Prosper St. Paul helps renters build wealth

A nonprofit with a long history of community advocacy is shifting to meet the needs of residents.
For nearly 50 years, the Aurora St. Anthony Neighborhood Development Corporation (ASANDC), an organization serving the Rondo, Frogtown and Summit-University neighborhoods, has aimed to advance cultural and economic opportunities for residents.

Located at 360 University Avenue W, in the heart of the communities it serves, ASANDC is continuing this legacy but is shifting its focus from development to educating and empowering families in the area about housing stability, renting and building wealth.

Initiatives underway include Prosper St. Paul, a program that aims to expand pathways to building wealth for St. Paul renters. The Legacy Scholars Institute is an intergenerational learning and leadership model designed to help families build skills and relationships that support long-term economic mobility.

The Renter Leadership Council, a compensated cohort of Saint Paul renters will help shape programing for Prosper St. Paul, with the mission to change the negative narratives around renting. At the core of the Legacy Scholars Institute will be Legacy Labs, which will run annually from April through December as monthly intergenerational sessions.

Through its Legacy Stabilization Collaborative, ASANDC is also working to bring together Black-led institutions from across Minneapolis and St. Paul to address long-term disinvestment. The focus of the collaborative is finding shared strategies to help build financial stability and strengthen leadership development.

ASANDC Executive Director Tatiana Freeman said it was the potential for where the organization could go that motivated her to step into the role two years ago.
Freeman said in leading the development she wants to not only continue building on its legacy, but also continue finding ways to create a sustainable foundation for the organization and community moving forward.

“You don’t stick around for 46 years without community and without stakeholders caring about your organization,” Freeman said.“I want to ensure that we’re able to rebuild very strong, consistent programming in a way that the community can depend on.”

PAST LEADERS MITCHELL AND PRESLEY
In June 2024, Freeman took over as director from Deborah Mitchell, who had led the organization for three years.

During her time as director, Mitchell continued the organization’s development projects through focusing on Black-owned businesses in the area. Mitchell led key entrepreneurship programming for ASANDC, and supported emerging business owners through workshops and one-on-one coaching in financial systems.

Freeman said her work was instrumental in advancing equitable economic development in the community.

Developer and activist Nieeta Presley, who led the organization for nearly two decades, retired in 2020.

Presley pioneered critical development projects as executive director such as Western U Plaza, an 57-unit affordable housing community in Saint Paul. She was a key figure in the “Stops for Us!” coalition, which led to the addition of Metro Green Line stations in the Rondo neighborhood, according to Freeman.

Important milestones in the organization’s history include creating 300 affordable homes in Saint Paul’s Rondo neighborhoods, developing 18,000 square feet of commercial space, and providing training to nearly 700 entrepreneurs.

These initiatives and development projects over the years have also worked to repair the historical displacement within the Rondo neighborhood, once a thriving and predominantly Black community.
In the 1960s, construction of Interstate 94 ran directly through the Twin Cities neighborhoods, disproportionately impacting communities of color, according to the Congress for the New Urbanism, a city building reform nonprofit. Thousands of people and hundreds of businesses were displaced in St. Paul, with the majority being residents of the Rondo neighborhood.

The Frogtown-Rondo area has high poverty rates. Over 50% of residents are people of color and over 40% have incomes below 185% of the federal poverty level, according to The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA). More than half of residents are renters, with a significant majority facing continued barriers to housing and rising cost burdens.

Freeman said while ASANDC has been moving away from development projects her goal is to reframe its strategic direction of the organization around the economic element of stability to help families.

BUILDING WEALTH AS RENTERS
Educating renters and empowering them to build wealth without owning a home is one direction the organization wants to go in when it comes to future programming, according to Freeman.

“Renting is not financial mismanagement or poor decision making. It’s a fact that half of this city is living,” Freeman said. “Fundamentally, with the rebuilding, we want to build an ecosystem that acknowledges renters in that conversation.”

In St. Paul, where a network of community development organizations exist, ASANDC aims to carve out a niche and fill the gaps when it comes to educating residents on financial security.

Mer’Ce Tyler, ASANDC’s board chair, said as a lean operation that is continuing to grow, it’s also contending with a changing landscape when it comes to the development work they hope to provide. Tyler added that being adaptable is a strength of the organization.

“For us to sustain in our community, assessing what those needs look like, we have to develop new programming to lead some of these charges and initiatives,” Tyler said. “It’s not even an option to not adapt in this environment.”

Freeman said priorities that remain the same when it comes to this work are the need for strategic funding partnerships and community alliances.

Mikeya Griffin, president and CEO of the Rondo Community Land Trust, a housing and community development organization since the early 90s, said the need for collaboration is critical to addressing the large and nuanced problems facing their shared community.

“We offer a holistic, place-based approach to true community wealth building and innovation, and we can’t do it without partners,” Griffin said. “We are all working to ensure a more prosperous community.”

Griffin added through working with organizations like Hallie Q Brown, ASANDC and others, collectively they are fighting to leave a better legacy.

In April, ASANDC will be rolling out its first monthly Legacy Lab. These labs will also take place along Selby Avenue in St. Paul, as a part of a summer program series with a focus on place-based learning.

Freeman plans to recruit volunteers for these events and to hire a dedicated team to build rapport with the community.

“We really want people that are excited, willing to roll up their sleeves, and acknowledge what we’ve already built, the work that we’ve done, but understand that this is a phase of rebirth,” Freeman said.
Hannah Reynolds is a University of Minnesota senior majoring in journalism. Her focus is in photojournalism and she currently works as the multimedia editor for the Minnesota Daily.