The affordable housing crisis
has been atop many legislative
and policy efforts over the last
few years. The data is clear: the
the gap between rents and income
continues to widen and more
families find themselves with
unstable housing, or unhoused,
or stressed by paying too much of
their income towards rent.
Alliance Housing is small but
mighty in our coalition-based
housing advocacy. During the
current Minnesota legislative
session, we’re focused on two
efforts. In past years, our advocacy
work with Homes for All MN
has garnered $100 million in
housing infrastructure bond (HIB)
authorization by the MN Legislature.
These resources are essential to
fund the type of housing Alliance
owns and managers for very low
income and low-wage earners.
Given the State’s 2022 surplus and
the size of the housing problem,
this year the group is asking for
$2 billion in resources to create
and preserve homes and to create
more access to affordable housing
with rent and homeownership
assistance. Minnesotans of color
are disproportionately affected by
the housing crisis. The investment
will reduce disparities and expand
choice.
Right now, please take
the opportunity to talk with your own elected officials about how
people you know are affected by
the affordable housing crisis and
ask them to support $2 billion for
housing. If you’d like to get involved
in future policy alerts and efforts
look for Homes for All MN tweets or
posts to their Facebook page.
For the past couple of legislative
sessions, we’ve also partnered
with Beacon Interfaith Housing
Collaborative and 80 some other
housing developers and service
providers to advocate for rent
assistance for very low-income
households through Bring it Home
MN. Current programs like Section 8
only fund 1 of 4 families that qualify.
With rents increasing over the
last 10 years, families are simply not able
to afford rents with what they are able to earn.
Rent assistance would help keep
more families stable so they could
retain employment and do lots of
other good things in their lives.
Again, look for alerts on Twitter and
other social media.
