Met Council to fund more projects in poor areas

The Metropolitan Council plans to channel more money to parts of the Twin Cities with large minority populations and high rates of poverty.

The Met Council's proposed long-term plan would steer housing, transportation and economic development funding to projects that would advance racial equity. It aims to reduce a variety of disparities in the Twin Cities area, where people of color lag far behind their white counterparts in education, income and home ownership.

Erasing those disparities would add nearly 140,000 people to the state's workforce and pump $35 billion a year into the regional economy, Met Council Chair Sue Haigh said at her annual State of the Region address.

"This would be money that would be spent on housing and child care and education and consumer goods, and this is how growth happens," Haigh said. "When so many people don't have the opportunity to grow and succeed, we're going to get stuck in our region."

The Met Council is in charge of transit in the Twin Cities. It also provides environmental services, rental assistance and affordable housing grants.

Haigh said the council's efforts to lift the fortunes of minority communities would benefit the entire region.

"If equity is done right, and we're investing in disadvantaged communities, what we're going to do is we're going to grow the whole pie," she said. "And everyone will be able to get a bigger slice of the pie."