Area & People Served

 

CES serves Minneapolis in general with special focus on South, Southeast Minneapolis and the Phillips Neighborhood, in particular.

 

People Served

 

The Phillips Neighborhood is the most diverse Minneapolis neighborhood, comparable to Chicago, Seattle, Denver or Milwaukee.  Phillips has about 18,000 residents and is also the largest neighborhood in Minnesota.

  • 70% of non-married households in the Phillips Neighborhood have children.
  • 33% of adults over 25 have less than a high school degree for their education.
  • Native Americans making up the largest population of any urban area in the U.S. live in the Phillips Neighborhood.
  • The Twin Cities is home to the largest Somali population in the U.S. with 30,000 – 50,000 living here, most having arrived here since 1993.  That being said, the Phillips Neighborhood has one of the largest communities of Somali people.
  • 9,000 Hispanics live within a two-mile radius of Bloomington and Lake Street.
  • There are also Hmong, Tibetan, Vietnamese, Chinese, Thai, Laotian, Egyptian, Nigerian, Ethiopian, Cambodian, African-American, Caucasian, and Asian represented in this area.
  • 31% of the residents are immigrants.

 

The following is a chart showing the diversity of age in Phillips:

Age
 # of Residents
0-17 7,016
18-34 5,658
35-64 5,375
65+ 1,756

 

 

Geographic Area Served

 

Service areas differ in relation to the various services we offer as outlined below:

CES Food Shelf Area

The assigned food shelf area under the Emergency Foodshelf Network, of which CES is a member, is as follows:

Residents of the area are bounded by 5th Avenue on the west, the Mississippi River on the north, Franklin Avenue on the south and 11th Avenue from Franklin north to 9th Street and 13th Avenue from 9th Street to the River on the east.

 

Other CES Services

With regard to rent crisis aid, South and Southeast Minneapolis are the only areas served.

With regard to hygiene items, CES serves south Minneapolis depending on the availability of the product.

 

CES Meals on Wheels (MOW)

Meals are deliverd to mostly Senior Citizens in the area as follows:

Persons served are those who live between the boundaries of Washington Avenue on the north, Lake Street on the south, Portland Avenue north of Franklin, Nicollet Avenue south of Franklin on the west and the Mississippi River on the east.

 

Other Area Demographics

 

Ecomonics

 

78% of the housing in the Phillips Neighborhood is rental housing.  With lack of ownership and low income, there is often lack of care and upkeep.  However, the urban environment is constantly changing with much revitalization happening.  Nice-looking new homes and businesses are sometimes located next to buildings and homes that are in disrepair and vital need of being upgraded. 

  • The Phillips Neighborhood was declared a Federal Disaster Area in 1996.
  • 24% of residents have recently worried more about food running out before they had money to buy more, 10% missed rent or mortgage payments and 13% used a food shelf.
  • 48% of Phillips’ residents live below the poverty line.
  • The unemployment rate for the Phillips Neighborhood is pushing 15%.
  • 21% of the Phillips adult community do not own a car.

 

Crime

 

Police estimated at one time that there were about 250 “crack” houses located in the Phillips Neighborhood.

This area is a gathering area for many prostitutes who work on Lake Street starting as early as seven a.m.  A growing number of them are “working” Bloomington Avenue from 24th Street to Lake Street, although there has been a recent move to correct this problem.

One liquor store in this area has annual sales of about $10 million dollars per year.  This store opens every day except Sunday at 8:00 a.m., often with a line of 8-10 people waiting for the doors to open.  Friday and Saturday nights draw so many customers that police are often called each of those evenings to direct the automobile traffic on the adjacent streets.

Many gangs are active in this area.  However, after a move by the Ventura Village (a specific section of the Phillips neighborhood), one major gang has been disperesed and moved out of the area.

One half of the murders in Minneapolis happen within a mile radius of Chicago and Lake.

The three top crime issues in the Phillips neghborhood are as follows:

  • Street level drug dealing
  • Prostitution
  • Problem properties - dwellings, businesses which cause substantial disruption to the community

 

Misc. Facts

 

It is estimated that there are approximately 50,000 illegal immigrants in the Twin Cities with a high concentration in the Phillips Neighborhood.

While 16% of "Phillips" adults have been diagnosed with depression, 40% of the residents who wanted mental health care were either delayed or did not receive it.  Lack of insurance coverage and concerns about cost were the most frequently cited reasons for this.  Studies have shown that mental health issues are more and more frequently linked with chemical dependency causing more problems.

One third of Phillips residents were uninsured in terms of health insurance for either part or all of the past year.

 

Religion

 

70 white churches, mostly white based congregations, have left the city of Minneapolis and moved out to the suburbs since 1970.  However, in recent years there are several church plants that have been reaching out to those needing a church home in the inner city.

There is a great amount of diverse “religious activity” that exists in the areas these churches vacated.

Besides the usual Christian churches, there is a Native American sweat lodge, four Mormon congregations, many Islamic groups, a Hindu temple, several Jehovah Witness groups, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery, a spiritualist church, two homosexual congregations and even several witches’ covens.