Renters' Rights Forum and a School-Safety Panel Anchor Spring Community Conversations

The renters'-rights forum, hosted by Council Member Elizabeth Shaffer's Ward 7 office, ran Saturday, March 28, from 4 to 5 p.m. in Koinonia Hall at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church, 511 Groveland Avenue. It had been pushed from a mid-March date because of weather. City staff walked attendees through how to report maintenance problems, how inspection and violation procedures work, and what protections tenants hold under Minnesota law, which requires landlords to maintain habitable conditions, including adequate heat. Tenants-union and Legal Aid representatives also took part.

The timing tracked the council's spring agenda, which has run heavily to housing, from the $2.8 million in emergency rental assistance approved this spring to a vetoed ordinance that would have lengthened the notice landlords must give before filing an eviction.

Earlier in the month, the office helped convene a regional school-safety panel on March 5 at the Justice Page Middle School auditorium. The discussion featured Tony Montalto of Stand With Parkland, founded by families of victims of the 2018 Parkland, Florida, shooting; a researcher from the Violence Prevention Project, the Hamline University-based center co-founded by Jillian Peterson and James Densley whose database of mass-shooting life histories is among the most cited in the field; and Leah Kaiser of Hennepin County, with the county sheriff also taking part. KARE 11's Karla Hult moderated.

The series has continued month to month, including a May session at City Hall built around a tour of the renovated council chambers and a walk-through of the legislative process with the city clerk. Recordings of past conversations have been posted online for residents who cannot attend in person.

Neighborhood associations remain the most reliable way to get an early hearing on a local issue. LHENA in the Wedge, the Kenwood and East Isles groups, and the Bryn Mawr and Cedar-Isles-Dean organizations all hold regular meetings open to residents, and are often the first to learn of a proposed development, street project or zoning change.