with legislators and hold decision-makers accountable for their commitments to the community. In the spring, we welcomed state legislators to witness live testimonies from renters advocating for bring it home, mn, a bill meant to ensure all minnesotans get the rent support they need through rent vouchers. While the full need for rent vouchers was not funded, our advocacy brought us one step closer to meeting this need. $70 million from a new metro sales tax will generate close to 5,500 statewide vouchers. In our august forum, recognizing that all 13 minneapolis ward seats were open for election, we hosted 12 councilmember candidates who shared their platforms and priorities with us so that our communities can make informed voting choices this november. * our people-oriented development efforts expanded, and residents engaged with neighbors and partners in new ways. We launched a southside pod group in october, an expansion of our monthly pod meetings that drew in residents from mostly north minneapolis. The specificity in building a southside pod is meant to strengthen ties between neighbors in south minneapolis and address issues specific to southside neighborhoods. We also partnered with the conflict resolution center to facilitate monthly restorative circles for all residents, meant to strengthen relationships among neighbors. Residents found these sessions to be some of their favorite gatherings of the year. In july, uhw staff supported residents in applying for the nexus community partners' open road fund, a program that will award $50,000 to at least 800 black residents in the region through 2031. * we strengthened our volunteer programming and hosted 3 bipoc think tanks; a chance for bipoc leaders and community members to collaborate and dream what a just housing system could look like. 168 volunteers donated 1,851 hours of their time so far this year, helping to keep our affordable rental units dignified, building a garage for one of the passive homes we're building, and assisting with other neighborhood beautification efforts. Out of the volunteers who joined this year, 118 of them volunteered with uhw for the first time! We love welcoming new community members into our mission and vision through the power of volunteering.

Real estate development acquisition of housing:urban Homeworks has constructed, rehabilitated and managed scattered, multi-unit and single-family housing in distressed areas of minneapolis and st. paul since 1995. We are unique in the twin cities in our focus on smaller, multi-unit rental properties. We have committed to this approach to building healthy neighborhoods through multiple access points in the housing ecosystem. Rehabilitation of housing:our model for rehabilitating housing leverages our housing development and construction process to maximize the economic and social benefit to the communities we serve. Reclaiming abandoned/foreclosed properties is a cost-effective approach to increasing the housing supply in the twin cities. We have looked at our real estate development efforts and determined the investment can do more than just add much needed housing units; our affordable housing investments are directly tied to our efforts to trigger both a housing and economic recovery through partnerships, and job creation. Through collaboration, our model is designed to expand economic opportunities and the economic impact of our work in the communities we serve through localized hiring of underutilized local, minority, female and section 3 subcontractors and trainees; job connections and job creation. This component of our program ensures dollars invested in housing remain in the community in which they are intended to benefit - thus layering the impact of the housing development investment. * two families became homeowners for the first time after purchasing single-family homes from Urban Homeworks! Amber, a mother of two, purchased the newly renovated home on vincent ave that was donated to Urban Homeworks at the end of 2021. We celebrated the completion of this beautiful renovation by inviting neighbors and supporters to walk through the home before it closed in may. Amber shared her story at our perpetuate the hope fundraiser in october. * the real estate development team started construction on 8 new homeownership opportunities in north minneapolis, to be sold in 2024. Five single-family passive-certified homes are underway throughout north minneapolis following passive house institute us (phius) standards. Four of the five homes will be sold to families earning up to 80% of the area median income (ami), with 1 home reserved for families earning up to 60% ami. Additionally, 4 of the 5 homes will be long-term affordable in partnership with the city of lakes community land trust (clclt). Construction will also begin this fall on 1 multi-family zero energy ready (zerh) "townhouse style" building with 3 connected homes intended for limited-equity cooperative ownership. The cooperative is a pilot project owned and led by black lives of unitarian universalism (bluu) with goals to build on 7 additional lots for a total of 24 homes in the cooperative. The homes will be sold to families making at or below 60% ami, and the cooperative properties will be long-term affordable in partnership with the city of minneapolis perpetually affordable housing program and the clclt. * pre-development is underway on 4 new homeownership opportunities to be constructed in 2024 and sold in 2025. 1 single-family passive-certified (super energy efficient) home with gap funding from city of minneapolis and Minnesota housing, to be sold to a family earning up to 60% ami, with long-term affordability in partnership with the city of lakes community land trust. Three single-family homes with gap funding from the state direct appropriation awarded to uhw in 2023. These three homes will be the first of several phases of projects, between 2024 to 2027, utilizing the appropriation funds to develop deeply affordable ownership.