About

The East Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) formed around the multifaceted vision of an indoor urban farm and housing project to promote the personal, social, environmental, and economic health of our neighborhood.

In May 2023, after a 10-year fight for environmental justice in Minneapolis’ East Phillips neighborhood, the community won the chance to convert a contested industrial warehouse into a cooperatively-owned community hub with an indoor farm and housing, against steep odds. You can learn more about the community vision here.

As we move along an uncharted path toward making that vision a reality, we’ll continue to build for and answer to the community that got us here. And how did we get here?

Historical Context

For generations — ever since Minneapolis zoned the extremely racially-diverse and working class neighborhood of East Phillips for heavy industrial use — residents here have been breathing in extremely concentrated air pollution. One can taste it on a bad day, with particulates spewing from an asphalt plant, a metal foundry, a roofing company, and three highways.

Unsurprisingly, East Phillips has some of the highest rates of asthma, lead poisoning, and heart disease in Minnesota as a result.

But resistance is also ingrained in this neighborhood, where residents have, over the decades, successfully stopped a Garbage Transfer Station, hi-voltage power lines and other detrimental projects from entering the neighborhood.

Little Earth, an Indigenous-preference housing complex founded in association with the American Indian Movement in the 1970s, sits just two blocks away from the contested Roof Depot site.

The Roof Depot fight

In 2014, when the 230,000-square-foot Roof Depot warehouse went up for sale in the industrial heart of East Phillips, residents envisioned using the space to bring fresh food and economic stability to their historically-oppressed neighborhood - through a multi-use community space centered around an indoor urban farm and affordable housing.

East Phillips Neighborhood Institute eventually formed to draw up plans and funding for this project with a dynamic combination of expertise on its board, which included:

  • Cassandra Holmes (Niiwin Muck-Wa Ikwe – Four Bears Woman), a community leader born and raised at Little Earth, who lost her eldest son, Trinidad, as a result of toxic pollution in the neighborhood.

  • Karen Clark, a former state legislator and East Phillips resident resident of 40+ years

  • Dean Dovolis, an architect whose work revolves around affordable housing and community development.

  • And other committed community members and collaborators. Learn more about our current board of directors.

But the city of Minneapolis saw the Roof Depot warehouse as something to demolish. The city bought the site in 2014, planning to replace it with a sprawling public works facility where hundreds of city vehicles would have worsened traffic and air pollution in the neighborhood. 

A commitment to continuing a long legacy of disregarding residents’ needs, the city’s plan would have actively backtracked on its commitments to reduce pollution in neighborhoods like East Phillips and North Minneapolis, which shoulder much of the city's pollution.

EPNI — collaborating with a passionate cohort of individuals and organizations — doubled down on advocating for the community’s vision and preventing further pollution in East Phillips. In the 10 years following the city’s purchase of the site, we sued the city, door knocked across Minneapolis, protested loudly in city council chambers, and leaned on relationships with all sorts of organizations - ranging from teachers unions to autonomous groups.

Still, in the winter of 2023, the city had started to prepare the Roof Depot site for imminent demolition.

This approaching demolition date sparked a new wave of resistance, led in large part by those living at Little Earth, an Indigenous-preference housing complex two blocks from the Roof Depot site. Nicole Perez, aka Angry Grandma (angered by her 3-year-old granddaughter’s recent asthma diagnosis) confronted city officials in public. Jolene Jones, Rachel Thunder, and many others built momentum and helped bring the fight to the streets in a new way. 

On February 21, 2023 — in the midst of a massive snowstorm and six days before demolition was scheduled to begin — a group of community members and supporters staged a peaceful protest at the Roof Depot site, and called it Camp Nenookaasi. 

The Big Win

Days later, the city received a court-ordered halt on its demolition plans. This gave EPNI momentum and time to pursue the state funding needed to buy the land back from the city.

The legislature came through, allocating millions to the purchase of the site and relocation of the city’s public works project. EPNI is currently in negotiations with potential investors, who will provide the remaining $3.7 million needed to purchase the site by the city’s fall deadline, which was recently extended to November 6th.

Next Steps

This summer, EPNI was finally allowed to tour the inside of the Roof Depot warehouse which is, as suspected, in great condition. A stable and sturdy foundation filled with natural light.

The first step toward implementing the community’s plan is pre-development. Donations and grants have helped us raise just short of $700,000 towards our $900,000 pre-development costs so far, which will go toward:

  • Environmental assessment and remediation of the building and surrounding land

  • Legal consultation to built out the community ownership model, ensure long-term sustainability of the project, and prevent gentrification

  • Architectural designs for Phase One of development

Up next after the pre-development phase, is Phase One of development, which will be centered around structural renovations and installing a rooftop solar array - estimated to cost $15 million. Currently, EPNI’s robust fundraising strategy aims to secure funds from foundations, government grant programs, crowdfunding, faith-based reparations, and philanthropic individuals. 

Thank you to everyone who got us this far: to those who showed up to our meetings for the last decade, to the pro-bono legal helpers, to the grandmas who have given guidance, and so many others. This win was possible because of countless contributions of time and energy, and because of a foundation laid by past environmental justice movements.

EPNI has no standard road map to work from for a cooperatively-owned, solar-powered indoor farm, housing complex, and community hub, so we have a lot of exciting work ahead. Please stay plugged in: come to our Wednesday meetings, volunteer, show up to events, donate if you can and follow along on Instagram, Tik Tok, Facebook and Twitter. 

How can I get involved?

Volunteer: Use this form to let us know your interests and learn about current needs such as: designing graphics and social media, translating and interpreting, tabling, grant-writing, mentoring, consulting, solidarity work with other local EJ movements and more! Whether you’re new to this movement or returning, this is a good place to start. 

Donate to the EPNI capital campaign. While the bulk of purchase and development costs will be paid for by investors and foundations, donations right now help us bridge a big gap. Grant processes are often very slow and restricted to specific programs, but individual donations can fuel EPNI’s current operating costs. If you can, please help sustain this historic endeavor as we dive into renovating the Roof Depot site. (EPNI is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, and donations are tax-deductible to the full extent of the law. Please email daniel@epnifarm.org for more information about making a donation)