Minnesota Bill Would Provide Rental Assistance To 550,000 Low-Income Residents

By Max Nesterak, the Minnesota Reformer

February 2, 2021

Nearly 40 state Democratic legislators want to provide rental assistance to every low-income Minnesotan who needs it: some 550,000 residents.

Unlike food stamps and Medical Assistance, housing support is not a government “entitlement” program — meaning people can be eligible for help but not receive it. Just one in four Americans who are eligible for federal housing assistance through programs like Section 8 vouchers or public housing receive it.

No state currently provides rental assistance to each household that needs it, and doing so would cost Minnesota an estimated $1.5 billion a year, increasing the share of the state’s spending on housing from around .3% to 4%. That’s based on preliminary analysis from Rep. Michael Howard, DFL-Richfield, who authored the bill and has requested the state calculate how much the program would cost.

“We need to go big when it comes to our investments in housing,” Howard said. “It’s a bold yet simple approach to make sure Minnesotans can afford their homes.”

After first introducing the bill last year, Howard reintroduced the proposal Monday with Sen. Kari Dziedzic, DFL-Minneapolis, and co-authors in the House and Senate, all democrats.

The legislation proposes providing support to Minnesotans earning less than 50% of the area median income — about $45,000 for a three-person household in the Twin Cities metro — and who are paying more than 30% of their income on rent.

First-term Rep. Liz Reyer, DFL-Eagan, said during the bill’s first hearing on Tuesday that housing assistance was key to her getting out of an abusive relationship. After living in a shelter for victims of domestic abuse, Reyer was able to rent a home for her and her son with a Section 8 voucher and finish her education.

“When those few precious vouchers came along, I was able to get my life back on track,” Reyer said. “I needed that healing time that housing gave me … We should make that available for everyone.”

The legislation is unlikely to pass in a difficult budget year, in which the state needs to close a $883 million budget hole and address the economic wreckage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the pandemic has also galvanized support for addressing the housing crisis across the state, which has hit low-wage service workers especially hard. They are already more likely to pay more than a third of their income in rent and are disproportionately people of color.

Gov. Tim Walz created a $100 million housing assistance program with federal coronavirus relief funds to help people continue making housing payments during the pandemic. The state also allocated $100 million toward housing construction and rehabilitation in its $1.9 billion public works spending bill last year.

Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, a non-profit developer of housing for low-income people, has been organizing grassroots energy for the legislative effort under the name “Bring It Home, Minnesota” for the past two years.

“We need to scale the solution to the size of the problem,” Beacon Interfaith CEO Lee Blons said. “We don’t think we can wait for the federal government to solve this.”

The Minnesota Reformer is an independent, nonprofit news organization dedicated to keeping Minnesotans informed and unearthing stories other outlets can’t or won’t tell..