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The latest news and perspective from the Director of Urban Homeworks
Reflections
“The May 22, 2011 tornado killed one, led to the death of another during cleanup, and damaged 3,700 structures, causing millions of dollars in damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure. It also displaced countless neighborhood residents. But the effect of the tornado was more than damage, dollars, or even lives. It hit a neighborhood already struggling from the mortgage crisis and economic recession, and where unemployment was disproportionately high and public assistance was a necessity for the majority of the population.”
-Jayne Solinger, Producer, Minnesota Public Radio News
On May 22, 2011, I was in an auditorium snapping pictures of my little six year old princess, Kate, dancing to the song “Here Comes the Sun.” In the middle of my rapid-fire photography my phone started to rapid-fire vibrate in my shirt pocket. The messages were all about checking in with each other, checking in with families, Urban Neighbors, homeowners, teammates and neighbors. Then the focus made a sudden shift: what are we going to do. It was not a question of “if,” that was a foregone conclusion. The question was when and where.
In the following few hours, the Sanctuary CDC and Urban Homeworks made a plan. At 6:00 the next morning, we gathered at the Urban Homeworks office and operationalized our half-baked plan by attempting to provide assistance and mobilize volunteers throughout the area. We witnessed over 3,000 volunteers and 60 north Minneapolis organizations cooperating to bring medicine, food, supplies, tree removal and emergency repair to victims of the storm.
In the wake of the tornado, 3,700 homes were in need of repair: roofs had been destroyed by trees, water damage became manifest in homes when the rain hit a day after the tornado, fences had been ripped from the lawns, and many, many more repairs and needs emerged. Now almost a year later we, as a community, can proudly say that the number has dwindled considerably (Click here for an update). A lot of hard and complicated work has been done as we’ve sought to mediate between homeowners and insurance providers, banks, and contractors.
While we celebrate the work that has been done and the relationships that have been built, we recognize (and feel it ourselves) that the healing process can be arduous. Many issues that existed in north Minneapolis were exacerbated by the tornado and will take a long and concentrated time to work through. One of our partners and Board Members, Stella Whitney-West, intuitively stated that much of north Minneapolis is going through a grief cycle and needs our sensitivity and listening ears. Our job is to be there—not simply to fix a fence, but to walk through the entire process together. As we were asked by the Department of Commerce to explain Urban Homeworks’ role in responding to the tornado, the only answer I could think to provide was, “To be a good neighbor.” We continue to strive toward that end.
What's the Solution?
Solutions. What’s the solution? That question gets asked a LOT. Here’s an answer to consider… there isn’t a solution, there are only solutions. The myth is that any one of us, or the focus on any one area of effort, will adequately address the whole. Significant, long-term transformation can’t be done alone. There is no silver bullet. Housing is not a stand-alone solution, but it has proven to be a unique tool that integrates multiple dimensions of a healthy community that enriches people and place.
Here’s the thing: I am committed to shape Urban Homeworks into the most effective (I did not say efficient, although we will try to be efficient too) tool in the hands of our community. That means we listen… HARD. It means we are nimble and pliable in the hands of our community. It means that we ask the question “who benefits” as often as we make decisions. It also means we practice “playing well with others” and collaborating. We are excited to be a part of the mix and deeply recognize that we are only as strong as the fabric of relationships that surround us. Thank you. We couldn’t do it if it wasn’t done together.
Who Benefits?
As we continue the rebuilding efforts through programs such as Rental: RECLAIM, the primary question for us at every decision point is “who benefits?” For us it matters how the money is spent, who gets the contracts and who works on the projects. Creating new affordable places to live for community residents, like Corey and Bridgette, is important, needed and beneficial. But we also know that if done right, dollars spent on housing recovery can also serve as an economic engine that revs up the financial well-being of individuals and businesses that have historically suffered from inequitable access. Urban Homeworks is doing everything in its power, with the help of our partners in the for-profit, non-profit, private, and government sectors, to turn the recovery from foreclosure into an economic recovery that will last long after the last foreclosed house has been stabilized. THANK YOU for the role you play on this road to recovery.
Free to Dream
We all aspire toward dreams that we have for our lives, but if we don’t have a place to lay our head, food or some other basic need, dreams become quickly eroded. Urban Homeworks continues to work hard to help meet the basic need for stable, dignified homes for our neighbors who are looking for long-term stability. We are fortunate to have received federal stimulus dollars (Neighborhood Stabilization Program), leveraged by multiple other sources to help achieve that aim.
Our strategy has been to use these funds as efficiently and effectively as possible while benefiting local businesses and individuals in the production of high quality homes. With this attitude of effective “capital absorption,” we aim to compound the triple+ “bottom line” of these investments by achieving high local, minority contracting and utilization rates, high construction skills/career training participation, and engaging volunteers from across the broader community. These ingredients are coming alongside the assets already present in our neighborhood to help provide a redemptive process that produces a quality home, a stronger neighborhood and a more robust region.
Strong people with stable places. Shauntina represents both. Shauntina is an emerging leader in her neighborhood who has used Urban Homeworks as a tool toward the achievement of her goals and dreams. Within her is the expression of Hope that we walk alongside each other to perpetuate. We are not on this road alone. YOU are helping to make that happen. Thank you for being on this journey with us.
Inward Recovery
Recovery kinda forces you to take a hard look inward as well as outward. I’ve been thinking a lot more about the inward recovery that we, the Urban Homeworks team, has been experiencing since the storm. To steal Stephen Covey’s metaphor, it feels like a bank account. When we went to work on May 23, 2011, we had higher emotional and relational deposits with each other as a staff, which was part of the reason we could engage with the community at the level we did with the effect we did. There is “cause and effect” to our response, however, and in this case the effect has been withdrawals in the team’s emotional bank account. I don’t feel like we are anywhere near to “bouncing checks” with each other. Our “account balance” is still relatively high, but we are committed over the near term to invest in each other in new and more focused ways while enhancing our work and presence in the community by perpetuating the hope both inwardly and outwardly. Thank you for walking and praying with us through this past year.
The Recovery Continues
As the trees are cleaned up and as more and more tarps are being turned into shingles following the May 22nd tornado, the recovery is gaining ground. We are continually grateful for your help and support as we work with our neighbors and friends to recover from this storm…and beyond.
“Recovery” is an interesting thing. Jesus talks about the “recovery of sight to the blind” in Luke 4 where he proclaims his manifesto. I have good friends who are in “recovery” from an addiction. One “recovers” from a surgery or illness. The efforts post-tornado are described as a “recovery” from the storm. In each of these, there is a thread of continuity; none is instantaneous and none is done alone.
I’ll tell you this: my recovery has been a slow, painstaking process with setbacks and challenges and some fantastic people walking with me through it all…one day, one hour, one moment at a time.
Before the storm, we were working hard on the recovery from another “storm.” The foreclosure crisis rendered a whole bunch of buildings vacant and deteriorating while sucking a whole bunch of capital out of our community. We picked up a number of homes and small rental buildings and started the recovery effort of putting them back together and restoring the relationships among the people who live in them. The foreclosure “recovery” smacks of the recovery above—one nail, one home, one person, one family, one relationship at a time.
The work of Urban Homeworks is one of recovery. We are working toward a more healed and whole life for me, for you, and for the cities, towns, and countrysides in which we live. Thank you for being a part of our story, for encouraging and making recovery happen.
