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Southeast Roseville Update and Outreach to the Karen Community Interagency Collaboration City staff from various departments and the Roseville Housing and Redevelopment Authority (RHRA) staff have teamed up with staff from the Karen Organization of Minnesota (KOM), Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS), the International Institute, and Adult Basic Education (ABE) staff from Roseville Area Schools to work together to better serve the needs of the Karen population in Roseville, especially with regard to the rights and responsibilities that pertain to rental housing. Meeting on a bi-monthly basis, this team began by identifying needs and opportunities that would be most useful and appropriate for Karen families in Roseville. These included legal representation, training for tenants on rental rights and responsibilities, good neighbor practices, coordination among agencies and non-profits, and opportunities to connect Rosevilles most recent residents with their new neighborhood. As the collaboration has continued, the team members have started addressing the identified needs in the following ways: SMRLS has begun to advocate for nearly 40 Karen families to make sure they dont incur charges for regular maintenance or become subject to after-the-fact lease amendments. The International Institute has provided a significant amount of information regarding the needs of the most recent Karen immigrants in Roseville and what type of assistance they may receive in the first 90 days after arriving in this country. Several agencies are working to develop a proposal, initiated by Rosevilles Community Development Department staff, to create a community garden in Southeast Roseville. City staff and RHRA staff are reviewing what ECHO Minnesota (a multi-language health, safety, civic engagement and emergency readiness communication organization that serves immigrants and refugees in Minnesota) can do to produce a rental rights and responsibilities video in Karen, Somali, Spanish, and English. The need to supplement the written material with a video was identified during the New American Forum hosted by the Roseville Police Department in December and by the International Institute as they provided outreach to the Karen Community. RHRA staff is coordinating with Keystone Community Services to have the following workshops translated into Karen and taught at the ABE Center in Roseville: Shoestring Budgeting · Housing 101: Rights, Resources, and Avoiding Eviction · Good Eating on a Fast Food Budget · U of MN Research Report HRA staff has received the paper prepared by students in a revitalization class at the University of Minnesota during the fall of 2014. Because the paper does not present the level of research and analysis typically found in a public policy report, it will not be presented as a report to the Board. It is available for review if anyone would like to read it.