Join the Our Future Starts at Home Campaign!

In coalition, we are launching Our Future Starts at Home, a statewide housing campaign focused on passing a constitutional amendment for housing, for dedicated, ongoing revenue crucial to ensuring we all have a place to call home.

Revenue would go into three funds, the Homeownership Opportunity Fund, the Rental Opportunity Fund, and the Household and Community Stability Fund. The funds are flexible to include innovative concepts as well as existing programs, funds, and financing. Each fund will have a council (with lived experience and grassroots organizations) to make budget and policy recommendations to the Governor and Legislature.

Read more about the policy proposal here, endorse the constitutional amendment for housing, and let us know how you’d like to be involved! We are pleased that the Homes for All MN coalition has endorsed!

OurHomesMN.org  •  @Ourhomesmn

Capitol Housing Rally Starts the Legislative Session with Home

Yesterday, a Capitol Rotunda packed with advocates saw a rousing rally for housing to launch the session. Government leaders called for housing investment, including Governor Tim Walz, Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman, Senate Majority Leader Kari Dziedzic, Minnesota Housing Commissioner Jennifer Ho, House Majority Leader Jamie Long, Senator Lindsey Port, Representative Michael Howard, and Hennepin County Commissioner Irene Fernando.

Left: Lieutenant Gov Peggy Flanagan: "It’s clear and urgent: Minnesotans across the state deserve a safe home at a price they can afford – and with our historic surplus, we can get it done.

We also heard from people with the lived experience of struggling with housing, including Patrice Kunesh of the Native American Rights Fund and MHP board member, who realized the value of housing stability when she found herself living in public housing with her two young daughters – which was neither safe nor stable. Kunesh decried the disparities in housing in Minnesota, where Native people account for 8 percent of Minnesota’s homeless adult population, though they represent about 2% of the population, the largest disparity of any group in the state. She ended with a call for $2B for housing this year and housing on the ballot in 2024!

Sedia Omar of the New American Development Center, spoke directly to the question of a constitutional amendment for housing:

"You may see a home as a four-wall place, but to East African families and the families we serve, a home means comfort, security. A home is where a sense of identity, belonging, building your family culture and spiritual of who you are is created.

We need to put housing on the ballot to ensure the state is making investments Minnesotans need. These investments need to be at scale and for decades. 

We need a new approach, as the status quo has contributed to our housing crisis. We need new solutions. Our proposal for a Constitutional Amendment ensures that frontline leaders and grassroots groups and people with lived experience are decision-makers so that solutions are community driven. 

Enough is Enough. For too long, too many Minnesotans have experienced homelessness, housing insecurity, and been barred from owning their own homes. For decades, the state has underinvested in housing—treating it as a “luxury” that can be funded only if there is leftover money. Like clockwork each session, housing funding gets cut. 

A constitutional amendment ensures long-term investments in home. Asking Minnesotans to vote for homes means these investments can't be taken away depending on legislative makeups. 

Housing is basic human need, lets this year be a year of building homes and strengthening communities." --Sedia Omar, New American Development Center

Homes for All Launch on January 25th - Register Now!

Homes for All Annual Launch:

Our Home Impacts Everything 

Wednesday, January 25th, 10:00am - 11:15am

Join us virtually for the Homes for All Annual Launch! Learn about our 2023 legislative agenda, hear from the Governor's Office, participate in a call to action, and learn from folks with lived experience of housing instability.

Location (virtual): This event will take place via Zoom webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Accessibility: ASL interpretation and CART (live) captioning will be available.

If you have questions about accessibility, please email Gene Martinez at [email protected].

Minnesota Housing is Accepting Applications for the 2023 Housing Tax Credit!

Minnesota Housing is now accepting applications for Round 2 of the 2023 Housing Tax Credit (HTC) Program. The agency has announced $81,180 in HTCs is currently available. The Housing Tax Credits webpage  will be updated if additional HTCs become available. Applications are due Friday, 24, 2023.

MHP's Anne Mavity Presents Challenges and Solutions to House Committee

“Many of you know me to be partisan on a handful of things,” said Rep. Jim Nash (R-Waconia). “This [housing] is not one of them. This is something we all have to solve.”

MHP Executive Director Anne Mavity presented to the first 2023 meeting of the House Housing Finance and Policy Committee with Minnesota Housing, outlining the state of housing, including worsening disparities for Minnesotans of color, a crisis of production, and how investment at scale will solve it.

MHP Partners in Texas to Provide Technical Assistance

Staff from Cdcb, Self Help Center, MHP, and Colonias Unidas gather in Los Lomas, TX

In December, MHP staff traveled to two rural communities along the Rio Grande River in Texas. Together with staff members from come dream. come build, MHP's Community Development Team met with local stakeholders including the staff from the Starr County Self Help Center and Colonias Unidas in Los Lomas to learn about the needs in their communities.

Of the more than 200 Colonias communities in Starr County, MHP worked to zero in on a few as a starting point, including Los Lomas and Rio Grande City. The team learned of 13 vacant lots that might be perfect for cdcb’s MiCasita homes and met with two of the owners.

While on site, the project team also checked out some multifamily rental properties that were on the market in Rio Grande City and Roma. It was a great start to this engagement, helping CDCB gain a footing in these two rural cities and adjacent colonias communities. MHP's team is planning another trip there next spring.

The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota has released The Impact of the COVID-19 Eviction Moratorium on Landlord-Initiated Displacement Actions In Minnesota for the ERASE campaign of MN. This report examines formal evictions and extrajudicial actions taken by landlords to move renters out of their homes, or what the study calls Landlord Initiated Displacement Actions. Additionally, this study analyzes how the eviction moratorium, in place from 2020 through 2022, affected the rate at which LIDAs occurred across the state of Minnesota.

An article from Bloomberg CityLab explores the challenges facing many Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) holders. Although demand is at an all time high, HCV holders are struggling to utilize them. “There's a huge backlog of people who need assistance and not enough resources allocated by Congress to actually provide vouchers to those people,” said Mary Cunningham, of the Urban Institute. 

Advocate with MHP in 2023

Your experiences, story, and voice are powerful. Join MHP to connect with lawmakers on issues important to you! Outreach to lawmakers from their constituents, through individual and group meetings, calls, and emails, is a compelling way to motivate policy change. MHP will provide training and support. Please join us! Fill out this form or contact us at: [email protected].

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