Nearly three years after a fire killed five residents, Minneapolis will receive $2 million in federal funding to add sprinklers to the last of its aging public housing high-rise buildings.
The Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) has been racing in the past few years to add sprinklers to all of its buildings, most of them built before government fire codes required the equipment. The urgency was a result of a Nov. 2019 fire on the 14th floor of the Cedar High Apartments that killed five people.
A recent investigation by the State Fire Marshal's Office found that an improper door seal, an outdated stairwell design and a lack of sprinklers contributed to the residents' deaths. A sixth person died months later of COVID-19, with smoke inhalation from the fire listed as a significant factor on the medical examiner's report.
"We set an ambitious goal" to add sprinklers in the public housing agency's 42 high-rise buildings within three to five years, Abdi Warsame, who took over MPHA shortly after the fatal fire, said on Monday.
The agency remains on pace to do just that, said Jennifer Keogh, deputy executive director for the Housing Authority.
To date, the agency has installed sprinklers in 18 of its 42 high-rises buildings, retrofitting all units with smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and stovetop firestop cans.
Another 15 high-rise buildings, including the Cedar High Apartments in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood where the 2019 fire occurred, are being retrofitted with sprinklers. Most of that work is expected to be completed over the next two years, officials said. The installation of those new sprinkler systems cost at least $18 million.
The federal funding announced Monday — part of a massive federal spending package passed this past week — will help the housing authority's nearly $3 million project to complete the installation in the nine remaining buildings within the next three to five years.
Warsame said the federal money will "allow us to complete this critical work at an accelerated pace." He announced the funding alongside U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar and others from the community in north Minneapolis on Monday. Omar and Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith helped secure the sprinkler money.
Some would like to see the improvements done more quickly.
Residents and family members of the fire victims who sued the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority have criticized the progress made in installing the upgrades, saying the process is moving too slowly.
The push to add sprinklers and other fire suppression equipment means the public housing agency has not been able to make other "critical and necessary improvements" to its buildings, housing leaders contend.
The agency has a backlog of more than $160 million in projects. Agency leaders have been lobbying at the city and state level for additional resources to make a dent in that amount. They also are looking for additional sources to support its projects, Keogh said, noting federal funds are helping with the sprinkler installations.
Staff writer Briana Bierschbach contributed to this report.
