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Bimosedaa, an affordable housing development, opens for Native Americans tenants in downtown Minneapolis

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Joseph Maxwell lived in his car and various shelters for the last six years, staying alert for danger even as he slept. Noise made by others kept him awake at night, as did staffers at one shelter checking on him every three hours.

Now that has all changed. Maxwell is one of the first to move into Bimosedaa, an affordable housing complex in downtown Minneapolis that offers supportive services with a special focus on the needs of Native American tenants. Eighteen residents currently live at Bimosedaa, one of a handful of developments in Minnesota that caters to Native residents facing homelessness and struggling with substance abuse.

“Here, I fall right in a deep sleep,” said Maxwell, who moved into the building in December. “For the first week I was here, I didn’t hear anything. I caught up on all my sleep just from not being alerted.”

Two nonprofits — Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative and Avivo — partnered with the Red Lake Nation to develop Bimosedaa in May 2019. It was a direct response to the eviction by Minneapolis city officials of the Wall of Forgotten Natives homeless encampment in 2018.

The city evicted a second iteration of the camp last August and the Camp Nenookaasi encampment early last month, both of them with large numbers of Native occupants. Two encampments that then sprang up in the Phillips and Ventura Village neighborhoods were evicted last week, with city officials citing health and safety problems. A new camp was reported to have been established Friday near Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

Bimosedaa ― “Let’s walk together” in Ojibwe — is in Minneapolis’ Warehouse District and includes 48 units on seven floors. Each unit is rented out at $1,010 a month, which is 30% of the area median income.

Maxwell shares his unit with his partner, Elizabeth Howard. They each have their own bedroom and bathroom but share a communal kitchen.

“It was just not a good environment at those kinds of houses where we were staying at,” Maxwell said of the shelters. “I mean, it was good that we were still around Native people, but it was just not like this. We have our own apartment. This is my first apartment ever.”

Both Maxwell and Howard are from the Red Lake Nation. Maxwell has received Social Security benefits for over 20 years, of which three-quarters — about $750 per month — goes toward rent. A Hennepin County housing program contributes another portion, he said.

Thirty-six units at Bimosedaa are studios and a dozen units are two-bedroom apartments. The lobby and other common areas are in the final stages of renovation, and work to preserve the building’s facade will be finished in a few months.

Each unit comes with a small table, mattress and bed frame, and an armoire. There’s no free parking, said Dan Gregory, Beacon’s communications manager, but there’s a light-rail station about a block away, and the building offers a bike room in the basement.

Beacon develops affordable housing across the state, serving a rental clientele that is about 90% people of color. It purchased the building for Bimosedaa in 2019 for $1.9 million and renovated it over the last five years.

“This pacing is actually impressively fast for deeply affordable housing developments and was only possible thanks to concerted efforts by Beacon, our partners, the city, county, and state to bring all the resources to bear,” according to a Beacon news release.

Beacon has invested $30 million in Bimosedaa, including nearly $7 million from state historic tax credits. The building’s previous owner, the L.A. Rockler Fur Co., operated as furriers going back to the 1920s. When Rockler closed its doors, Beacon took the remaining furs and donated them to the Red Lake Nation to be repurposed. Beacon hosted a Native ceremony to bless the furs and the building before Bimosedaa opened.

Avivo will provide social services to Bimosedaa residents, helping them with things like rides to doctors’ appointments, government aid and job applications. The building houses Avivo offices, including counseling rooms and a medical exam room. Nurses from community clinics will provide free health services.

Other services include mental health and substance abuse treatment. Bimosedaa tenants don’t have to be sober to receive the treatments, said Avivo program director David Jeffries. “That’s something that we’re looking to do … is be non-judgmental, open-minded, inviting, supportive,” he said.

Adrian King, a spiritual care coordinator at Avivo, will provide culturally relevant services to Native tenants at Bimosedaa. At Avivo Village, a transitional “tiny homes” community in Minneapolis, he leads smudging ceremonies, burning sacred herbs to draw out negativity. He also facilitates talking circles with residents to have a safe, private space for processing personal trauma.

Maxwell and Howard said they can see themselves living at Bimosedaa long-term because they feel safe and stable there and have privacy.

“We didn’t have the help like we do down here,” Maxwell said. “They really got a lot of stuff started down here for people who are on drugs. I’d say the biggest barrier was having people shut the door to your face, time and time again.”

About the partnership

This story comes to you from Sahan Journal, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to covering Minnesota’s immigrants and communities of color. Sign up for a free newsletter to receive Sahan’s stories in your inbox.



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Former Medtronic consultant gets 18 months federal prison for insider trading

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A former Medtronic consultant received an 18-month prison sentence this week for his role in a scheme linked to the $1.6 billion acquisition of an Israeli medical device company in 2018.

A federal jury in February convicted Doron “Ron” Tavlin, 69, of Minneapolis, of one count of conspiracy to engage in insider trading and 10 additional counts related to securities fraud. That same jury found David Jay Gantman, 58, of Mendota Heights, not guilty of all charges against him. A third defendant — Afshin “Alex” Farahan, 57, of Los Angeles — pleaded guilty in 2022 and has yet to be sentenced.

“His crime was cynical and brazen. It was also reckless,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Ebert wrote in a memo calling for a 3-year prison term. “Tavlin’s conduct had the potential to blow up a deal that a team of executives and financial advisers had been diligently negotiating for months.”

Tavlin is now scheduled to self-surrender Jan. 5 to begin his prison term, which will be followed by 320 hours of community service.

According to the evidence presented at trial, Tavlin learned about a secret, pending acquisition by Medtronic of Mazor Robotics, where he worked as vice president of business development, in 2018. Tavlin also previously worked as a consultant to the Ireland-based Medtronic, which also has a headquarters in Fridley.

Tavlin illegally tipped off Farahan, his friend, about news of the imminent acquisition and told him to keep the news secret. Farahan knew the deal would likely result in a boost to Mazor’s stock price and quickly bought more than $1 million of the company’s stock throughout August and September 2018. Medtronic announced plans to acquire Mazor, which specialized in robotics for spinal procedures, in September 2018 and the deal closed three months later.

Prosecutors said Farahan netted more than $245,000, and Gantman made $255,000 in profit by selling the securities quickly after the deal was publicized. Farahan paid Tavlin for the secret information about the pending deal — including a $25,000 kickback about a year later —according to prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank, who sentenced Tavlin Monday, also ordered Tavlin to pay a special assessment fee of $1,100 – or $100 per each count. Frank did not impose a fine.



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Charges detail assault in Minneapolis that led to shooting rampage, killing one in Kandiyohi County

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Another friend of the ex-girlfriend arrived to help. He pulled up in a car as the group exited the apartment and Matariyeh immediately pointed a gun at him before pounding on the windshield with the gun. Everyone fled as Matariyeh ran back inside the apartment.

The two men met in a parking lot before attempting to return to the apartment. That’s when they looked up and saw Matariyeh on the balcony. Matariyeh immediately began firing multiple shots at them as they took cover behind parked cars.

It was around this time that Minneapolis police officers arrived and made contact with Matariyeh’s ex-girlfriend. She believed he was still inside the apartment, but officers later learned that he had fled. They reached him on the phone. He told officers he was going to kill innocent people if he couldn’t speak with his ex-girlfriend or see his daughter, who was at daycare at the time. He later told police negotiators that “he wanted to go out by ‘suicide by cop.’”

All the while, Matariyeh was speeding westbound.

Police officers pursued him near Cosmos in Meeker County after being alerted that Matariyeh might have stolen another vehicle at gunpoint in Carver County.

Around 2 p.m. he pulled into the rural driveway of Peter Mayerchak in Lake Lillian. Mayerchak, who was in his yard placing hay over his septic mound, went and greeted Matariyeh, who shot him in the chest.



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DFL’s last-minute push to keep their trifecta

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Mixing progressive dreams with dire warnings, a group of DFL leaders riled up a group of volunteers in St. Paul on Thursday morning, urging them to push on through the day’s freezing rain and fatigue in the remaining days before the election.

Several elected officials including Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar told the group of about 150 campaign staffers, volunteers and union members about how meaningful their work is to keeping DFL control of the Legislature, as the electeds start a statewide bus tour to turn out votes.

“We are here to keep our trifecta here in Minnesota,” U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar told volunteers on Thursday. “We’ve got five days, people!”

On the Republican side, House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said earlier this month that the House Republican Campaign Committee had raised a record $2.7 million ahead of the election and she said Republicans have also set records in volunteering and door-knocking as they work to break DFL control.

Minnesota Democrats hold a rally before starting a bus tour around the state to get voters excited, including Rep Ilhan Omar, Sen Amy Klobuchar, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, House Speaker Melissa Hortman, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, Rep Betty McCollum and Sen Tina Smith on Thursday. (Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

“Republicans have the momentum and resources heading into the final stretch to win the majority and restore balance to Minnesota,” Demuth said in a statement. “Minnesotans are ready to move on from the expensive two years of Democrat one-party rule.”

House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said she thought voters preferred action to the gridlock of divided government. “They’re looking for people who can get things done,” she said.

These last-minute get-out-the-vote efforts come as Democrats around the country push to keep control of state legislative chambers and try to flip a few statehouses that Republicans hold by just a few seats.

The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the arm of the national Democratic party that works on statehouse races across the country, has spent $500,000 on Minnesota races this year, including House races and the state Senate contest.



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