By LINDSEY FENNER
Phillips West and Ventura Village residents will soon need to elect a new City Council representative. Ward 6 Minneapolis City Council Member Abdi Warsame is leaving the City Council to lead the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA), pending City Council approval.
Warsame will be heading MPHA in a time of controversy and crisis. As Minneapolis is in the midst of an affordable housing crisis, the recent deaths of five residents in a fire at a MPHA high-rise building in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood and the planned implementation of several Trump Administration-backed housing programs, considered by many housing advocates as a step towards dismantling and privatizing public housing, have put more attention on MPHA.
Warsame, elected in 2013, was the first Somali-American elected to the Minneapolis City Council. Prior to serving on the City Council, Warsame lead efforts to redistrict Minneapolis”™ political Ward and Precinct boundaries, and was the Executive Director of the Riverside Plaza Tenants Association. Besides Phillips West and Ventura Village, Ward 6 also includes parts of the Stevens Square, Elliot Park, Cedar Riverside, and Seward Neighborhoods. The Minneapolis City Council will be calling for a special election to fill the vacancy.
And don’t forget his work on CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) that got a number of young Somali entrapped by the Feds.