Fact sheet: Housing and Race in Minneapolis | Center for Urban & Regional Affairs

Community Based Research Graduate Student Project Spotlight

Fact sheet: Housing and Race in Minneapolis

Through the Kris Nelson Community-Based Research Program, Jack Gramlich (MPP '24) has supported the research and advocacy goals of the Make Homes Happen Coalition over the last year. Together, Jack and his community partner worked to produce a fact sheet that visualizes key insights on racial disparities in the Minneapolis housing market, which supports the project's broader research goal of evaluating the City's progress on meeting its housing goals.

My community partner, the Make Homes Happen Coalition, focuses on racial disparities in the Minneapolis housing market, and is interested in using research to support advocacy. They plan to address the question of if Minneapolis is on track to address race-based housing disparities. Together, we created a fact sheet that serves to communicate some key insights around the size of these disparities.
I began by reading through a lot of resources on the context of affordable housing in Minneapolis. I analyzed ACS data on housing by race, and eviction data from the Minnesota court system. While we did not have individual-level data on eviction filings, I was able to show racial disparities by focusing on ZIP codes. To move toward a fact sheet draft, I created a suite of data visualization options. The community partner and I went through an iterative process of revisions so we could focus in on some main points that would be intuitive for viewers.
-Jack Gramlich, MPP '24

Community Based Research Graduate Student Project Spotlight Fact sheet: Housing and Race in Minneapolis

"My community partner, the Make Homes Happen Coalition, focuses on racial disparities in the Minneapolis housing market, and is interested in using research to support advocacy. They plan to address the question of if Minneapolis is on track to address race-based housing disparities. Together, we created a fact sheet that serves to communicate some key insights around the size of these disparities. "I began by reading through a lot of resources on the context of affordable housing in Minneapolis. I analyze

HOUSING + RACE IN MINNEAPOLIS... WHAT WE KNOW

Lee Guekguezian

Lee Guekguezian (she/her) is a community-based researcher committed to decision-making justice and elevating lived experiences through research. As a program director at the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA), they lead initiatives that connect university resources with community-driven projects across Minnesota. Their work focuses on facilitating trust-based collaborations, translating complex findings into accessible narratives, and using data visualization to explore patterns of displacement, ownership, and investment.

Lee holds a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from UCLA and a degree in Geography from Macalester College. Their experience spans affordable housing policy and funding, spatial analysis, and program evaluation, working to democratize research and data to amplify community narratives. Outside of work, Lee enjoys biking around the Twin Cities, making rugs, and being a regular at iPho in St. Paul.