Blog

the EE Team smiles, standing in front of a new garage being built on one of our properties
November 7, 2022

Updates from Equity & Engagement

Dear Urban Homeworks Community,

My name is Temi Ogunrinde and I am the new Equity and Engagement Director at Urban Homeworks. This is more of a welcome back than a welcome, as I was a part of the UHW team last year! It feels good to be back and in this new role; I am ecstatic to join the team as we work to dismantle one of the foundations of systemic racism: policy.  As we continue to grow influence in the political sphere, we want to remain unapologetically centered on our community, taking their ideas and hopes for an equitable housing ecosystem and supporting policy that matches.

I am not the only new member of the Equity and Engagement team either—please join me in welcoming our new Resident Organizer: Yuri Harper! Yuri is also not a stranger to the UHW family! She worked with us as a Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) Family Coach, doing beautiful work as a partner to our organization. I am truly so excited to dig into this work with Yuri, our Volunteer Manager Ashley Satorius, and the rest of the UHW team.

As you may know, this is an election year. Hot off the press is our 2022 voter guide that will be handed out to each resident, aimed to help explain the impact each position on the ballot has on individuals’ day-to-day life, as well as resources for learning more about who is on the ballot, voter rights, and voting. Following the election on November 8th, UHW is throwing a Post-Election Celebration for residents! Civic engagement takes so much time and energy, we want to honor and celebrate our residents for making their voices heard, as well as share next steps for holding our future elected officials accountable.

With the Holiday season coming up, we’ve also begun collecting gift card donations for our families. Our goal is to give each resident household several gift cards to places like Cub, Target, Visa, Holiday Gas, and Walmart, so they can purchase whatever they may need to celebrate this season and prepare for the coming winter.

As always, we cannot thank you enough for your unconditional support for our organization, our staff, and most importantly, our residents. I am looking forward to seeing the impact of your support in these last few months of 2022 and into the new year!

All the best,

Temi Ogunrinde's signature, name, photo, and title: "Equity & Engagement Director"
Read Our Full Q4 Newsletter Here
"Tax Savvy Ways to Donate"
October 26, 2022

End-Of-Year Giving with Urban Homeworks

As the end of 2022 draws near, we want to remind you of tax-advantageous ways to donate to your favorite charities this holiday season. 

Donate Stock:

Donating stock allows you to avoid capital gains taxes. For example, if you bought a share of Apple for $100 and sold it five years later for $300 your capital gain on that share is $200. Instead of selling the share and being taxed upwards of 20%, you can donate that share to your favorite charity and neither you nor the charity will pay taxes on that money. You can also deduct the full fair market value at the time of the gift from your taxable income if you are itemizing your deductions, lowering your total taxable income.

Don’t want to change your stock portfolio? Donate shares of the appreciated stock, then repurchase the same number of shares immediately after. This eliminates the capital gains on your previous shares and resets your “cost basis” to the current price, possibly saving even more taxes when you sell the new shares in the future.

Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD):

You are required to begin drawing from your traditional IRA at age 72, and those distributions are taxed at ordinary income tax rates. Your annual income is then boosted, potentially bumping you into a higher tax bracket. The QCD rule allows you to donate those distributions to a charity and deduct the donation from your total taxable income. To make a QCD, contact your IRA custodian and let them know that you’d like to donate some or all your IRA distributions to the charity of your choice and they will cut the check from your account to your designated charity!  

Bunching Charitable Gifts:

The standard deduction is $25,900 for joint filers, $19,400 for heads of household, and $12,950 for single filers and those married filing separately. That means that unless your deductions exceed your respective level, there is no advantage to itemizing deductions. If you find yourself close to the threshold, bunching your gifts could be beneficial to you. For example, if you are single and donate $10,000 a year to Urban Homeworks, you don’t exceed the standard deduction. However, if you decide to donate $10,000 on January 1 and $10,000 on December 31 in the same year, your deductions would be $20,000 surpassing the standard deduction threshold, making it advantageous to itemize your deductions and lowering your taxable income.

Donating to Urban Homeworks:

We would love for you to consider donating to Urban Homeworks using these methods this year! To the right you will find the information needed to make a stock or bond transfer.

Important: Gifts of stocks are typically transferred without information that identifies the donor. Please notify Urban Homeworks of your gift to ensure you are properly thanked and receipted for tax purposes. Contact Emily Lassiter, Senior Development Officer, at 612-429-0374 or EmilyL@urbanhomeworks.org.

Brokerage Firm: Charles Schwab, Account Number: 6415-9968, Account Name: Urban Homeworks, Inc, Tax ID Number: 41-1821520
Donate to Urban Homeworks Online
February 18, 2022

How Urban Homeworks is addressing the need for equitable homeownership options

Greetings, Urban Homeworks supporters! I am Anne Ketz, the Real Estate Development Director at Urban Homeworks. I oversee all existing and new housing developments. I joined the organization in 2017, and this May I celebrate 5 years of working with UHW! 

Over the years, we have experienced many changes at Urban Homeworks, both within the organization and community. Our Real Estate Development work has changed also. 

We continue to improve our designs and the energy efficiency of our homes. We continue to place dignified affordability at the top of our priorities. It has not been easy. 

Market forces have made it challenging to keep up with the need for affordable homeownership options. Competing funding, investor competition, and high costs have caused us to produce fewer new homes than we were ten years ago. The production can feel painfully slow when the demand is so high. However, each new unit still helps a low-income family in our community. I remind myself daily who we are doing this work for and why it is so important.

Urban Homeworks focuses on dignified, affordable rental and homeownership opportunities in majority BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities. Our work focuses on these communities because of generations of racism. Discriminatory policies like redlining, racial covenants, and deed restrictions of the past continue to affect communities today. The impacts are seen today in lower property values, low BIPOC homeownership rates, and high concentrations of poverty. 

Policy change is still needed. I just finished writing to our state lawmakers seeking more funding for homeownership development. Minnesota is among the worst in the nation for BIPOC homeownership. The Twin Cities is the worst metro region for Black homeownership. As of 2018, 70% of white families in MN are homeowners, while only 21% of Black families are. That number has decreased from 30% in 2000. 

A new 2021 report published by the Urban Institute, “Who Owns the Twin Cities,” provides updated data on this issue. This article from MinnPost offers a summary. 

Homeownership is one system where we can pursue racial equity, but lawmakers often overlook ownership when discussing affordable housing needs. Homeownership receives drastically less funding than rental housing. To reduce the ownership disparity rate, we must fund BIPOC homeownership. 

We are working towards these equity goals, along with other non-profit partners throughout the state, by:

  • Fighting for needed policy and funding changes
  • Continuing to supply and improve access to dignified, affordable rental housing
  • Developing a down payment assistance fund for BIPOC households
  • Engaging residents in individual housing and ownership goals; and 
  • Continuing to develop new ownership units through new construction and rehab opportunities. 

The Real Estate Development program focuses on producing new and innovative homeownership opportunities. In those efforts, we currently have 11 homes in various stages of development. Some of those projects include: 

  • A partnership with Black Lives of Unitarian Universalism (BLUU) on a multi-family townhouse. This development of three 4-bedroom units will follow a cooperative ownership model.
  • Two highly energy-efficient, single-family houses with funding from the City of Minneapolis to achieve passive certification. Passive houses are good for the environment and lower utility costs for future homeowners.  
  • A donated single-family home rehab – the first property donation we have received in years. The donor family has owned the house since the 1930s.

We have other exciting work ahead and look forward to keeping you updated as projects develop. We hope you will continue to follow along and support this critical work to address housing justice and racial inequities in our communities.

Please donate, volunteer, and call your lawmakers to fight for housing justice.

Sincerely,

Anne Ketze
Real Estate Development Director
Urban Homeworks

January 12, 2022

Community Partnerships!

Urban Homeworks is more than a housing organization. We seek to center the voices of our community and innovate in ways that create equitable solutions for our residents and neighbors.  

That innovation always begins with listening to the needs of our community.  Over the past year, the overwhelming need we heard again and again from our residents was a need for safety.  

After attempts to work with public officials and local police, Urban Homeworks decided to formally partner with Brothers EMpowered, a community safety organization committed to neighborhood peacekeeping through relationship building and consistent presence. 

We invite you to learn more about our partnership by watching this quick clip from an interview between Urban Homeworks Executive Director AsaleSol Young and Brothers EMpowered founder Charles Caine.  

Click below to view the teaser clip:

Click below to view the full interview:

October 26, 2021

Our work calls us to learn hidden truths…

Urban Homeworks staff went on a Sacred Sites Tour led by Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs from the Mohican Tribe. We visited Pilot Knob Trail or Oheyawahi, Fort Snelling State Park, and Dakota Internment Camp following the Dakota-US War.

As we approach the end of the year and continue to work towards a more just and affordable housing space, our work calls us to learn about BIPOC communities and the root of their true meaning. Amid racial disparity, we wanted to take time and space to learn about historic sites within our state that hold a more profound truth than what lies above.

Our staff was eager to visit a sacred place for the Dakota people in Minnesota, the Oheyawahi or Pilot Knob trail, which is truly a place to reflect on the Many Stories of the indigenous people who for centuries used this space as a sacred gathering and burial ground. Oheyawahi or Pilot Knob is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and comprises public and private land.

Although a place of reverence, this landscape has been altered throughout history within the last few hundred years, yet its stories remain suspended in time. As we learned during our visit, We learned that for the native people, stories are not part of a chronological construct; stories live within the space of their origin. It was powerful to hear these stories on the very land that they took place.

Within our responsibility of fighting for racial equity, we must learn the truth of our history. Today we challenge you to invite your circles to embark on a Sacred Sites tour, whether a group of friends, your family, or your workplace.

As we reflect upon the neglected, we invite you to Take Action and continue to be bearers of the truths that have been ignored. It is within these actions that we can start to repair the damage some of those stories hold.

To schedule your tour, contact Jim Bear Jacobs at jimbear.jacobs@mnchurches.org.

You can also learn more about Sacred Sites tours at

http://www.mnchurches.org/what-we-do/healing-minnesota-stories.

TAKE ACTION!

September 15, 2021

A national celebration to honor the history, culture, and influence of those who came from Spain, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Hispanic Heritage Month has become a big celebration in the U.S. For the last 40 years, Hispanics across the country have commemorated this month with pride and joy, highlighting the importance of diversity.

What is Hispanic Heritage Month?
It is a national celebration to honor past generations’ history, culture, and influence from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

The celebration began in 1968 under the administration of President Lyndon Johnson as the Hispanic Heritage Week. Years later, President Ronald Reagan proposed extending the commemoration to one month, and it became law on August 17, 1988, officially designated for the 30 days between the 15th. September and October 15th as National Hispanic Heritage Month.

It begins in the middle of the month because September 15th marks the anniversary of the independence of five countries: Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala.

It is followed by Mexico’s Independence Day, on September 16th and Chile’s, on September 18th. Another important date that falls within these 30 days is the “Dia de la Raza” on October 12.

What does Hispanic mean?
While many people use LatinX (or Latino (a)) and Hispanic interchangeably, these two words mean different things. A Hispanic person is a descendant of a Spanish-speaking country. LatinX refers to someone from Latin America or descendant of a Latin American country.

One person may be Hispanic and Latino, but not all Latinos are Hispanic. Brazilians, for example, are LatinX, but their mother tongue is not Spanish. On the other hand, not all Hispanics are LatinX. Spaniards consider themselves Hispanic, but not LatinoX, as they are part of the European Union.

What’s the Hispanic population in the United States?
Pew Research Center says the U.S. Hispanic Population is the Second Largest Ethnic Group in rapid growth after Asians. ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS BUREAU, the U.S. Hispanic population as of the year 2020 totaled 62.1 million. Hispanics make up 18.7% of the total U.S. population.

How to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month?
People take advantage of this celebration to show the importance of Hispanics in the United States. To do this, support your local Hispanic charities, eat food from any of the celebrated countries, learn from their cultures, and honor influential Hispanics who have impacted society.

July 12, 2021

Perpetuating Hope

Hope. In 2020, our notions of hope were challenged beyond measures previously defined. We witnessed, without blinders, the ways our systems of health care, housing, policing, and education fail the most vulnerable in our communities. We were faced with ourselves and our capacity to move systemic injustice to a place of balance, a place where all humans have space and opportunity to live life to its fullest.

In 2020, we witnessed human greed, corruption, xenophobia, racism, and ableism prevail over the greater
good. When the state, and eventually the world, went into lockdown, we were forced to wrestle with the outcomes and health disparities of our elders, of our educators, our healthcare workers, and our houseless. As things shut down within our city, the reality that North Minneapolis is a food desert struck hard. Folks worried about their capacity to pay rent and worried about feeding their children as work hours became limited or they were laid off. We experienced the collective worry around how much wider the gap in student education would grow and the impact of our already entrenched housing crisis. The weight was unbearable. And yet, there was hope.

Other parts of the world encouraged us to remain steadfast in our lockdowns with tender songs and Facebook messages (like these). Healthcare workers determined to continue their efforts, even as depression spiked in the field. We found hope in these sparks. We found hope in their light. We had hope that we would be together again, hope that we would slow the rate of lost lives, hope that our young people would somehow thrive and grow and learn and hope that our elders would be safe.

We held tight, as a moratorium on evictions went out nationally, and as nonprofits, food shelves, and independent neighbors began providing food within communities that had lost their already limited access. Hope. Hope leads us to see abundance in crisis. Hope leads us to acknowledge our excess.

At Urban Homeworks, we slowed our development work, eventually bringing it to a halt as we responded to the immediate needs of our communities. And we looked to you, our donors and supporters, to stand with us with contributions as we shifted to that “innovative community development” that is responsive to community need because we have Hope that the human capacity to neighbor overcomes our capacity for avarice.

For many of us, the world ended again when we witnessed the torture and death – the public lynching – of George Floyd. Our breaths grew shallower as we tried to fathom the unnecessary and inhumane stealing of life amidst a year of already so much useless human loss. The year, once again, forced all of us to reckon with the impacts of systemic racism, injustice, and white supremacy. We were required to examine ourselves and the oppressions we have allowed to persist. And yet, we continued fighting for justice, fighting for the humanity of all people to be recognized because we held tight to Hope. A hope that the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech would finally ring true. A hope that our communities sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. A hope of Jubilee for all.

In 2020, we struggled and fought alongside those most impacted by system failure. We continue to fight so that survival will no longer be the baseline for anyone living in our Minneapolis and St. Paul communities. We fight because we believe, as Christ did, that each and every one of us was created to live a full life. A full life is a life that is valued enough to be protected and not targeted, no longer viewed as disposable chattel, but held up as worthy and deserving of love. At Urban Homeworks, we believe that means a life uplifted by a place to call home, nutritious food that nourishes our bodies, and quality education that nourishes our minds.

Some have balked at our determination to speak truthfully about the roots of systemic oppression – at our clear and defined use of the words white supremacy. As we continue into 2021, we commit to acknowledging the heinous truth of white supremacy at work in this country and our community, and to remain in the societal tensions that that truth inevitably bears. We are resolved because we know that if we do not speak truthfully, if we do not acknowledge the roots of housing injustice, the roots of poverty and disinvestment, the roots of crime and violence – nothing will change.

The path of justice has never been an easy road, but we fight on. For we all have a right to shalom, a right to thrive. There is abundance. There is enough.

Thank you to all of those who stood staunchly alongside us in 2020. To the residents and homebuyers, the volunteers, community organizers and partners, the funders, and supporters – thank you for standing with us in Hope.

In solidarity with gratitude and love,

AsaleSol

    June 15, 2021

    Celebrate Juneteeth!

    Juneteenth celebrates the emancipation of those who had been enslaved in the United States nearly 2 1/2 years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on June 19th, 1865. Check out the list of activities organized by the Minneapolis Parks & Recreation Board and Juneteenth Community Board commemorating Juneteenth:

    June 13-19: Juneteenth Story Strolls Story Strolls are a fun way to enjoy reading while spending time outdoors. Community members are invited to visit the park and walk the path as they read the book. This is a self-guided tour that families can enjoy at their leisure.

    Story Stroll signs will be up on a continuous basis for the week.

    “Black is a Rainbow Color” by Angela Joy
    Location: Trails near Theodore Wirth Beach area “Juneteenth for Mazie” by Floyd Cooper

    “Juneteenth for Mazie” by Floyd Cooper
    Location: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park “The Undefeated” by Kwame Alexander

    “The Undefeated” by Kwame Alexander
    Location: North Commons Park. Presented in collaboration with Hennepin County Library. 

    Presented in collaboration with Hennepin County Library

    June 15 (Dusk/9 pm):
    Drive-In Movie: “42”
    Location: Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board Headquarters
    Register Here

    June 17 (6-8 pm):
    Community Panel Discussion – Bridging the Gap Virtual

    June 18 (7-9 pm):
    Shingle Creek Juneteenth Family Night
    Location: Creekview Park
    – Announcement of Essay Contest Award Winner and Coloring Contest 
    – DJ music provided Djdime
    – A special announcement from General Granger 
    – Youth dance performance  Distribution of Juneteenth Activity Bags

    June 18 (Dusk/9 pm):
    Outdoor Movie: The Great Debaters
    Location: Creekview Park All June 18th activities presented in collaboration with Shingle Creek Neighborhood Association and Creekview Park. 

    June 19 (10 am -Noon):
    Community Panel Discussion – Public Safety: Where Do We Go From Now
    Virtual (1 pm – 3 pm)
    Music in the Park – DJ D.I.M.E., Jovonta Patton, Royal Family Music Group
    Flight for Freedom – Kite Flight
    Location: Bethune Park
    9 pm
    Outdoor Movie: Jumanji: The Next Level
    Location: Webber Park

    More ways to learn about Juneteenth:

    June 1, 2021

    People Oriented Development (POD Power)…

    The first quarter of 2021 pushed us into new places of growth and strength. While 2020 was a challenging year of reacting to traumatic and confusing events, 2021 has been a time to build on the relationships and trust deepened throughout such a difficult time.

    In this first quarter of 2021:

    • We hosted two virtual POD meetings with residents, with 23 residents attending (a POD is a group of UHW residents who live within two blocks or less of one another).
    • We distributed $250 to three PODs for February community-building activities.
    • Four of our residents attended a class hosted by our partner Hope Community to receive support in purchasing a duplex in the community.

    We also paid out $125,000 to 70 different Minneapolis residents to help with overdue rent and utilities because of COVID-19 losses. Out of those individuals:

    • 50% were UHW residents
    • 25% were residents of Al Maa’uun housing (a partner organization we collaborated with)
    • 25% were undocumented families who did not qualify for government assistance earlier in the pandemic

    We have begun training with 10 of our residents to better organize and leverage power within their community as we work together for equity and justice. The class was a part of the Virtual Housing Justice Forum hosted by Urban Homeworks in partnership with elected officials, community members, and partner organizations on May 20th over Zoom. Visit www.urbanhomeworks.org/hjf to see highlights from the forum.

    We’re grateful to directly hear the stories and see the impacts YOUR SUPPORT has in our community, like:

    • The person who tears up every time she recounts how UHW helped her after the Drake fire left her and her five kids homeless;
    • The family who, upon receiving their rent support check, invited us in and shared stories from the whole family about how COVID impacted them;
    • And all the families who are grateful to have a safe home for their children to study and do school work thanks to the support you and our partner NAZ (Northside Achievement Zone) provide.
    June 1, 2021

    A message from our Executive Director…

    Peace and Liberation Urban Homeworks Residents, Families, Donors, and Supporters!

    It has been two full months since I officially stepped into the role as Executive Director and seven months since accepting the post as Interim. Do I get less sleep these days? Absolutely. In the last two months, some of our residents started the Neighborhoods Now course through the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), while others concluded a homeownership course offered through our partners at Hope Community. We elected two board co-chairs – introductions coming soon. We closed on our office sale to Juxtaposition Arts to aid in their community art-space expansion. And in this first quarter, we saw our number of families enrolled in the Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) reach 25% – and we will not stop there! This quarter has been filled with opportunities for us to model our values – to model the core of our mission and vision. We have developed new partnerships and strengthened old ones. In quarter one, we asked ourselves what it truly means to Neighbor in times like these. Neighbor is one of our longstanding Core Values.

    To Neighbor means humbly accepting that there is ongoing work on oneself and a conscientious effort to do that work. It means stepping up and responding to the suffering of others with mutual aid and support. Step Up is seeing a need and acting, in partnership, alongside those who have that need. We believe in stepping up in ways that honor our communities, not silence or overshadow their voices with our own. We apply our Core Values internally and to the way we landlord our rental units, develop housing and people, and steward the communities that have trusted us to provide dignified, affordable housing for 26 years. As paired with our mission and vision, our values drive us to work on dignified, affordable housing while standing against all forms of racism and systemic oppression that our communities face daily. This is what it means to Step Up and Neighbor. As we work to increase the number of affordable rental opportunities across the city and make homeownership more accessible to those we currently rent to, we will continue to stand in solidarity with the marginalized and oppressed just as Jesus did when He walked this earth.

    Thank you to everyone who took a moment to celebrate us as we moved forward into the future with a renewed sense of purpose and passion. Thank you to our residents who continue to demonstrate belief in our work by sharing your stories and journeys with us. You show up and continue to build community regularly. We are inspired by and so grateful to you for your demonstration of grit and resolve. And thank you to those of you who signified your support with an increased donation in quarter one. We recognize the courage it takes to have your spending reflect your values. We get this done with each one of you. For change comes by us, together. Quarter two is already off to a promising start!

    Until next time – may we all continue to work for justice, may we all experience peace,

    AsaleSol Young,

    Executive Director

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