A Test Like Nothing Else: Lynn’s Testimony for Bring it Home, Minnesota
The following testimony was shared by Lynn at our Bring it Home, Minnesota rally at the capitol in April of 2022. It has been republished with permission from the speaker.
I am a Saint Paul resident. I’ve lived here for decades. I’ve been a renter for decades. And I’ve been employed for decades. Everything was, more or less, stable until a few years ago.
Before the pandemic, I’d been trying to move for quite a while. I lived in one place for seven years. But it was really hard to find an affordable home. So, I would look during the right seasons that I thought I could move in. Never finding anything that looked like it was safe, affordable, and not substandard.
I kept on doing that and kept on working. Then in 2020 the pandemic hit, and I was laid off like so many other people. I tried to hold on for the next few months. Come fall, I started looking again and found a place that I thought was going to be okay. It was seemingly better than where I was. It just felt more comfortable and seemed to be safe. But most importantly, it was affordable.
I moved in just before Christmas in 2020. Only to find out six months later that the owners weren’t going to keep the duplex. Needless to say, it was pretty crazy. I had barely gotten there. Before I knew it, I needed to think about where to move next.
In the meantime, my mother had died, and we had another family tragedy. There was a lot on my shoulders.
Last June, I started looking and started calling everybody I knew who might know something. I tried just about everything. Even the things that people don’t do all the time nowadays. I started posting things looking for rent. I started going everywhere I could, driving around and doing everything.
By July, I was doing this seven days a week. The clock was ticking. Since my landlord said I could leave before the lease was finished, I thought I would try to leave before the snow came. I was looking for housing every day, seven days a week, just feeling exhausted.
Week after week for about eight or ten weeks. Calling and going to see places. Finding nothing that was affordable or even decent enough to rent. Finally, towards the end of August I found something that seemed to be in a decent location for me and safe. The landlord seemed responsible, and all things were falling into place. Except for the rent.
The rent was about $245.00 more than I was paying or have ever paid. But I thought, I have to go somewhere. I had nowhere else to go. I had to move. So, I just took a leap of faith and moved over sometime in the fall. Meanwhile, I wasn’t working yet because of all these different setbacks.
I started looking again for work as the beginning of the year rolled around. I started putting my applications out, writing letters, networking with people that I knew, and had a couple of interviews. But meanwhile, I didn’t have work.
Since January, I’ve been asking community programs to help me. I can’t even tell you how hard it is. I can’t tell you how hard it is to have to go and ask people for help on something as basic as your rent.
But I’m trying. I’m moving forward. I’m determined to put my best self forward. But as I do that, there’s this constant worry about what if as I watch my money dwindle.
I live a very bare bones kind of life. But I still have to eat, and still have to put gas in the car.
I’m just asking today for everyone who can to please give this bill support. Because my story is mine, and everyone’s story is different. Living what I have these last few months and year has shown me things that I only heard about from other people. Now I’ve known it for myself.
I can’t say enough how the lack of feeling like you have a stable house and the worry that somehow you might not…It just puts you through a test like nothing else.
I know that if this bill becomes law, it will change the situation I am in and it would change things for thousands of Minnesotans. Because as you know, we have some of the highest rents in the country and as far as I can tell, they aren’t going down.
I just hope that there will be support so that people can live in dignity. So we can have a healthier Minnesota, healthier communities and all-around better health. I thank you for the time.
Every story of housing instability is unique. Lynn’s story shows the difficulties of finding an affordable home in Minnesota. It shouldn’t be this hard. With Bring it Home, Minnesota we can ensure that all Minnesotans get the rent support they need. Click here to learn more.
Read another testimony on why we need Bring it Home, Minnesota here.
