Two properties owned by Fine Associates are located in Ward 7. According to utility data provided by the City, the tax liens on these properties alone total more than $800 thousand. The landlord has a history of tax liens applied to its properties.

Minneapolis City Council Member Elizabeth Shaffer, who represents Ward 7, said she first heard the rumblings about the Fine Associates properties during her 2025 campaign. She heard from some of her associates who lived at 110 W Grant St., one of Fine Associates’ properties, about their many issues. Her office started hearing about the property consistently during metro surge and got in contact with the One Ten Grant Tenant Association, a tenant organization founded by residents in the building. “We were able to really connect with the leaders there,” she said.

Shaffer said she had heard about a large list of issues with the property in addition to the utilities and tried to get in contact with its landlord, Fine Associates, to have a meeting. The City’s Regulatory Services department had been trying to meet with Fine Associates and was eager to attend. No meeting ever materialized despite persistent efforts to hammer something out by Shaffer’s office, she said.

“The money that’s collected sustains our operations,” said Ali Salemohamed, an operations manager for the City’s utility billing department. “...to maintain the water quality and service and the distribution of sanitary sewer and maintenance.”

Salemohamed said applying tax liens is essentially the City’s only form of real leverage to force landlords to pay. He cited a decision by the City Council in 2020, shortly before the COVID lockdown, that ordered the utilities department to suspend shut-offs for residential properties despite non-payment. Because of this, properties like 110 W Grant St. were able to go without paying and had their debt eventually folded into a tax lien instead of being disconnected. “The only leverage we had to recover the charges was to do the [lien] assessments unless the customer decided to make a payment.”

“I think part of the problem here is just the multi-jurisdictional nature of enforcement at the city,” Shaffer said, “and for all of them to be on the same page takes a concerted effort.”

Shaffer said the City is considering some kind of potential action around the utility issue depending on the outcome of a lawsuit that was filed against Fine Associates by the One Ten Grant Tenant Association. In addition to utility concerns, the lawsuit alleges numerous unresolved maintenance issues, complaints and citations, as well as retaliation for organizing.

“It has the potential to make other landlords really step up and take notice,” said Council Aide Marty Carlson. “One Ten Grant is one of the buildings we’re probably hearing the most about in Ward 7, but we’ve been hearing about a number of other buildings, particularly in the Loring Park area. If this has a motivational or deterrent effect, that would be nothing but a good thing from my perspective.”

Shaffer said she doesn’t think it’s fair for landlords not to pay the bills. “If that’s not being flowed through right to the city who actually is providing the utilities, then what are they doing with that money?”

“It’s just weird, Carlson said. “We’re working to understand the psychology of this because it’s not just the water bills. If there’s some incentive built in to de-prioritize regardless of the consequences for tenants, it’s really troubling.”

Neither Fine Associates or One Ten Grant Tenant Association were reachable for comment.

One of these landlords, Fine Associates, owns several rental properties in Minneapolis. It currently owes more than $1 million in unpaid water, sewer and trash utilities to the City across its properties.

The building at 110 W Grant St. in Loring Park, owned by an LLC under the Fine Associates umbrella, is $363,641 in debt for past-due utilities. According to a spokesperson for the City, Minneapolis will be assessing the property for a tax lien later this year to be applied to its property taxes for 2026.

The City said that 110 W Grant St. has made two payments since August 2024, resulting in the total balance being folded into a lien for non-payment. This has happened before with this property. The City said they assessed a lien of about $262,000 in 2024 for a year of missed payments (The property generates an average of $20,000 each month in utilities.).

The data show another property of Fine Associates, 1314 Marquette Ave., has similarly had tax liens assessed or liens in-process in the amount of $505,199.61. Yet another property, 515 15th Ave. S, similarly owes $226,957, bringing the grand total north of $1 million.

Quadrel Realty Group, a private equity group out of Chicago that owns several properties in south Minneapolis, owes $198,867.60, mostly in the form of liens.

The Crossings Condominium building at 121 Washington Ave S owes $96,815.84 in the form of a lien to the City.

2800 Partners LLC, a small operation that owns 2800 and 2802 North Wayzata Blvd, owes $153,408.11, nearly the entire amount placed in a payment arrangement.

Mayor Jacob Frey stated in a press conference Wednesday that a projected $30 million budget shortfall will result in property tax hikes and about 100 jobs being cut.

Assuming an average wage of $100,000 per year for the total workforce employed by Minneapolis, 100 jobs at that salary would equal $10 million. However, when management roles are excluded, the average salary is much lower. Assuming an average wage of $60,000 per year for non-supervisory workers, 100 jobs at that salary would equal $6 million.

If the City were able to collect on the total past-due balance of $9,142,520.33 from July, Minneapolis would be in a better position to cover those salaries and keep 100 people employed.

If approved, the ordinance would give St. Paul tenants the right to make repairs or remedy their maintenance issues if the landlord fails to act within 14 days, and deduct costs totaling up to half of their rent or $500, whichever is greater, from their monthly bill.

Prior to voting against the initiative, Council President Rebecca Noecker, who had previously endorsed the petition, expressed concerns about “specific language” of the proposal that echoed the advisement by the City Attorney’s office. She said her concern was that the measure might pass but won’t be possible to implement or enforce. “Not to mention the legal risks that it sounds like we open ourselves up to.”

Cole Hanson, spokesperson for Safe Homes St. Paul, disagreed with the notion of a significant legal risk. “We worked with legal experts to make sure that it fit within the structures that we already have in St. Paul,” he said. “There was a very considered attempt by the attorney’s office to scare the council members away from doing this perfunctory step of just passing it on to the voters.”

Council Vice President Nelsie Yang, who endorsed and voted for the ordinance, pointed out that the language of the Safe Homes initiative and the ordinance recently passed in Duluth was almost exactly the same, and the voters of Duluth are satisfied with how it has turned out. She also raised concerns about the kind of precedent that denying the ballot initiative would set. “St. Paul Safe Homes has met the legal requirements to get this on the ballot.”

“It’s not just a matter of putting a ballot initiative on the ballot,” Council Member Cheniqua Johnson said, “It’ a matter of making sure what you’re putting on the ballot, if passes, can actually be enforceable as you intended.” She said that what works in Duluth doesn’t necessarily work in St. Paul.

Council Member HwaJeong Kim voiced her endorsement for the ordinance before voting for it, “Ushering in ballot initiatives and allowing the electorate to point the direction of our legislation is the foundation of our democracy.” Kim said she acknowledged the concerns raised to the council, but remained in favor of approving the ballot initiative. “There are ways that on the front end where we think the sky’s going to fall and in the end it ends up being ok. So, for me, this is a risk I’m ready to take on behalf of tenants in the city.”

The risks raised by Kao’s memo concerned the language that governs liability and proper regulatory permits that tenants are not capable of obtaining themselves, and this would suggest the tenant would not be required to obtain permits for necessary modifications or repairs to the existing structure, which would bypass regulations. Kao also pointed out that the City only has one building official who is already fielding multiple tasks.

“I don’t know if this is a crazy, out-there take,” Hanson said, “but I think the city should maintain sufficient numbers of inspectors to take care of properties and units in our city. We’ve seen in Duluth that this isn’t necessarily increasing the burden. If anything, landlords are just getting things fixed within 14 days. And that’s the goal of something like this, right? We don’t want tenants to have to use this. We don’t want tenants to have to use emergency ordinances or statutes to get their housing repaired or maintained.”

“Whoever is doing the work is liable for the damage,” Hanson said. “In the city of St. Paul if you’re touching the utilities, your mains, your water, your electrical, your gas, your hot air, there’s an entire regime of compliance and inspections around that. This does not skirt those. It just allows renters to engage with the system that already exists.”

“If it’s a state law problem, then why isn’t it a problem in Duluth?” St. Paul Tenant Union Member Robert Sherman said. “If your landlord doesn’t fix something within 14 days, you should be able to fix it yourself or pay somebody to do it and then get that money back. It’s just a fair deal.”

Sherman, a St. Paul resident, tenant organizer and founding member of the Hamline Pointe Neighbors Tenants Association, did his part in door-knocking for the Safe Homes campaign in his own complex. He said the council knew well ahead of time about the language and ramifications of the initiative, but then abruptly moved to block the measure. “At the last minute we’re told ‘Oh wait – sorry, we gotta kill this because the language is a little off.’” Sherman pointed out the several thousand signatures gained during the campaign and what this action has shown those who signed. “They’ve seen that the city is ready to just disregard what they have to say and throw all that work in the trash.”

“We played by the rules the entire time and stuck to the letter of the law to make sure that this would be something voters could decide,” Hanson said, “and to see that opportunity possibly taken away by the City Council on behalf of the fearmongering of the mayor is pretty disconcerting.” Safe Homes St. Paul suggested in a release that Mayor Kaohly Her has used the office of the City Attorney to convince the council to block the initiative and has done so to avoid lawsuits by the Minnesota Multi-housing Association, an organization that advocates for landlords in the multi-family housing industry.

“From my perspective, this is just the City saying we would rather face these community members who did the work and followed the rules and pulled together a petition than face the landlords,” Hanson said, noting the considerable lobby landlords present. “They’re showing their hand there, and I think that’s very disappointing. Landlords are able to get time with these council members that maybe your everyday tenant who’s working a nine-to-five, like myself, just probably can’t swing.”

Sherman said the landlord lobby is an undeniable presence in City politics. “You start to look at the broader system and be like, ‘When does procedure get used and why?” he said. “Because it feels like it gets used as a weapon to shut down things that help average people.”

“In physics they talk about dark matter; things we can’t observe directly, but we can deduce they’re there from the way other things get affected by it,” Sherman said. “It’s really weird for the city attorney to come out and kill a right-to-repair measure three days before the deadline, right? So, what is the unseen force here that is causing this to happen? Maybe it’s not landlords, maybe it’s a different group that doesn’t want tenants to have rights. We don’t know for sure, but we can make educated guesses and deductions based on what we see.”

UPDATE: A St. Paul Judge has overturned the Council’s decision Monday. Ramsey County District Judge Mark Ireland issued the order, stating that the initiative was not “manifestly unconstitutional,” which is one of the few instances where cities can overturn citizen proposals, and that the petition met all legal requirements to proceed. Ireland has ordered the initiative to be placed on the November 3 ballot.

My work has been mostly investigative, and I promise I will be doing shorter features and hard news soon. I have too many stories to do all at once and am looking for reporters to partner up with. My hope is to build a news organization that is driven by community donations alone. If you want to support my journalism, I appreciate anyone who can subscribe.

On top of my journalistic endeavors, I am an unpaid tenant organizer who spends most of his free time finding ways to help renters form unions and associations, and I’m in a lot of higher level groups giving advice derived from my experiences. In talking with those at the higher levels, I have found a multitude of long-time organizers who are dedicated to making it work.

I believe that large coalitions are forming, comprised of organizations dedicated to supporting tenants by educating them on their rights and helping them organize with the protections granted by law. I have talked to hundreds of renters who are unaware they can do anything to force their landlord to make repairs, or show their work on their bills or even to take care of emergencies immediately, not when it’s convenient for them.

Because of the work I have been doing, I discovered just how much corruption it’s reasonable to assume there is in this city, and how landlords seem to be in charge. I took it upon myself to finally use my journalism degree and get the news that no one else has the guts to report to the public. Stay tuned.

The only cure for corruption is daylight.

“We want to keep our housing public housing,’ said Kaaha Kaahiye, a resident of Glendale and an organizer with Defend Glendale, which was founded in 2014 to prevent the demolition of Glendale. “We want the same protections that public housing has.”

Defend Glendale voiced their opposition to MPHA’s plan to privatize public housing through the section 18 and Rental Assistance Demonstration programs. Section 18 and RAD were developed or modified by previous administrations, under Presidents Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Barack Obama. These programs are designed to provide a pathway to the conversion of section 9 public housing to section 8 privatized housing.

The conversions are appealing to investors because of the large amount of tax credits on offer from HUD for landlords who want to develop affordable housing. Investors can buy and sell these credits or use them to offset investment losses.

Due to a rule change at the end of 2024, public housing authorities are now able to convert more than 90 percent of their properties to section 8 through the section 18 and RAD blend. The two programs together qualify a larger amount of section 9 public housing properties for conversion than ever before.

Abdi Warsame, executive director and CEO of MPHA, said the lack of available funding for section 9 public housing drove the agency to pursue the privatization of properties because of the expanded subsidies and funding available for section 8. “The City of Minneapolis is not giving money to MPHA,” he said. “The state is not giving money to MPHA. And the money we give, we beg, we go and they give us very little.”

Noah Wexler, a volunteer academic researcher with Defend Glendale, disagreed with Warsame about state funding. Wexler noted that the Publicly Owned Housing Program, a program developed by the state legislature to provide funding specifically for public housing, was not taken full advantage of by MPHA. “POHP is a massive source of state funding,” he said. “It is a forgivable loan. This is literally free money. It can only be used for section 9 public housing, not for section 8.”

Warsame said the funds available through the POHP funding are insufficient to take care of MPHA’s $22 million capital backlog for repairs, renovations and upkeep. “We get 10 cents for every dollar we receive for our capital backlog,” he said.

Wexler said, “For every property you convert to section 8, you’re sacrificing the ability to use state funds. The point is that you have a tool at your disposal that can be used to rehabilitate section 9 housing and you’re shooting yourself in the foot.”

The data according to the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency show that out of the $107.65 million in funding gathered by the agency since 2020, MPHA only applied for $16.1 million. The total funding approved for the MPHA was $11.7 million. The MPHA did not request funding that was adequate enough to cover their $22 million backlog.

“We get more money on the section 8 platform because the section 8 platform has millions of landlords that benefit from it,” Warsame said. “And those landlords call their congressmen. So it always gets funded.”

Tracy Williams, a resident of Glendale, said, “They want investors to take this money so they can go section 8. This is what everyone is doing.”

With potential renovations comes potential displacement. Glendale residents voiced their concerns about the renovation options the MPHA is considering. The MPHA is deciding whether they will only renovate the property, renovate and add housing on available land, or demolish the entire community altogether and rebuild it into something modern.

“We opposed that from day one,” said an elder Oromo resident of 25 years through an interpreter, “and we will continue to oppose it. Even though we are very diverse and we come from different backgrounds, our families see one another as one family. You are displacing us. You are making us refugees again.”

“HUD does not track how many people come back from RAD conversions,” Kaahiye said. She cited a report by the Government Accountability Office that showed that HUD lacks the necessary procedures to track residents returning from RAD conversions. “Rad has shown that it doesn’t work. We say let’s find a different option. This is not what Glendale residents want.”

Marcus Jacocks, a 5-year resident, was homeless before being placed in Glendale. On the streets he faced violence and racism. After moving to Glendale, he finally felt at ease. “I love this area,” he said, “and I feel safe here.”

Jacocks was placed in a one-bedroom apartment and lived there for years until the day a roofing crew had an accident and a man nearly fell through his bedroom ceiling, poking a foot through. Jacocks said he was then moved to a two-bedroom temporarily while his unit was fixed. When the repairs were finally done, the new property manager moved a tenant into his old unit. Jacocks was then told that he didn’t fit the occupancy for the two-bedroom he was assigned. Through no fault of his own, Jacocks is now being moved into a tower and being forced to leave the one place he has felt safe in years.

“I am being relocated but I have one option,” Jacocks said. “If I don’t take that option, they boot me off the list. From clearly seeing the demolition of affordable housing in quite a few cities, these people don’t return. They just don’t return.”

Ladan Yusuf, founding member of Defend Glendale, said Glendale is keeping the vacant units on the property unoccupied. The property manager informed her they aren’t moving anybody in. One of the available one-bedrooms could accommodate Jacocks, but he is not being relocated there. “Marcus should be in Glendale but they’re going to push him out,” she said. “They’re evicting him now on a policy that is so outrageous. What they want to do, no matter the cost, is move us out.”

Christy Jackson, a 17-year resident of a section 9 unit converted to section 8, faced multiple eviction notices after being severely injured in a car accident and after suffering the loss of her brother in April. She said the MPHA repeatedly requested her to come in and speak with them despite her injuries. Her rent went up and fees were added with no explanation. Jackson said her rent increased from $600 to $2400 per month after MPHA pulled her subsidy. She said she had the choice to sign the new lease or face eviction. Despite being in contact with staff within the MPHA to appeal her case, nothing has been done.

“Over the last 17 years I have experienced what it feels like to be ignored,” Jackson said. She listed multiple repairs that went unfixed for years, and when staff finally addressed her problems the work was substandard. “The things that should have been repaired properly were covered up, nailed down, or painted over. I deserve a home that is safe, healthy and properly maintained.”

Yusuf said Glendale has no shortage of vacant homes, and they continue to be unoccupied despite a waiting list so long it can take years to be placed. “Why have you not filled these homes when there’s a long waiting list?” she said.

MPHA Director of Planning and Development Laura Dykema said, “That is because we are holding units vacant to be able to accommodate as much on-site relocation for existing residents once we do advance a project.”. When asked whether the MPHA had secured funding for the project, Dykema admitted they had not.

Because of the vacancies, Williams wanted her and her son, who had just turned 18 and had become eligible for housing of his own, to move into separate one-bedroom units. The manager explained that it couldn’t happen. “They told us they couldn’t do that until after they decide what they’re going to do.”

“I want accountability and change,” Jackson said. “And I want Minneapolis Housing [MPHA] to listen to its residents, communicate honestly, respond to concerns in a timely manner and treat every resident with fairness and respect.”

“After 17 years I believe that myself and hundreds of others deserve a stronger voice in the decisions that affect our homes and our lives,” Jackson said.

Dick Kain, a Prospect Park resident, shared the same concern for his neighbors. “This meeting has sounded to me like we’re fighting a monolith,” he said. “We don’t know who they report to, and who we can complain to about them. Somebody should be holding them accountable.”

Many left the meeting with more questions than answers. “There’s nobody moving in,” Jacocks said. “And there’s too many families that have to go. And there ain’t no money on the table. What is going on?”