St. Paul names 1st recipient of Rondo Inheritance Fund, getting $90K toward home ownership
ST. PAUL, Minn. — Construction of Interstate 94 tore through St. Paul's Rondo neighborhood, once the heart of the Black community in Minnesota's capitol city. Decades later, city leaders are trying to restore what some families lost: their property and a chance at building generational wealth.
The St. Paul Inheritance Fund provides up to $110,000 towards a downpayment on a house for direct descendants of Rondo residents who were displaced nearly 70 years ago. There's additional funding for home renovation projects.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and other city officials on Wednesday celebrated new homeowner Anthony Bradford, the first recipient of assistance from the fund.
"We can't undo those historical wrongs. But what we can do is provide descendants of Old Rondo like Mr. Bradford the opportunity to reclaim that lost value to rebuild those family inheritances that were gutted to build the freeway that we stand not far from today," Carter said.
Bradford, 22, said his family moved to St. Paul after the Tulsa Race Massacre and bought a duplex in Rondo. He received $90,000 in assistance through the fund to help him make the purchase in the same neighborhood, just years after he said he experienced homelessness.
"I'm grateful that I'm able to look at my house and realize that four years ago when I was 18, I would never think this would be an option," Bradford said.
The loan doesn't need to be repaid if Bradford holds on to the house for 15 years, and he can get partial forgiveness if he sells it sooner. There's also down payment and home renovation help for low- to moderate-income residents, but only Rondo descendants get an additional boost from the Inheritance Fund.
The city this year earmarked $2 million for the program and the mayor's office said it was overwhelmed with applications, prompting a pause on accepting new ones. He anticipates ongoing funding to sustain it.
"Our goal has always been to run out of money and to demonstrate the success and the impactfulness of this program, of this level of investment — to be able to go back to the [Housing Redevelopment Authority] and to be able to go back to our city council and say, 'this is working,'" Carter said.
The city's definition of a Rondo "direct descendant" who is eligible for the fund is a person "who was born into or legally adopted into the direct line of the property owner whose property was taken," according to its website.
Carter told reporters during the news conference that city officials look at property records and work with local organizations like Rondo Avenue Inc. to confirm descendancy.
When information matches those documents, recipients then sign a notarized affidavit that they are related to that original property owner.
Separately, the St. Paul City Council established a new commission examining reparations for residents whose ancestors were slaves.