East Phillips Urban Farm Project at the Roof Depot

In 2015, the East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) planned to purchase the Roof Depot site to create an Urban Farm Project that would add economic investment into the community. The City of Minneapolis claimed eminent domain and purchased the site to establish a new maintenance yard, continuing to divest from the community. 

HELP US FUNDRAISE TO RECLAIM THE ROOF DEPOT SITE!

EPNI is fighting for INVESTMENT in their community: Use the 7.6 acre Roof Depot site and warehouse to strengthen the community and repair decades of toxic harm.

Community benefits from EPNI’s plan to renovate the Roof Depot warehouse:

• Green, living-wage jobs
• 2nd chance job opportunities
• Job training
• Organic, aquaponic year-round food 
• Affordable family housing at 30% AMI
• Coffee shop run by neighborhood youth
• Community kitchen
• Cultural markets
• Bike shop on the greenway
• Business rental space
• No additional pollution

EPNI's Urban Farm Vision

The City of Minneapolis plans to demolish the Roof Depot and move a city maintenance yard from Marcy-Holmes to East Phillips, one of the most diverse and low-income neighborhoods in the city. The city's plan continues to divest from the community and ignores the ROOT CAUSES OF POVERTY that would impact generations to come.

The City's plan would add:

• More pollution (air from increased traffic, arsenic from beneath the Roof Depot’s foundation)
• More illness and medical bills
• More deaths from disease as well as despair
• More lost jobs and school days
• Lower property values
• Ongoing food desert (apartheid)
• More state money needed for health care
• More homelessness, related impacts
• More trauma related to basic needs not being met
• Overall increased costs (financial, societal, moral) related to poverty
• Well-being and money lost because NO community-owned Urban Farm gardens, jobs, solar arrays, rent, places to gather, appreciation, businesses, etc.

City's Plan for Site

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

• Help us fundraise for the (heavily discounted) legal fees and court costs to reclaim the Roof Depot site. Thank you!
• Spread the word with your friends and colleagues about this historic opportunity to promote equity and a new vision for addressing poverty and racism at their roots.
• Contact your elected representatives: the mayor, your city councilmembers, your state reps and your federal reps. Ask them to:
  • Immediately stop the demolition process.
  • Support the community’s vision for the Roof Depot warehouse.