Sharmarke Issa was confirmed by the Minneapolis City Council to chair Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA). Issa is the first immigrant and first East African to serve as chair of the MPHA Board of Commissioners.

“Having grown up in in Minneapolis public housing after coming to our city as a refugee, Sharmarke’s story of success highlights public housing as vital asset in Minneapolis,” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. “Sharmarke’s life experience and background in urban planning are especially important to MPHA’s mission. At a time when the federal government continues to shortchange housing funding, he will be a skilled steward of our public housing infrastructure who understands and centers the needs of residents.”

Approximately one-third of Minneapolis Public Housing residents are members of the East-African community.

An Edina man who chaired the board of the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal wire fraud charges for his role in the Feeding Our Future nutrition program fraud scheme.

Sharmarke Issa, 42, admitted to running entities that laundered federal funding for the scheme, including Wacan Restaurant LLC and a nonprofit called Minnesota’s Somali Community.

Issa was responsible for $7.6 million of the $50 million in fraud scheme money that the federal government says it lost,

Issa claimed to serve 2.3 million meals to children at his food sites. He admitted that some of the fraud scheme money instead went to properties he purchased in Edina, Minneapolis and elsewhere.

When Sharmarke’s name first surfaced in 2022 as part of the case, Frey said the allegations against him were “appalling” and “run counter to the values that we are entrusted to uphold in the City of Minneapolis.”