Alliance for Metropolitan Stability

“The board's executive committee reviews the form 990 for approval. Once approved, the 990 is signed and submitted.”

“Each year, board members are required to fill out the conflict of interest forms. Key staff members in positions of making spending or contracting decisions also fill them out. The staff collects the forms and keeps them on file at the direction of the executive committee of the board.”

“The executive committee of the board oversees the annual review of the executive director and asks all staff, board members and key coalition member representatives and allied organization representatives to fill out an evaluation form. The executive committee then meets with the director to discuss the collective evaluation form, compares the executive director's performance with annual work plan goal and outcomes, sets new goals and work plan outcomes for the coming year, and makes decisions on compensation and salary adjustments.”

“The executive director supervises the associate director and performs a similar evaluation of her efforts and makes decisions about her compensation and salary adjustments.”

“The organization makes its governing documents, conflict of interest policy and audited financial statements available to the public upon request.”

“The alliance for metropolitan stability is a coalition of advocacy and community organizing groups formed in 1994. We work together to advance racial, economic and environmental justice in urban growth and development in the twin cities region. The twin cities region is rich with resources. We want all people to be able to access them, and we believe everyone in our region will benefit when all communities have access to opportunity. We believe the people and places of our region are deeply connected and interdependent. We work to ensure that our regional investments like housing, transit and economic development benefit everyone - especially low-wealth communities and communities of color, people who are often left behind when resources are allocated. These communities have been historically excluded from land-use and project decision making tables, and we are working with public sector leaders to change that. The alliance brings grassroots organizations together to build more power and create a region that allows everyone in the twin cities region to thrive. In addition, we play a broader role in the regional landscape of advocacy and community-based groups by offering activities that help build the capacity of individuals and organizations that work for regional equity. For example, in 2017 we: o shared learning: convened monthly organizer roundtable forums that offered shared learning and cross-sector networking opportunities - over 300 community residents, leaders and staff attended these lively forums. O communicating best practices: produced a bi-weekly e-newsletter, the link, and published semi-annual print newsletters that offer the latest information and analysis on racial, environmental and economic equity issues. O building the field: prompted by the alliance, local funders supported building the capacity of a twin cities delegation to attend policylink's national equity summit, a process that we organized and administered. We increased the capacity of two dozen delegates who needed assistance to attend, partnered for the first time with the met council (who brought three dozen staff members to the conference) to engage delegates before/during/after the conference, and attracted more than 170 attendees from minnesota. Alliance staff presented at the summit on "race and disaggregating data,- and were invited upon return to minnesota to give the presentation to the minneapolis civil rights department. O capacity building & shared learning opportunities: the alliance secured 40,000 in foundation support to help organize and build the capacity for a delegation from minnesota to attend the national equity summit 2018 in chicago. Stipends were awarded to 49 people (113 applications were received) which will help build a broad base of conference participants from community and governmental agencies. This is part of a larger strategy to encourage government entities to coordinate, network and collaborate with grassroots community-based organizations to explore equitable development practices and build more authentic partnerships at the regional and local level.”

“The alliance is a coalition of community-based organizations and advocacy groups building shared power to advance strategic campaigns around the intersections of racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice, and health equity. Our mission is to advance justice and equity in economic growth and land development in the twin cities region. In 1994, a handful of activists formed the alliance with a bold vision: uniting across issues and geographies to advocate for smarter growth and social justice in the twin cities region. Over the past 25 years, the alliance evolved to center a race equity analysis, cultivated deep relationships with community-based organizations across issues and geographies, and co-created campaigns and coalitions that have made significant progress in addressing structural racism and centering black, indigenous and people of color (bipoc) communities' visions and values in housing, economic and workforce development, transportation, land use, and other critical regional issues. Today, the alliance has 33 member organizations and we build coalitions that engage dozens of other allied organizations in advancing our shared vision for an equitable region through: coalition organizing: we organize coalitions that cross the boundaries of race, culture, geography and issues to advance equity and justice. Community engagement: we ensure that low-wealth and bipoc communities are engaged in the public decision-making processes that shape policies and systems. Strategic systems navigation: we provide technical expertise, analysis and strategy development to support leaders in navigating complex institutions and systems. Field building: we build the capacity of organizations to organize for equitable growth and development, and to see the connections between local and regional issues. As coalition organizers, dealing with complexities and intersecting agendas is second nature for the alliance. We are adept at ensuring that the needs of community-based organizations are not lost amidst the priorities of larger regional advocacy organizations. The collective efforts of so many groups ignites new pathways for equitable policies and practices at a time when our communities are earnestly searching for new, transformative approaches to seemingly intractable problems. The program areas we work in include: 1. Affordable housing: we work with local coalitions to secure new commitments at high-priority sites and we lead efforts to ensure that our region maximizes opportunities for affordable housing and economic inclusion. Highlights from 2019 include: make homes happen: successfully advocated for more than 40 million for minneapolis' affordable housing trust fund in its 2019-2020 budget and for an inclusionary zoning policy. Ford site: master development agreement for the massive ford site redevelopment in st. Paul was finalized with substantive affordable housing commitments remaining in place. Tcaap site: worked with community partners to encourage ramsey county to ensure that this major development is leveraged as an opportunity to meet the city of arden hills' affordable housing commitments. Equitable development principles & scorecard: the alliance and partners created and advocate for adoption of the equitable development principles & scorecard, which is a concrete tool multi-sector networks are using to ensure that the principles and practices of economic justice, livability, equity and affordability are available to all residents. We have developed and maintained a large cross-sector community of practice to advance this work.”

“2. Hire minnesota: the alliance provides core staff and strategy support to hire minnesota, a campaign to end employment disparities in minnesota through advocacy and public sector adoption of race-conscious tools. Our work responds to lifts people out of poverty by advancing culture, policy and practice shifts that undue decades of economic exclusion in key industries. State road construction: after years of work with the minnesota department of transportation, we are starting to see change become institutionalized. As of the end of 2019, mndot was achieving workforce participation of 21 percent for people of color in the metro area which is the highest percent workforce hours completed by people of color in mndot's history. While the agency is still well short of goals, we have made progress again this year. We are also working toward improving retention of women and people of color in the industry with a worksite cooperation initiative involving contractors' hr representatives, workers, the agency, and unions. While placing people in jobs is important, keeping them in them and on a career ladder is another part of solving our employment disparities. 35w rebuild: we placed particular emphasis on this mndot project because of its scale and potential impact. As of the end of 2019, this multi-year construction project is 65 percent complete and people of color worked 29 percent of the total project hours. The 35w project is a significant part of mndot's overall improvement, as it is performing 8 percentage points above mndot best overall performance in history. We estimate 6 million in earnings for people of color on this project so far. Minneapolis road construction: as of late 2019, data on minneapolis road construction projects with workforce inclusion goals (those valued at 100,000 or more) demonstrates that overall people of color worked 23 percent of the hours, earning an estimated 3.7 million in wages. This represents an increase of 2.5 million in estimated wages over the previous year.”

“3. Equity in place: the alliance has convened the equity in place coalition for years, ensuring that bipoc communities are at the center of the regional conversation on gentrification and displacement. We bring public sector and community based partners together around the understanding that people should be able to stay in their communities and thrive, and that new development must reflect the needs and desires of residents. Our priorities include: qualified action plans: we are working with mn housing to reform its qualified action plan (qap), which is the agency's plan for distributing low-income housing tax credits. We're advocating for a new scoring rubric that will provide incentives to invest in affordable housing in historically marginalized communities and changes that will provide incentives for deeper and longer-term affordability, support tenant ownership, and prohibit developers who have a track record of fair housing abuses from receiving funding. Citywide policy change: equity in place was instrumental in passing a package of tenant protections in minneapolis late in 2019. We set the stage for further progress by educating decision-makers about critically needed policy solutions such as tenant opportunity to purchase, rent stabilization, and rent/mortgage moratoriums. We also participated in the anti-displacement policy network, convened by the national organization policylink with other regions across the country, which brought together community organizers, elected officials, and city staff to devise solutions to displacement pressures in minneapolis and st. Paul. Fair housing: eip members conducted community engagement around fair housing issues with hundreds of renter households throughout the region. We identified a number of longstanding, pervasive and urgent housing challenges facing low-wealth people and people of color in communities around the twin cities region, including lack of affordable housing, limited access to rental subsidies, widespread evictions and displacement, tenant abuse, lack of maintenance, and gaps in accessible information. We developed a robust policy agenda to respond to these findings and continue to educate policymakers about the needs in our communities and advocate for specific changes that can advance housing justice.”

“All other programs. These programs are funded largely by contributions from individuals, local and national foundations.”

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