Brownfields Redevelopment Provides
Improved Social Services to Immigrant
Hmong Community of St. Paul, Minnesota
w,
St. Paul, Minnesota
hen the Saint Paul Port Authority (SPPA) and the non-
profit Vang Pao Foundation applied for an EPA Brownfields
Cleanup grant in 2004, they did so with a very specific project
in mind. The City of Saint Paul, Minnesota, already designated
as an EPA Showcase Community for its brownfields restoration
successes, is home to a burgeoning community of Hmong refugees
who immigrated to the United States to escape persecution in
Southeast Asia. Thousands of Hmong have relocated to this
Midwestern city, making it the largest Hmong community in the
country. The Hmong have integrated themselves into the larger
St. Paul community while working to maintain and celebrate their
unique cultural identity and traditions.
One of the most sacred traditional rites in the Hmong culture
is that of the funeral, which involves extensive preparations,
feasting, and mourning, and can often be a costly, weekend-long
affair. A traditional funeral often requires an entire community of
mourners preparing food, eating, performing music, celebrating
and sleeping near the deceased, all of which takes place at the
funeral home. Playing host to funerals of this scale regularly
overwhelmed St. Paul's already established funeral homes, forcing
Hmong to spend months on waiting lists before being able to pay
homage to deceased relatives. Because of this, a Hmong non-profit
named the Vang Pao Foundation reached out to the Saint Paul Port
Authority, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), and
the EPA to form an innovative new partnership.
Recognizing the critical need for the Hmong community to
establish their own funeral home, and acknowledging the lack of
available land, this partnership turned its attention to a dormant
brownfield owned by the SPPA. This 3.3-acre former waste dump,
which operated from the 1920s through the 1950s, had already
been closed for ten years when it was purchased by the SPPA. In
2004, the Port Authority performed an assessment that revealed
higher than normal levels of petroleum, asbestos, poly chlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs), lead, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
(PAHs), and other metals in the soil and groundwater.
New friends braved a cold November day to participate in
the groundbreaking for the new facility (above);
the completed funeral home (below).
JUST THE FACTS:
• Used $400,000 in EPA Brownfields
Cleanup grants to prepare the
property for redevelopment.
• Leveraged more than $200,000 from
state and local funding sources.
• Provides the Hmong community
two new and much needed buildings
where funerals can be held.
"Most people think that a new
funeral home is not something
to celebrate, but to the
Hmong community, culturally,
it's very significant."
- Keary Cragan
continued
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Together, the Port Authority and the Vang Pao Foundation applied for and received EPA Brownfields
Cleanup grants totaling $400,000, in the form of a Hazardous Cleanup grant and a Petroleum
Cleanup grant, to be used on this parcel of land. The planned redevelopment of the property into a
Hmong funeral home was intended to advance a larger, surrounding redevelopment initiative, also
sponsored by the SPPA and funded by EPA grants, to renovate one of the city's industrial corridors.
Locating the planned funeral home within this redeveloping industrial area was suggested by the
SPPA and agreed to by all of the project's partners, as the property is ideally located outside of St.
Paul's bustling downtown in an area where parking is abundant and neighbors
would not be affected by gathering mourners. According to Keary Cragan,
EPA Brownfields Project Manager for Region 5, "The fact that this
Hmong funeral home is in a commercial-industrial area on the west CO NTACTS"
side of the city provides them privacy and great parking. Most ~
people think that a new funeral home is not something to celebrate, For more information on this award>
, , TT . , ,, . , . .„ „ or on EPAs Brownfields Program, contact
but to the Hmong community, culturally, it s very significant. EPA Region 5 at (312) 353.5669
The Port Authority began work on the property under the Visit the EPA Brownfields Web site at:
leadership of the MFC A Voluntary Investigation and Cleanup www.epa.gov/brownfields/
Program (VIC), in October of 2004. EPA and the MFC A have a
unique partnership in Minnesota in which the Pollution Control
Agency plays a significant role. EPA-funded cleanups are overseen
by the VIC Program, the state program that regulates and guides
Minnesota's brownfields cleanup activities. According to Cragan, this
relationship has led to several highly successful projects. "MFCA has been very innovative in
assisting private developers and communities to voluntarily clean up properties." It was these kinds
of creative local, state, and federal partnerships, empowered by EPA grant dollars, which led to the
cleanup of the Hmong funeral home property.
In addition to EPAs Cleanup grants for this project, the SPPA leveraged $187,500 from the
Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development Contamination Cleanup and
Investigation Grant Program, received a $62,500 Metropolitan Council grant, and committed
$2,048 from their own budget. Cleanup was completed on December 15, 2004, clearing the way for
redevelopment, which began in March and wrapped up in August of 2005. The property now features
not one but two buildings where Hmong funerals can be held, enabling more than one funeral to take
place without interfering with the cultural customs embraced by the Hmong community.
Since its opening during the summer of 2005, the Hmong Funeral Home has been in nearly constant
demand, and has greatly decreased the waiting period and stress for the Hmong community of St.
Paul. The innovative partnerships, creative resource leveraging, and expertise of EPA, the MFC A,
the SPPA, the Vang Pao Foundation, and the Hmong community itself all came together to resolve
the unique cultural challenges on this unconventional brownfields project. As explained by Keary
Cragan, "I think most people look at brownfields and say, 'Well, you've got a large industrial site, so
you need large industry.' People need to think of new uses for old sites and think of what is needed
by the community now. [This project] was community driven. It wasn't the city or the Port Authority
trying to dictate what the Hmong community needed; it was the community stating what they needed
and working collaboratively to meet the need. [The project] was driven by the Hmong community
and it made everyone happy. This is a really positive thing."
Brownfields Success Story Solid Waste EPA 560-F-10-211
Improved Social Services in the Community: and Emergency July 2010
Hmong Funeral Home, St. Paul, Minnesota Response (5105T) www.epa.gov/brownfields/
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