Last Friday, after months of requests, Mayor Frey finally agreed to a virtual sit down with us and some parents about the city’s program, Stable Homes Stable Schools (SHSS).
Our hope for meeting with the mayor was to stress the importance of including all families and students in the city’s plan for stable housing not just families within MPS—so we’re talking charter school families, home schoolers and those families who are not enrolled in the district but homeless.
I’m sure you’re not surprised to hear the mayor was “nice” about it all. You know that “Minnesota nice” we’re famous for. He smiled, he was cordial, he listened—but you know at the end of the day it wasn’t enough, it’s never been enough really.
He told us things like he would love to expand the program and include all families, but you know it’s a “staffing issue.” “We don’t want to expand too fast.” Right now the program has been using school social workers to manage the intake process of families…so you can imagine the potential for exclusion by not including partners outside of MPS to guide this intake process.
I don’t know about you all but we’re tired of this “Minnesota nice” and being the casualty of delayed progress. I mean really, if not now, then when? In the three since SHSS launched there are still families waiting to get access to homes.
We don’t a need a “nice” mayor, we need a mayor who is passionate about all families in Minnesota having access to stable homes and schools and takes that conviction and turns it into action. So, our meeting with the mayor was “nice” but enough.
If you haven’t already, add your name to our petition to the mayor and let him know this is another issue that just can’t wait.
Adriana has been a community activist and organizer advocating for policies to protect and include marginalized communities. She cofounded the UnidosNow.org and co-established the Future Leaders Academy for Youth. In 2017, she introduced the Sanctuary Now platform before Minneapolis City Council to protect immigrant and refugee rights. For the last two and a half years, Adriana has actively organized alongside parents at Emerson and other district schools, while working as a family advocate. In 2020, she got elected in a historic and competitive election to serve on Minneapolis School Board of Education as the first Mexican immigrant.
Aside from her passionate career in activism and advocacy, Adriana is a mother, grandmother, guardian, business owner and elected official.
Khulia Pringle currently works one on one with low income and BIPOC as they navigate the education system, educate families on ed policies and procedures, as well as organize and mobilize around issues that affect disproportionately low income and students of color.
