Home is the foundation for everything. Yet current leadership is not doing enough to provide stable, affordable, and livable housing for all.

 

All Minneapolitans deserve stable housing. I know that far too many of our neighbors are living in desperation because they don’t have a place they can call home, or they are one step away from homelessness every month. Many more have homes they cannot trust - because of dangerous living conditions or unexpected changes in rental terms.

Minneapolis needs more stable, truly affordable housing. But stability and affordability are meaningless when housing is uninhabitable. We cannot pledge to provide affordable housing while ignoring powerful landlords who disregard city code and the well-being of their tenants. Too many Minneapolitans are paying rent to live in substandard housing.

While most landlords do the right thing, providing essential and safe housing opportunities for our residents, I have seen firsthand living conditions involving mold and infestations that are making Minneapolis children and their families seriously ill.

As mayor, I am committed to bringing safe, stable, and livable housing to all Minneapolitans. Together, we will:

• Bolster our city inspection program so it has the resources to be more proactive in finding and bringing to light negligent landlords throughout the city. 

• Establish an easily accessible “one-stop shop” (online and in person) resource for Minneapolis tenants including such things as:

  • Easily accessible information about every available rental assistance source at the city, state and national level

  • Dedicated navigators to guide people through the assistance application process

  • Detailed information about every available housing-related legal aid organization 

  • Easily understood summaries of applicable housing statutes and city codes

  • A portal for lodging and tracking questions, issues, and complaints accessible to both city inspectors and local housing-oriented legal aid organizations

• Create a task force of industry representatives and experts whose purpose is to develop a framework to ensure developers provide enough truly affordable units in new construction.

• Champion the use of green, sustainable practices and materials in new housing construction.

• Consider establishing a “points” system that tracks habitability and other complaints against landlords, focusing on large landlords as a pilot program. 

• Work with leadership from Hennepin County and other area cities to consider establishing a voucher system that would be supplemental to the federal Section 8 programs and would provide quicker, more flexible affordable housing options.

• Advocate for an equitable, sustainable, city-wide policy that balances the investments landlords have made in their properties with the need for renters to have stable, fair rent prices.

• Push for the creation of a low-income housing public defender office that supplements, and works in coordination with, existing housing-focused legal aid organizations to ensure that every low-income Minneapolis tenant has the right to an attorney in eviction cases.