Hundreds of legislators and housing advocates gathered for the 4th Annual Start with Home Rally on Monday, February 23, to pack the Capitol Rotunda to make sure this session prioritizes legislation that:
MHP’s Policy Manager Courtney Schaff hosted a 2026 Legislative Preview on Wednesday, Feb 4, featuring a conversation with housing committee chairs Senator Lindsay Port (DFL), Representative Mike Howard (DFL), and Representative Spencer Igo (R). A special thank you to our legislators for engaging with housing advocates and sharing their insights. A recording of the event, slide deck, and chat questions are now available
On January 28, MHP shared key insights from our national Building for Extreme Weather toolkit—a practical resource designed to help communities prepare for heat, flooding, high winds, and wildfires. The session highlighted simple, adaptable strategies drawn from across the country to strengthen housing, reduce long-term costs, and better protect residents.
Join us from 3:30 – 5:30pm on December 4th! Come together with advocates, industry leaders, organizers, and housing champions from across the housing continuum at MHP’s Winter Social. This festive gathering is more than a celebration—it’s a moment to recognize our shared progress and gear up for the work ahead.
Join Our Future Starts at Home for a special conversation about successful ballot campaigns for affordable homes in Colorado and Los Angeles. We welcome Zach Martinez of Colorado and Aditi Shakkawar of Los Angeles to share stories of campaign strategies for election day success and expectations and results for affordable homes post-election.
Director of Policy and Advocacy at Gary Advocacy LLC and Gary Community Ventures
Zach brings deep expertise on the Colorado campaign for Prop 123. In November 2022, Colorado voters passed Proposition 123, a ballot measure authorizing the state to retain money from existing state tax revenue to support affordable housing investment. Learn more about Prop 123 and its implementation here.
Housing Advocacy Manager with United Way of Greater Los Angeles
Aditi worked closely with the coalition that was successful in passing the LA County sales tax, Measure A. In the November 2024 election, voters approved Los Angeles County’s Measure A, a campaign to increase the countywide sales tax by a half-cent to fund homelessness services and affordable housing. This measure replaced the previous quarter-cent Measure H, raising the county sales tax to 9.75% in most areas and generating an estimated $1 billion annually.
MHP’s very own Leah Hall will be presenting at HAC’s Build Rural Conference. The workshop, Housing Preservation Success: Blueprints and Stories, will cover strategies for rural affordable rental housing preservation.
What does it take for an organization to become a force in affordable housing preservation? Four organizations that have successfully included rural affordable rental housing preservation as a priority will share their stories. Presenters will share what motivated their organization to take on preservation work, describe example preservation deals, and describe how preservation fits into their broader organizational strategy moving forward. If you are considering making housing preservation part of your affordable housing toolkit, this session will provide insight from organizations who are actively prioritizing preservation of affordable housing.
On October 16th, 2025, MHP hosted the MN Rural Housing Workgroup and housing partners statewide for a discussion of Opportunity Zones 2.0. What are the opportunities and challenges for Opportunity Zones in Minnesota?
Thank you to Catherine Lyons, Senior Director of Policy and Coalitions at the Economic Innovation Group (EIG) for a fantastic presentation and discussion of Opportunity Zones (OZ) 2.0, including impacts of OZ on housing supply to date and potential community benefits from OZ 2.0. EIG has provided research and analysis of Opportunity Zones, as well as advocating for its permanent inclusion in the tax code.
Opportunity Zones (OZ) were originally enacted in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. OZ became a permanent part of the federal tax code in the OBBBA (One Big Beautiful Bill Act). As described by EIG, “the new OZ benefit structure heavily favors rural over non-rural investment, offering triple the standard step-up in basis benefit (30 percent versus the standard 10 percent) for investments made in a newly-created class of rural qualified opportunity funds, in addition to cutting the “substantial improvement” test in half for investments in rural areas.”
Additional Resources:
Catherine is Senior Director of Policy and Coalitions at EIG. Prior to joining EIG, she was Southern California Director for FWD.us, a bipartisan advocacy organization focused on immigration reform. Previous to that, she led the housing and community development policy work for the Bay Area Council in the San Francisco Bay Area. She served as an AmeriCorps member in New Orleans after receiving Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Southern California in Print Journalism and International Relations. She received her Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, during which she interned at the DC Department of Small and Local Business Development and the U.S. Senate Committee on the Budget.
On October 7th, 2025, MHP hosted the HUD and USDA Contingency Plan Walkthrough, a virtual event. Much appreciation to our presenter, Anne Smetak, of the Housing Justice Center, for sharing her expertise with us. You can view Anne’s slide deck here, which has links to many resources.
Please reach out to Anne with further questions: Anne Smetak (she/her), Director and Senior Counsel for Housing System Response, Housing Justice Center, at [email protected]
Resources on Shutdown:
MHP Deputy Executive Director Elizabeth Glidden will be participating in a panel at the 2025 Hope in Action: A Conference for Non-Profit Leaders who Serve!
Best & Promising Practices in Services and Policy: A Housing Panel featuring Jenny Larson, Michael Dahl, Elizabeth Glidden, Jason Krebsbach & Julie Laramie
From ending homelessness to providing rental opportunities to promoting homeownership, creating and maintaining affordable homes for all requires work across a wide spectrum. Hear from a variety of policy experts and service providers about the types of strategies being used to address the need for affordable housing.
In 2023, the Minnesota Legislature approved the Local Affordable Housing Aid (LAHA) program, funded by a 0.25% Metro sales tax for use in the 7-county Twin Cities Metropolitan area, and a Statewide Affordable Housing Aid (SAHA) program funded through appropriations. Cities and counties have discretion to spend funds on a broad range of eligible affordable housing projects, including for emergency rental assistance.
Join us to hear from three counties and cities about how they have utilized LAHA and SAHA funds, what has worked, and what challenges they have confronted.
Our program will feature:
After case study presentations, we will host a panel discussion with our guests. Local and Statewide Affordable Housing Aid resources are here.
This event is sponsored by the Minnesota ERASE campaign, which works to end rental arrears and stop eviction through advocacy for emergency rental assistance and related resources.