In a multi-year fight covered by sources such as The New York Times, a group of tenants organized against one of the most powerful landlords in Minneapolis. They bought their buildings with the collaboration of Land Bank Twin Cities, forming the Sky Without Limits Cooperative (SWL). SWL exists 3 blocks from the burned police precinct where members are confronting the gentrification of South Minneapolis.

The cooperative is building a community based on the principles of autonomy, justice and dignity within a fair and democratic process. Members are creating committees to ensure financial development and control of their community.

We are also raising $2 million to buy back properties from the Land Bank Twin Cities so tenants can have true community autonomy. Your donation to the Sky Without Limits Cooperative will bring us one step closer to that goal. 

For the past 3 years, Progress Residential tenants in North Minneapolis have organized for safe and dignified housing. Tenants describe consistent rent increases and fees, mold, lack of communication, going weeks without heat, pest infestations, and such deplorable conditions that they had to send their children to live with relatives or friends. In 2022, Attorney General Keith Ellison sued HavenBrook Homes LLC, which is now called Progress Residential. 

North Minneapolis, a largely working-class Black community, has suffered decades of often intentional neglect by the city, including redlining, racial covenants, and industrial pollution. In an area where national investors have increased the largest Black-White homeownership gap since before the Civil Rights Era, money that could have gone into housing stability and community control is leaving North Minneapolis. Instead of being able to own their homes, tenants pay rent without building generational wealth. 

Yet because of their organizing efforts, tenants have won monetary compensation, a one-year rent freeze, repairs, the power to choose how and where to receive utilities, and the opportunity to move into renovated Progress Residential homes. The City of Minneapolis even passed a list of agreements that the landlord managed by Progress Residential signed in order to operate in the City of Minneapolis.

While tenants are experiencing clear successes in light of their collective efforts, they continue organizing toward a broader systemic vision of saving the village, where they have a permanent say in their housing, community, neighborhood, and wellbeing.  

A community researcher recently tracked down Minneapolis homes that Progress Residential has likely put up for sale. Please contact us if your house is one of these properties or call us at 612-605-1888.

The housing crisis in South Minneapolis has led to landlords exploiting workers, immigrants, and people of color with increasing rents and fees. In 2018, tenant leaders from past IX campaigns joined together, raised their voices, and organized to create the Tenant Unions campaign.

The Tenant Unions campaign educates tenants on how to lead and organize within their buildings. Tenants have changed the collective conversation about what it means to rent within and outside Minneapolis. They’ve created a joint vision where Minneapolis is a pro-tenant city with a safe and accessible housing system. They testify, engage in electoral work, connect with the press, and collaboratively create pro-tenant policies. Most importantly, by learning about their rights, members of the campaign transform their vision and understanding of what it means to be a tenant.