Anti-displacement framework

"You tore up my neighborhood where I grew up in, and I don't recognize it anymore."

-Metropolitan Center for Independent Living Participant

This anti-displacement framework includes a definition and strategies to mitigate the inequitable consequences of public investment on neighborhoods. The framework assesses and reviews processes in public policy planning, including engagement, but may also be used during or after project or policy implementation, such as in evaluation. The anti-displacement framework provides guidance on how to integrate anti-displacement strategies into the practices and policies set by Imagine 2050.  

As the region works to become more equitable, implementing an anti-displacement framework is necessary. This framework lays the groundwork for understanding who benefits and who is harmed by development, policies, and investments in the region. It can also shed light on the Met Council’s impact on the region. Though displacement is, ultimately, defined by residents, it can mean a physical and involuntary, often violent, loss of one’s home, community, or access to resources. It can be an economic, social, or cultural change, removal, or the loss of sense of belonging in one’s community. Displacement can happen before or after development or other community changes occur and can impact an individual’s physical and perceived safety in their community. The Met Council and its partner agencies have a responsibility to prevent, mitigate, and respond to displacement of communities of color and low-wealth communities most impacted.

The Met Council’s equity framework is the foundation for all anti-displacement efforts. Anti-displacement policies build on the equity framework of being community centered, contextualized, and reparative. The anti-displacement strategies center overburdened communities that include Black communities, American Indians, people of color, and low-income populations or communities that may experience disproportionate environmental harms and risks. This acknowledges that these communities have historically been exposed to an accumulation of negative – and lack of positive – environmental, health, economic, or social conditions within their populations or communities. 

Regional history of displacement and segregation  

Historically, our region has experienced displacement in many forms. The first peoples living on this land, the Dakota People, faced violent removal and genocide at the hands of early European settlers. This initial displacement of American Indian Tribes across the state continues to be erased from history while impacting communities to this day. Today, displacement risks and inequities reflect the long history of atrocities including discriminatory federal and local policies, intimidation, and violence that has led to the displacement and ongoing erasure of American Indian Tribes, Black communities, people of color, and immigrant communities and cultural sites. These harmful outcomes were and continue to be impacted by past regional and national policies and practices.  

Throughout the 1900s, practices leading to displacement and segregation included the use of racial or ethnic restrictions on housing deeds, redlining, discriminatory lending practices, the destruction of communities from the development and construction of highways, and other urban planning decisions. Many formal policies and informal practices expanded opportunities for white residents and built deep racial and socioeconomic inequities for Black, American Indian, and people of color communities and low-wealth communities. Intensifying the effects of formal policies has been the behaviors of white residents. These include local racial intimidation and violence against Black, American Indian, and people of color residents in majority-white cities in the region (“sundown towns”) and the migration of white residents out of neighborhoods as more diverse communities moved into neighborhoods that they had previously been excluded from (“white flight”).  

Met Council investments and displacement

In recent decades, Met Council-led transportation developments, housing investments, projects resulting from grant awards, wastewater treatment plant construction, and green gentrification around parks have caused the displacement of communities, cultural sites, and thriving cultural networks. Historically, investment decisions have failed to incorporate anti-displacement strategies and mitigation tools in collaboration with communities most affected. The Met Council has also played a direct role in the disinvestment of vital infrastructure as a decision-making body, determining which communities have equitable access to funding, amenities, homes, opportunities, and stable communities. This led to disparate outcomes across the region.  

The Met Council acknowledges its role in the region’s history of displacement, systemic racism, and inequities caused by the agency’s decisions, investments, policies, and racial prejudice. These actions unjustly harmed the Dakota and American Indian people, Black communities, people of color, low-income, and immigrant communities. There have been some efforts to prevent displacement on specific regional projects. However, there is a need for a more coordinated and centralized approach to ensure transparency and accountability for all regional investments and actions.   

Conditions for success

Anti-displacement efforts are an active process of centering and empowering communities to protect their homes, access to resources, and sense of belonging from loss due to an investment or policy. To prioritize those most impacted by displacement and reduce harm, key components of anti-displacement for regional policies, processes, and systems should include the following conditions for success:

1. Preservation and strengthening of existing cultural connection
2. Creation and strengthening of community inclusiveness
3. Justice-centered; repairing historical injustices and empowering overburdened communities to co-create best practices and actions to remedy historic and ongoing harm
4. Prioritizing the well-being of overburdened communities that are most impacted by displacement