| Like many other major American urban areas, the City of St. Paul, Minnesota, is home to a distinctive blend of diverse populations that shares in common needs. Nowhere is this more evident than in the East Side of St. Paul, an area of two working-class neighborhoods where the minority population has changed from 1 percent in 1970 to 50 percent in 2000. This increase among African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans and their individual cultures has led to the creation of segregated areas within the neighborhoods.
In response, the New Directions East Side Partnership will be focusing its efforts on three key areas of common interest: the lack of community infrastructure and leadership, access to affordable rental housing, and high rates of disease and infant mortality. Activities will be focused in Districts 4 and 5, two areas with the greatest minority populations. This initiative will be accomplished by: developing a group of at least 12 new staff members of color trained in community building and expanding an existing group of leaders to include 100 individuals to participate in various East Side community building efforts; establishing a network of at least 25 landlords providing affordable rental housing and networks of at least 100 tenant families informed of their rights and responsibilities, including fair housing issues; providing a minimum of 25 new affordable rental units; developing detailed plans and secure initial development commitments for a Latino Centro and for a center for the American Indian community; opening and maintaining a community health clinic, conducting at least three major outreach campaigns around lead-based paint and culturally specific issues, such as diabetes and suicide; and offering culturally specific afterschool programs involving parents and teachers in two area schools.
Among the partners in this initiative are Macalester College, Metropolitan State University, Dayton's Bluff Neighborhood Housing Service, Dayton's Bluff District 4 Community Council, Twin Cities LISC, City of St. Paul Fair Housing Center, Asian Development Corporation, American Indian Family Center, District 5 Planning Council, East Side Neighborhood Development Company, and the Upper Swede Hollow Neighborhood Association.
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