History
The Inheritance Fund is being expanded in 2025 to support rebuilding family and generational wealth for families that were displaced from the West Side Flats to build the Riverview Industrial Park in the 1960s.
During Mayor Carter’s 2024 budget proposal, he stated “I propose we finally own up to the injustice and harm caused by the displacement of our historic West Side Flats neighborhood by expanding our Inheritance Fund to include descendants of residents who were displaced from property ownership in our historic West Side Flats neighborhood.”
Following Mayor Carter’s proposal, the HRA board took action to approve the West Side Flats expansion of the Inheritance Fund on December 11, 2024.
These actions by elected leaders took place in response to 18 months of community-led research and strategy sessions, and the 86-page “Flats to the Future” report released by the West Side Community Organization and Research in Action. The report found that over 2,000 people were displaced from 520 parcels of land in the West Side Flats by the City of Saint Paul and the Saint Paul Port Authority in order to build the Riverview Industrial Park. The West Side was a landing place for immigrants and low-income residents, with a rich heritage of Jewish, Mexican, Lebanese, Syrian, Black, Native, white, and other people calling the Flats home.
