One Piece of Good News

After five solid years of organizing and struggle, the poor and working-class renters in a group of apartment buildings in South Minneapolis will be able to buy their buildings from their slumlord. They'll convert the buildings to a co-op called Sky Without Limits, working with the Land Bank Twin Cities, city of Minneapolis, and Share Capital Co-op to finance it.

But the organization that started it all, and which doesn't get anywhere near enough credit in the coverage of all of this, is United Renters For Justice/Inquilinxs Unidxs Por Justicia. They did the organizing, day in and day out, with and of the people who live in the five buildings (while they also worked with tenants in other buildings throughout Minneapolis for fair treatment in housing).

The landlord in the case, Stephen Frenz, is an anti-paragon: banned from renting property in the city of Minneapolis, convicted of perjury, fined by the courts, and found guilty in a class-action suit. And yet he still wouldn't sell the damned buildings to the tenants even for the $7 million dollars they were offering.

He's a spiteful SOB and I hope he chokes on his millions. But at least they have their homes.

Some parts of this post are based on this Star Tribune story ... others from my knowledge of this case as it unfolded over the years.