MINNEAPOLIS — Around 200 people met at Sabathani Community Center on Tuesday to hear the GroundBreak Coalition announce that $926.75 million will be invested into "wealth-building opportunities" for Black communities in the Twin Cities.
GroundBreak was formed following George Floyd's murder, which occurred just a few blocks away from the south Minneapolis center, Sabathani, on East 38th Street.
The coalition says it was in May of 2022 when more than 170 people from 120 organizations first met to try to figure out how to close racial wealth gaps in both Minneapolis and St. Paul. They continued to meet for six months, identifying financial tools and products to benefit "Black wealth builders who face some of the starkest wealth disparities."
Today, more than 40 private, public and philanthropic organizations comprise GroundBreak, including the McKnight Foundation.
"We tried to address the history of predatory lending practices and loan denials," its president, Tonya Allen, said.
Within the coalition, 10 institutions have committed to set aside the nearly $1 billion. According to a press release, they are: Bremer Bank, Bush Foundation, GHR Foundation, Huntington Bank, M.A. Mortenson Companies Inc., Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies, McKnight Foundation, Pohlad Foundation, Securian Financial and U.S. Bank.
The money will be deployed through selected nonprofits and community development financial institutions, and is expected to begin at the end of 2024.
During the announcement event, Allen acknowledged that financial aid is needed across many communities, including low-income white families, but says this commitment will first go toward helping aspiring homeowners, entrepreneurs and commercial developers who are Black.
"Why we chose to start with Black people in this particular effort is because we knew, we know, that when we start these things and we say 'everyone,' what ends up happening is that it supports and figures out a way to help everybody advance except for Black people and indigenous people - like, that's what ends up happening, that the solutions don't actually meet their unique particular needs," she said. "And of course we're going to have to do some extra work as we start to evolve the practice for indigenous families, which have a very different complex set of situations."
"We know that race has been used to exclude people for hundreds of years and that race has to be used to include people now," added Susan Bass Roberts, vice president and executive director of the Pohlad Foundation.
GroundBreak says the wealth-building opportunities include offering Black homebuyers up to $50,000 in half-forgivable loans as well as capital for emergencies like a furnace breaking down in winter. For businesses, the coalition says it's combining different types of capital to make more financing available. The coalition is also exploring affordable rental housing opportunities for potential developers.
It's all part of the group's larger goal to invest $5.3 billion over the next decade, and it comes after state lawmakers this year approved putting $1.3 billion into the housing sector.
"Approximately $175 million in state funding for first-generation homebuyers along with Minnesota Housing mortgage lending can be harnessed to advanced GroundBreak's goals," its press release says.
Gov. Tim Walz stopped by the event as well as former Minneapolis mayor R. T. Rybak and former St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman.
"What you're doing here is truly transformational," the governor said to the crowd. "As the world watched as George Floyd laid on that street, that incident started many years before …and if we are serious about it, we're going to tackle it like you're doing."
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