Wadaag Commons

Date

2024

History

Wadaag Commons is the sixth and final phase of the Seward Commons project – a multi-decade effort to transform a former industrial area adjacent to the Franklin Avenue Light Rail Station into a mixed-use, community-centered neighborhood.

In visioning the future of this neighborhood, the community identified a deep need for affordable housing for large families who were often navigating overcrowded conditions or forced to leave the neighborhood altogether due to lack of appropriate housing options.

Redesign partnered with Noor Companies, an East African woman-owned company, to design and build Wadaag Commons.

A departure from traditional development processes where community engagement either happens late, in a limited format, or results in few meaningful changes to the design or outcomes, the Wadaag Commons team convened a Qualified Stakeholder Group comprised largely of East African residents and families with multiple children and children with disabilities to define what it means to have housing that works.

The Vision

What emerged from these conversations with families was a direction and approach that impacted the design from day one:

Larger units with more than two bedrooms
Multi-story layouts
Sufficient bathrooms for large households
In-unit laundry and central air conditioning
Oversized refrigerators
Private exterior entrances to foster dignity, autonomy, and connection
Safe, accessible play spaces
Design elements like stoops, landscaping, and public art that strengthen connection to the broader neighborhood

These features are often absent not because they are unnecessary, but because conventional development models are not structured to prioritize them.

In responding to these needs through implementation, Wadaag Commons demonstrates that, when community knowledge is treated as expertise, the result is more functional, humane, impactful, and culturally relevant.

Community Mission & Impact

Wadaag Commons provides 39 units of 100% affordable housing, intentionally serving households that are often excluded even within affordable housing systems.

The building includes:

Units for households experiencing homelessness
Units for people with disabilities, supported by Simpson Housing Services
Project-Based Section 8 units through the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority
Additional units for households at 60% of Area Median Income

But the deeper impact of Wadaag is not just in who it serves, but in how it was created. By embedding co-design into the development process, Wadaag Commons produced outcomes that more accurately reflect lived experience.

In addition, the building includes more than $500,000 in permanent public art, making Wadaag Commons one of the most significant investments in culturally grounded public art in the Seward neighborhood. Created by local artists, this work may be the most visible Islamic-style public art installation in the City of Minneapolis.

As the final phase of Seward Commons, Wadaag completes a broader neighborhood vision, while also pointing forward. It offers a replicable model for how development can better respond to communities that have historically been overlooked or underserved.

“Wadaag,” meaning “sharing” or “community” in Somali, captures both the spirit of the building and the system it represents: one where knowledge, power, and opportunity are shared.

Wadaag Commons is proof that when the process changes, the outcomes do too.