1.1A Senate resolution
1.2honoring Minneapolis Public Housing Authority Executive Director Cora McCorvey
1.3on the occasion of her retirement.
1.4WHEREAS, Cora McCorvey started working for public housing as a receptionist, to support
1.5her ailing husband and their two children; she worked her way up, helping to manage the Glendale
1.6housing project in southeast Minneapolis, and she inherited a newly independent agency that the
1.7U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) scored so low that some feared a
1.8federal takeover; and
1.9WHEREAS, within six years, and with guidance from board chairman Richard Brustad,
1.10Cora had turned the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) around enough that HUD
1.11rated it one of the nation's highest-performing public housing operations; and
1.12WHEREAS, Cora managed to persuade HUD to allow the MPHA extra flexibility for using
1.13scarce federal funds among its programs; there were numerous challenges along the way, but a
1.141995 settlement opened the door to a major undertaking in which residents were moved out to other
1.15housing units owned by the authority or to private landlords who accepted vouchers; and
1.16WHEREAS, some 770 publicly owned row-house units were razed and replaced with a
1.17mixed-income development known as Heritage Park that offered more amenities, and new public
1.18housing units were created across the metro area; and
1.19WHEREAS, during Cora's tenure, the nation's first memory-care unit for public housing
1.20residents with dementia was created, and she set up a tracking system for complaints relayed by
1.21council members about the condition of the agency's units or the behavior of their tenants; and
1.22WHEREAS, as MPHA Executive Director, Cora has been the landlord for more than 6,000
1.23public housing units, and her agency administers another 4,600 rental vouchers; and
2.1WHEREAS, after 25 outstanding years as the agency's only director, Cora McCorvey is
2.2retiring as the MPHA's Executive Director, and on January 26, 2017, the MPHA honored Cora by
2.3dedicating the Cora McCorvey Health & Wellness Center in Minneapolis; and
2.4NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the State of Minnesota that it
2.5thanks and commends Minneapolis Public Housing Authority Executive Director Cora McCorvey
2.6for turning the once-struggling MPHA into an agency considered exemplary nationwide, and extends
2.7best wishes to her for her retirement.
2.8BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of the Senate is directed to prepare an
2.9enrolled copy of this resolution, to be authenticated by the Secretary's signature and that of the
2.10Chair of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, and transmit it to Cora McCorvey.

Cal R. LudemanSecretary of the Senate

Paul E. GazelkaChair, Senate Committee onRules and Administration

Kari DziedzicState Senator, District 60