Shutterstock
Minneapolis Skyline
Minnesota has one of the nation’s highest disparities in home ownership. We owe that in part to racially restrictive covenants—legal clauses in property deeds that prohibited people of color from owning and renting homes in certain areas—that were first recorded in south Minneapolis in the early 20th century. Racially restrictive covenants were outlawed in 1968, but their legacy shapes our neighborhoods to this day. This week, the city of Minneapolis launched the Just Deeds Project to allow homeowners to fully discharge the covenants recorded against their properties and “reclaim their homes as equitable spaces.”
Before racially restrictive covenants were introduced to Minneapolis’s real estate market, a mutual aid network of Black families helped each other buy homes. The University of Minnesota’s Mapping Prejudice project has created visual documentation of how city government, lenders, neighborhood organizations, and real estate agents conspired to push Black families out of neighborhoods they deemed white, beginning in the 1910s. The project’s map shows how vast areas at Minneapolis’s periphery, especially to the south and west, were subject to these practices—more than 8,000 homes had racially restrictive covenants. Its layout largely mirrors current racial diversity maps of the city.
Racially restrictive covenants forced Black, Indigenous and people of color in Minneapolis to live in segregated neighborhoods, which were then redlined by banks and the federal government. These practices kept many families of color from obtaining mortgages and buying homes, decimating their opportunity to build generational wealth.
The Just Deeds Project gives homeowners the opportunity to learn about and acknowledge the history of their house, and formally discharge the covenants still written into their deeds. The City Attorney’s Office staff will help homeowners complete this process free of charge. Hennepin County has also waived its usual fees. To be eligible, properties must be in the boundaries of Minneapolis and shown in red on the Mapping Prejudice map. Homeowners approved for the project will be provided resources to learn about discriminatory housing practices and the city’s continuing work to repair their harm.
The Just Deeds Project will be first-come, first-served basis, and applications will be accepted on a rolling basis.
