Rent policies: The vision must be an affordable home for all
Written by Rev. Sarah Campbell, Team Lead Minister at collaborating congregation Mayflower Community Congregational United Church of Christ in Minneapolis.
A shorter version of this piece first appeared in the Star Tribune Opinion section on November 28, 2021.
Renters belong in our communities. Votes authorizing rent stabilization in St. Paul and Minneapolis demonstrate that we don’t want renters driven out because of spiking costs. Now we must pass universal rent vouchers to ensure people can afford their rent in the first place. It’s time for our elected officials to pass Bring It Home, Minnesota.
As a resident and minister in Minneapolis, I was pleased to join my neighbors in voting for rent stabilization. Home is the foundation of so much in our lives, and families should be protected from unexpected spikes in rent. Through powerful organizing based on one-on-one conversations, we came together to affirm our vision for our city as one where renters matter and the system works for all of us. The City Council and Mayor Frey need to move quickly and thoughtfully to enact strong rent stabilization that reflects this vision.
Rent stabilization is a good and important piece of the bigger conversation about what it means to be a state and a society where people can actually afford to live. Home is the bedrock of healthy lives and healthy communities. Without the stability of home, our education, health, employment, dreams, civic engagement, food security, ability to provide for aging parents or young children, and everything else we value and depend upon is on shaky ground.
Renters in every Minnesota county are struggling to keep a roof overhead. What should be a basic given in our society – an affordable home – is threatened for hundreds of thousands of us every day. This crisis is urgent, growing, and wounding to people’s lives and the strength of our community.
The good news is that we know how to change this. Rent vouchers help people with lower incomes find and stay in their homes. Having a voucher means a family doesn’t have to pay more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. It keeps rent affordable so that budgets can stretch further. Families can start saving for a house, college, or a rainy day fund. Kids can get clothes that fit and food that’s healthy. Seniors can afford life-saving medications. Rent vouchers let people stay in the homes and communities they love!
It’s time that our state actually invested in the solution we need. Bring It Home, Minnesota rent voucher legislation would do just that.
I believe that Heaven is not a solitude: It’s a city. In the final (metaphorical) vision in our Christian holy book, people are not swept away. They are brought together. And those who have left come back. The gate is always open. All are welcome. Tears are wiped away. And the presence of God permeates the entire city. It’s a vision of hope – and home.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life producing its fruit each month and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. (The Book of Revelation).
State legislators and the Walz administration must come together to pass Bring It Home, Minnesota. It’s time to solve this crisis and demonstrate that renters really DO belong in our communities. It’s time to be visionary and hopeful and just.
