Controversial plan for neighborhood funding is open for public comment

NCR director David Rubedor (right) and CURA’s C. Terrence Anderson give an overview of the future of neighborhood organization funding at a community forum on March 9. It was one of two public meetings the city is holding to collect public comment on the Neighborhoods 2020 draft plan. The second meeting will be held via Skype on April 2. Photo by Kenzie O’Keefe

By Kenzie O'Keefe Editor

On paper, it looks like funding for some North Minneapolis neighborhood organizations will drop dramatically and others will increase marginally by 2023.

The city’s new Neighborhoods 2020 plan puts forth four new paths for neighborhood organizations to receive city money at funding levels set by a previous source, the Community Participation Program. The CPP will wind down this year.

Beginning in 2021, the plan proposes reducing base funding for the independent nonprofits from $25K to $10K by 2023. The pool of base funding is being called the “Citywide Neighborhood Network Fund.”

Less base funding is necessary in order to enhance racial equity in the city without increasing the $4.1 million overall budget for neighborhood organizations, according to city officials and the U of M’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), which has been contracted to assist with the process.

Last year, the city council directed their neighborhood and community relations department (NCR) and CURA to come up with a new structure for neighborhood engagement and funding for neighborhood organizations that prioritizes equity and an unchanged budget. The council also required 25% of Neighborhoods 2020 funding to be earmarked for partnerships with community-based organizations "to broaden the participation and improve outcomes for BIPOC and renters in the city in the context of neighborhood level work," said CURA's C. Terrence Anderson.

Many of the city’s 70 neighborhood organizations see the funding drop as a threat to their survival.

Victoria Balko has been the executive director of Victory Neighborhood since November 2019. Victory, along with Cleveland and Shingle Creek, stand to see the largest reductions in funding on the Northside. “It’s a drastic shift, what they’re talking about. Our board is trying to take in what this all means,” she said. “I’m worried for the future of the organization.”

The Shingle Creek Neighborhood Association (SCNA) will see a drop from $48,166 in funding to $12,830 by 2023.

“Our board is made up of volunteers who lead full lives and have other work and family commitments. We have–and need–a paid part time staff to handle administrative work, as well as, leasing office space to house the association's business. The proposed base funding for neighborhood associations will not cover this expense,” wrote the SCNA in a prepared statement emailed to North News on March 13.

NCR Director David Rubedor is sympathetic to concerns but says his department is in tricky position. “There’s not enough money here to fully fund everybody. It’s just not going to happen,” he said.

“The amount allocated to the overall program was decided by the city council and the city council are the only folks that can change that,” said Anderson.

In addition to base funding, the Neighborhoods 2020 plan outlines three additional funding sources neighborhoods will be able to access.

The “Equitable Engagement Fund” will support the engagement of “historically underrepresented or under-engaged residents meaningfully and effectively in decision making at the local level.” Those residents include black, indigenous, and other people of color along with renters, low income people, the elderly, folks with disabilities, and others the city says it hopes to collaboratively identify with neighborhoods.

Anderson says that for neighborhoods already doing this work: “it’s not going to be a big change for them.” For those who are not, “this is the carrot for them” to begin doing it.

The “Partnership Engagement Fund” incentivizes neighborhood organizations to collaborate with community-based organizations by offering competitive grant funds, up to $150,000 per project, to neighborhood organization and CBO groups who submit project ideas together.

Arthur Himmelman, who attended a public informational meeting about the draft plan at UROC on March 9, is skeptical of this piece. “You’ve created a competitive grant program for neighborhoods to work together,” he said.

Lastly, the “Collaboration and Shared Resources Fund” encourages neighborhood organizations to consolidate and share resources by offering three years of funding at $15K for two neighborhoods who want to join forces and $20K for three to do so. 

The city will accept public comments on the Neighborhoods 2020 program guidelines until July 15. This is a 90-day extension from the original deadline, which was pushed because of COVID-19. The guidelines are now expected to go before the city council for a vote by mid-August.

A public meeting about the plan will be held via Skype in April 2 at 6pm. The city will send out notifications through its gov delivery, email, social media, and will have information posted atminneapolismn.gov/ncr.