Week of Action Builds Momentum for Bring it Home, Minnesota
Written by Nestor Gomez Jimenez, Campaign Manager
Thank you to everyone that attended our Week of Action in February! As a collaborative, we are continuing to increase our political involvement to achieve greater housing measures. Your help and work prove that when people stand up for a good and righteous cause, we can shed light on issues that need to be addressed by our legislative leaders.
We have never had this much momentum before! Your involvement is making a difference and brought us to this place – thank you! It was a busy week. We had our first legislative committee hearing, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party in the House of Representatives released a housing plan, and many of us met with our legislators and shared our stories for the first time.
A HUGE thanks to the testifiers from endorsing organizations who appeared before the House of Representative’s Housing Finance and Policy committee on February 15th. Thank you to: Paul Williams of Project for Pride in Living; Irene Fernando, Hennepin County Commissioner; AsaleSol Young of Urban Homeworks; Melissa Taphorn of Washington County Community Development Agency; Linda Stage of Aeon; John Cole of Churches United in Ministry (CHUM); and Khulia Pringle of National Parents Union. Across the board, their testimony pointed to the pressing need for Bring it Home, Minnesota and the immense benefit it will bring. This strong showing of community leaders is paving the way to pass Bring it Home, Minnesota.
On February 16th, the House DFL released a housing plan to address the housing needs of our state. That plan totaled $1.8 billion, with hopes of getting that all into the House of Representatives Budget. The plan included $400 million to go towards rental assistance (Bring it Home, Minnesota)! This amount would provide rent support to nearly 140,000 people – which is still only about a quarter of those waiting for the assistance they deserve. We think it is a great step as we move forward. However, the need is greater, and we will continue to fight to have a universal program that can help EVERY eligible Minnesotan needing rental assistance. That is why becoming involved is important, and our collaborative is doing exactly that!
As more people from our collaborative decide to become leaders in this movement, we have seen a spike in involvement! We arranged over 39 legislative meetings in our Week of Action – with over 270 participating leaders! What is amazing is that there was little involvement from Beacon staff – a testament to our leader’s growth. Leaders spoke passionately and clearly about the need for Bring it Home, Minnesota and how it reflects our shared values, and boldly asked legislators to commit to or grow their support. Many of you posted photos of your virtual meetings on social media, which got eager engagement from legislators and helped share our message with a much wider audience.
Let us celebrate these accomplishments and continue to stay grounded in our fight for Bring it Home, Minnesota. The next few months left of the legislative session are pivotal. Let us continue to invite everyone into this campaign. This movement is people-powered, and it is showing!
