Author: Christopher J. Valentino
HavenBrook tenants and activists staged a rally outside the New Brighton office of property manager Progress Residential on June 17, 2022 to call on the company to address longstanding health and safety concerns with the homes they rent. Photo by Max Nesterak/minnesotadigest.com. Tenants of HavenBrook Homes, one of the largest private landlords in Minnesota, held a rally outside the property management’s office on Friday in New Brighton, where they tried to meet with the company’s local staff. Renters marched into the office of Progress Residential, the new property management company for HavenBrook, and asked to speak with management and deliver…
Tiki Cross speaks at a news conference in front of his home in north Minneapolis on May 19, 2022. He says his landlord, HavenBrook Homes, has done little to address health and safety issues including a rat infestation. Photo by Max Nesterak/minnesotadigest.com. Families renting from one of the state’s largest private landlords, HavenBrook Homes, have started putting their rent in escrow in an attempt to force the company to address numerous health and safety issues in their homes in north Minneapolis. Tenants of HavenBrook, which is owned by New York-based hedge fund Pretium Partners, say the company has failed to…
Getty Images.Minnesota homeowners hurt financially by the pandemic can now apply for up to $35,000 in assistance for mortgage payments and other housing-related expenses through a new state program called HomeHelpMN. The program is funded with $109 million from the federal government through the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Minnesota Housing Commissioner Jennifer Ho announced the program’s launch on Tuesday, urging people to sign up as soon as possible. “This is not a program for procrastinators,” Ho said. “The time to apply is now.” How to apply: Online at: homehelpmn.org By phone: 1-800-388-3226 Ho estimates as many as 25,000…
The sun sets on a neighborhood of mobile homes in Arvada, Colorado, March 15, 2020. Photo by Moe Clark/Colorado Newsline.WASHINGTON — Jon Zang walks his dog several times a day in his mobile home community in West Goshen Township, Pennsylvania. It’s quiet, as most of his neighbors are at work. But he often wonders how many more walks he and his bulldog mix, Ladybug, will have down the streets of the place he’s called home for 21 years. “We’re literally sitting on a time bomb that we’re sure is going to go off at some point, but we don’t know…
Hundreds of workers voted to strike on April 3, 2022, at the St. Cloud New Flyer plant, which produces buses for transit agencies across the country. Photo courtesy of Metro Transit. Ninety-seven percent of workers at the New Flyer bus manufacturing plant in St. Cloud voted to authorize a strike on Sunday and say they’ll walk off the job if the company doesn’t meet their demands for higher pay, sick time, paid religious holidays and limits on mandatory overtime. The workers have not said when they might start a strike, which threatens to disrupt shipments of electric, diesel and hybrid…