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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
Happy spring! The new season has been off to a blistering start and there's plenty of news and updates from around District 3 and Hennepin County.
Beyond the county policy and event news you'll read below, I want to highlight a number of meaningful items from over the last month:
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Legislative Advocacy: Transit and Hennepin Healthcare System; I've been at the Capital in coordination with my board colleagues, testifying and meeting with legislators in efforts to improve our regional transit system and secure a future for Hennepin Healthcare System (which includes HCMC and its clinics).
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Jewish Community Action Seder Dinner; This heartwarming community dinner highlighted some of the organizations leading our community in resistance and mutuality during the ICE occupation.
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Uptown United Community Meeting; Many thanks to community members who want to be part of how Uptown pulls through a difficult time.
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Cities United Panel; Hennepin County hosted the national Cities United leadership for a conversation about community safety grounded in national data.
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Emergency Rental Assistance; The county board approved guidelines to accept and allocate rental assistance funding. This program is supporting some of the most vulnerable people in our community.
One of my favorite changes that comes with the warmer weather is all of the community events and opportunities to connect with residents, neighborhoods, and advocacy groups. If you've got something cooking, please reach out to my office!
My best,
The county celebrated the grand opening of Simpson Community Shelter and Apartments, a new shelter with 72 beds and 42 affordable supportive housing apartments. At the site of the former Simpson United Methodist Church, 32 of the new rental units are reserved for households earning at or below 30% of the area median income, with 30 of those set aside for households exiting homelessness.
The county invested $840,000 in Supportive Housing Strategy capital funding, $400,000 in Transit Oriented Communities (TOC) funding, $225,000 in annual supportive services funding, $430,000 in annual shelter service funding, and $4 million in funding for shelter capital from federal sources.
The Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved actions to support small businesses and residents facing financial hardship after the recent federal immigration enforcement surge.
The county is deeply invested in waste diversion, reuse, and recycling and continues to accelerate the county towards a zero-waste future. The transformative investments made by the county is directing our region towards zero-waste and we continue to hit benchmarks en route to alternative waste management options. I continue to advocate to partners around the region who utilize the HERC, and at the legislature, for commitments and investments needed to build and maintain alternative waste management infrastructure.
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Top 10 actions completed by Hennepin County since developing our Zero Waste Plan in 2023
- Played a key role in the development and passage of the 2024 Paper and Packaging Reduction Act and are now participating in implementation.
- Developed the first-of-its-kind Wasted Food Prevention Plan, established a target to cut the amount of edible food discarded in half, launched the Trash or Cash campaign and weekly email with tips to prevent food waste.
- Expanded access to organics recycling for residents by requiring cities with a population of 10,000 or more to make curbside organics service available and smaller cities to offer drop-offs. More than 106,000 households participate in organics recycling programs and more than 60 organics drop-offs are available throughout the county.
- Launched Apartment Recycling Champions, an initiative that pays residents at multifamily buildings to become champions and educate their neighbors. We’ve recruited and trained 41 residents who reached people in about 3,900 units at 36 multifamily properties.
- Tripled the number of Recycling Ordinance inspectors who worked with 314 grocery stores, restaurants, and other businesses that produce a lot of food waste to be in compliance with the county’s organics recycling requirements.
- Expanded on the monthly Fix-It Clinics by debuting two locally led neighborhood fix-it hubs in Richfield and St. Anthony
- Increased building material reuse and recycling by hosting the Salvage Crawl and supporting local nonprofit deconstruction firms who fully or partially deconstructed 75 buildings while also prioritizing jobs and training for those facing barriers to employment.
- Created the MNimize program to help businesses reduce plastics. More than 130 businesses in the county have avoided 914,000 single-use plastic items, preventing 81,000 pounds of plastic waste and saving businesses $86,000.
- Provided educational assemblies at 60 schools and free compost to 53 schools for use in school gardens to close the loop on organics recycling each year.
- Visited 555 businesses to provide in-person waste prevention and recycling assistance and provided technical support to improve waste reduction, recycling, and organics recycling at 869 multifamily properties with more than 68,400 units.
Our Priorities for 2026
Legislative: Update batteries and e-waste extended producer responsibilities laws; increase SCORE funding
Minneapolis: Incentivize the city to accelerate their Zero Waste Plan by creating a funding mechanism for zero-waste initiatives, advancing efforts for the commercial sector (organized collection), and expanding multifamily work.
Plastics: Lead by example with internal policies. Support innovation with business waste prevention grants.
Infrastructure: Continue progress on developing recycling recovery facilities; broaden community engagement.
Events: Increase access to reuse opportunities by offering Swap-It events, building material donation events with cities, and new furniture reuse in partnership with Bridging.
Funding: Explore amendments to Ordinance 18 and/or other funding sources.
 Follow the link below for interactive road construction maps for District 3 and the county at-large.
Road construction season is about to begin. Check out how Hennepin County is improving our roads to make your travel safer, better and more reliably with our 2026 transportation activities map.
Starting this spring, you will see us across the county as we put our plans into action to improve crossings for people walking and rolling, repave roadways to make them smoother, update pavement markings to make them easier to see, replace signs that are no longer reflective and signal poles that are at the end of their service life, take care of our bridges, and more.
You will also see us working on major reconstruction projects. We implement new designs to help everyone travel better and ensure connections. These projects also give us an opportunity to coordinate with utilities and cities to replace, update and enhance what’s under the roadway and around the area.
Once you find a project you are interested in, click on the map to get more details and link directly to the project page on HennepinCounty.gov. There you will find the latest information and how to stay updated.
Check out an event in your neighborhood this month!
- April 9: Save the Food: Save Money, Time, and the Planet with Hennepin County, and the Lyndale, Tangletown, and Kingsfield Neighborhood Associations, 7 - 8 pm on Zoom
- April 11: Hennepin County Fix-It Clinic, St. Louis Park ROC, 12 - 4 pm
- April 16: City of St. Louis Park Arts and Craft Supply Swap at the ROC, 5 - 7 pm
- April 30: City of St. Louis Park Clothing Swap at the ROC, 5 - 7 pm
- April 20: Lyndale Neighborhood Association Fix it Clinic at Midtown Global Market, 12 - 3 pm
Please follow us on the following platforms for more timely updates on our work:
Given the elimination of my X account data, @MarionGreene is currently dormant. However, please give me a follow in anticipation of reasserting the account at some time in the future.
Contact us
Marion Greene
Commissioner, 3rd District
612-348-7883
Elie Farhat
Principal Aide
612-348-7125
Laura Hoffman
District Aide
612-348-0863
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