As part of its commitment to being a leader in racial equity and inclusion and to create a more just and inclusive community for all, the City of St. Louis Park has joined the Just Deeds Project. The Just Deeds Project helps homeowners and cities discharge discriminatory language from property titles.

Although restrictive covenants have been prohibited in Minnesota since 1953, they still appear in real estate records across the country. In 2019, the Minnesota Legislature passed a law allowing people to renounce these covenants by filing a document with Minnesota counties.

The city is proud to partner with a growing coalition of other local cities to acknowledge the harm the covenants have caused and to help homeowners and our community begin to address the adverse effects on the Black community and communities of color.

Identifying if your property has a racially restrictive covenant

To see if your property has a racially restrictive covenant, visit the Mapping Prejudice tool on the Just Deeds website. Locate the search location icon (magnifying glass) within the map on the page and type in your full address. Once your property is located, it will indicate if there are covenants and provide some additional information.

Removing covenants

If you find that your property does have a restrictive covenant and you would like to go through the process of discharging it, complete the Just Deeds application.

After you’ve submitted your application, a Just Deeds representative will contact you to review your application and discuss next steps. Note there is a backlog of one to two months per application due to the large number of applications that are currently being processed in several cities throughout Minnesota, by attorneys working at no charge.

Note: The Mapping Prejudice Project team has conducted research on a large volume of title records in Minnesota. As a result, we know there are more than 1,800 properties in St. Louis Park that have racially restrictive covenants. To help residents discharge these covenants, attorneys are working directly with them at no charge. Due to the large number of applications that are currently being processed in several cities throughout Minnesota, there is a backlog of one to two months per application. For that reason, only properties identified by the Mapping Prejudice Project as having a racial restrictive covenant will be eligible for the current application process.

Contact

If you have questions, email justdeeds@stlouisparkmn.gov.