Anti-Displacement Efforts
Maximizing benefits to community, preventing displacement
The METRO Blue Line Extension creates exciting opportunities to advance community visions for investment and economic development that can help residents and businesses build wealth in place and improve quality of life. Major infrastructure investments can also raise concerns about displacement of residents and businesses. Project partners hear these concerns and take them seriously. We are committed to working together with communities to maximize benefits that transit can bring.
These are critical and complex issues that require a wide variety of partners coming together in good faith to think creatively. Work is already underway to identify existing resources and tools that can support businesses and residents today. Stakeholders and partners will also work over the coming months to identify additional needs and gaps, and implement strategies that support equitable development, community wealth-building and address market pressures that can lead to displacement.
Anti-displacement efforts
An Anti-Displacement Work Group is led by the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) in partnership with Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Council. The work group's 26 members include residents and business owners in the area, people with lived experience of displacement, and people from the philanthropic community and government agencies.
CURA began seeking input on the development of the workgroup in Fall 2021. The application period opened in December and was promoted widely to corridor communities. More than 60 applicants were interviewed before final selections were made by a committee that included CURA and project staff, as well as corridor community and business representatives.
In addition to monthly public meetings, the work group hosted four day-long workshops between May 2022 and February 2023. Each workshop focused on a single topic or activity:
- Lessons from the existing Blue and Green Line projects
- Housing and cultural displacement
- Business displacement
- Finalizing recommendations
Review workshop materials
Give feedback on the Anti-Displacement Report
After meeting for more than a year, the Anti-Displacement Work Group published their recommendations in May 2023 for public review. The recommendations are focused on outcomes, and themes include:
- Transparency and accountability
- Community ownership and empowerment in decision-making
- Protecting and enhancing the rich culture of the corridor
- Supporting residents and business owners to stay in place along the corridor