Temi Ogunrinde of Urban Homeworks shares her support for Bring it Home, Minnesota
Urban Homeworks envisions neighbors raising their collective voices to address injustice and overcome the barriers that perpetuate inequity. Temi’s testimony and the work of UHW’s Equity and Engagement team are deeply connected to that work. Click here to get involved and make a gift to invest in equitable communities supported by equitable housing policy.
Good afternoon. My name is Temi Ogunrinde and I’m the Equity and Engagement Director at Urban Homeworks. Chair Howard, Members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today regarding House File 11 (Bring it Home, Minnesota). Thank you, to each representative for moving this bill forward and the opportunity to testify on behalf of Urban Homeworks, our residents and larger community in support of House File 11.
Urban Homeworks is a nonprofit focused on affordable housing. We work to ensure families in North Minneapolis, South Minneapolis, and St. Paul, have safe, dignified, housing that they can afford. We know firsthand that the need for affordable housing is great, but we cannot do it alone. House File 11 alleviates the burdensome reality of paying more than 50-60% of your income on housing, whether they live in affordable housing or not. Because we know that even in housing that is considered affordable by HUD standards, families are still house burdened.
Time after time, our elected officials tout the importance of equity in our state but stay complacent to inequitable practices and systemic racism. Allow me to break down the reality of how our systems benefit our white Minnesotans far greater than our BIPOC Minnesotans: Minnesota provides a subsidy to homeowners through the mortgage interest deduction. This subsidy disproportionately benefits White Minnesotans due to the disparities between White homeownership and BIPOC homeownership. However, funding towards rent subsidies are largely underfunded, a subsidy that would greatly benefit BIPOC families. Now is the opportunity for every legislator, regardless of political affiliation to support true equity in the state of Minnesota, or run the risk of showing that your words of support toward equity are hollow and performative.
Simply put, supporting House File 11 is not only equitable, but also the right thing to do. This bill has impact beyond North Minneapolis, beyond the Twin Cities and beyond the metro area. A 2021 study done by Minnesota Housing Partnership showed that there is a high percent of Minnesotans who are house burdened in Hennepin, Anoka and Ramsey. However, there are higher concentrations of house burdened Minnesotans in the Itasca, Beltrami, Clay, Rice and other greater Minnesota counties. Let me break it down further to some of your specific jurisdictions. Representative Dotseth, 43.6% of your constituents spend more than 30% of their income towards rent. For Rep Nash: 43.3%, Petersburg 52.7% and Myers 52.3%. (Information shared also pictured in table graphic.)
Supporting House File 11 is an opportunity to think beyond your families and friends and think of the hard-working Minnesotans who are need of real support and voted you in to provide that.
The impact that House File 11 would have on Minnesotan families is generational. With families only paying 30% of their income towards rent, they have the opportunity to pay for healthcare and other basic needs. It allows Minnesotans to never have to worry about choosing between paying rent or putting food on the table.
When you have stability, and you start to dream, you can begin to do things like build an emergency savings fund, save for a down payment or their child’s college tuition. Last week Representative Nash spoke to wanting to be able to see the fruit of his labor. I don’t fault him; I genuinely do too. But my hope is that each representative will desire that for their constituents just as much as they desire it for themselves. The reality is, there are too many hardworking Minnesotans who have been unable to see the fruits of their labor due to skyrocketing rents and unaffordable housing. Imagine with me: What if we created a Minnesota where the majority of the population isn’t simply surviving – a MN where the majority of hardworking Minnesotans are stable, and from that stability are able to now dream of what thriving looks like for themselves and their families. Thank you.
