Last Friday our office was closed in support of the Day of Truth & Freedom general strike. Staff marched with 50,000 other Minnesotans in downtown Minneapolis. It was a day of inspiration and renewal.

Then came Saturday morning.

That morning another of our neighbors, Alex Pretti, was fatally shot by federal agents, a mere 3 blocks from our office. Suddenly all that inspiration and renewal turned to concern, anger, and fear as Nicollet Avenue became the site of such unnecessary violence. On the street some of our residents come to pay their rent. The street where we’re developing 50 new homes for our neighbors.

For a period, this weekend the area was closed to traffic, and it appeared the office would again be closed today, but Nicollet Avenue is open and so is Alliance. We are open because it’s currently -9F (feels like -25F) outside and there are so many Minneapolis residents who don’t have a home. They’re currently outside not because they’re protesting or observing the actions of ICE agents, but because they have nowhere else to be. These neighbors need us to continue our work.

At Alliance we are proud to have all our homes located within the City of Minneapolis. We are proud to have our office in the Whittier Neighborhood and buildings in Longfellow, Lyndale, Near North, etc. We are proud to serve this community doing so much to support each other. We are proud to do this work and find time to support our neighbors in so many other ways in our personal time. We love Minneapolis.

This violence must end.