Civil rights group demands action over poor conditions at Minneapolis housing complex
Dangerous living conditions are leading to demands that a public housing leader in Minneapolis be fired.
At Heritage Park in the Near North neighborhood, boarded windows, broken balconies and cracked foundation provide clues to a hazardous situation indoors. Minneapolis City Councilmember Pearll Warren recorded a video last week in which she toured apartment units covered in mold and crumbling from within. Her narration was a poetic plea for change.
"In nearly 200 units offline, empty, uninhabitable, 200 opportunities lost, 200 doors closed, 200 reminders that that neglect is not is not an accident, it's a choice," Warren said.
WCCO saw one of the units up close through a window. Resident Eddie Robinson said it was promised to him by management after his apartment was damaged in a flood.
"They were supposed to repair this for us to move into," he said. Almost two years later, nothing has changed. Mold still coats the walls along with holes in the ceiling. Meanwhile, he said the building housing his current apartment has a problem. When asked how he's handling the delays with management, Robinson said, "Right now, we in court."
The Minneapolis NAACP is outraged by what Warren discovered. It held a press conference Thursday demanding that Abdi Warsame, the executive director of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA), be fired.
"It is horrific and nobody should be living like that," said NAACP President Cynthia Wilson.
The organization also wants an independent investigation into why Heritage Park was neglected, a review of maintenance records and an inspection of all public housing in the city.
The MPHA responded to NAACP's demands, saying in part, "It is unfortunate that the local chapter of such a storied organization has rushed to judgement without first collecting basic facts."
The MPHA owns the land where Heritage Park was built, but McCormack Baron Salazar owns the property, along with having full control and authority to make improvements.
"MPHA's primary responsibility in the project was to send McCormack Baron Salazar HUD-calculated operating funding for 200 units designated public housing that the owner, McCormack Baron Salazar, operated," the MPHA said in a statement.
From 2022 to 2024, the MPHA invested $3.3 million into Heritage Park for improvements, but the problems persisted. In late 2025, a Hennepin County court removed Salazar from operational control and appointed Certus Financial as a third-party receiver.
Since then, the MPHA has raised another $5.1 million for repairs at Heritage. It said it continues to work with Certus Financial "to coordinate repairs and lease up the remaining unoccupied public housing units."
Since December, the MPHA said 165 new furnaces have been installed.
Heritage Park opened in 2006. Of its 440 units, 200 are public housing. The MPHA said it loaned $27.3 million to finance part of the property's construction along with funding from the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota Housing, Family Housing Fund and more organizations. The MPHA said about 220 units sit vacant as of April.
In her video, Warren said Heritage was supposed to be a turning point for the community.
"For a moment, a community dared to believe because the promise was not just brick and mortar, it was not just roofs and roads. The promise was dignity. The promise was safety. The promise was the children born on the North Side would inherit possibility instead of neglect," she said. "This is why we must ask the question: Who is responsible for the needed repairs?"
