Zahnia Harut
Story By Julie Zhou
Art by Anh Tran
“What does a meaningful life mean to you?”
This is the first question that Zahnia Harut asks when someone new joins her community. It is a question that reflects central tenets of Zahnia’s work: witness and testimony as modes of care, autonomy as a restorative practice, imagination as an act of love. In a housing system that often endorses individual responsibility over mutual aid, Zahnia proposes an alternative—shelter as community work.
As the executive director and director of nursing for Affinity Residential Care, Zahnia provides healthcare, residential care, housing stabilization services, and positive behavioral supports for individuals with disabilities, older adults, and individuals dealing with homelessness.
“Affinity has always been a community organization,” Zahnia emphasizes. “We serve the community, we look like the community, and we provide culturally aligned support and services.”
Through her work at Affinity and her career as a residential nurse and public health nurse, Zahnia has witnessed firsthand the systemic disparities that pervade housing and healthcare, particularly for Black and Brown communities. As the board chair for the Residential Providers Association of Minnesota, a coalition of Black and Brown providers of supportive services and disability services, Zahnia is closing these disparities.
“Providers are often the first voice for their clients,” she observes. “They can serve as a guide to resources, push for reimbursements, advocate for higher standards of care, provide culturally-aligned support, and support clients in navigating housing and healthcare.”
Leveraging public education and legislative advocacy alongside deep community relationships, Zahnia and other RPAM members are combating the historic erasure of the Black and Brown disability community in public policy, lifting up their voices and perspectives to every level of the political process. In doing so, they hope to build new processes where every member of their community is able to participate in the policy decisions that affect their lives and loved ones.
“What does a meaningful life mean to you?”
Over the years, Zahnia has asked this question of dozens of clients, staff, friends, and family. Now, it will become the guiding framework of Zahnia and Affinity’s next project—the Meaningful Life Loft.
“The Meaningful Life Loft is going to be an intergenerational community center with wellness services, homeless prevention navigation services, and day services for older adults,” Zahnia shares. “It’s going to be the center of all of our resources, right in south Minneapolis.”
Once complete, the space will offer a holistic range of services and supports for anyone seeking help, care, or just community. Through the Meaningful Life Loft, Zahnia not only hopes to provide reliable housing, food, and healthcare, but to open up the infinite futures that are made possible once basic needs are met: providing a space for community members to imagine, create, indulge, and explore.
“What does a meaningful life mean to you?” For Zahnia, the Meaningful Life Loft brings her answer to life.
“This care, that's my core,” Zahnia says. “My community is the Black and Brown disability community. I do this work for them. And that is what a meaningful life means to me: to be surrounded by the people I love and who love me, building something together.”
