What happened with housing in the 2022 legislative session?
by Rev. Nancy Nord Bence, Public Policy Manager
In a year with a $9.3 billion budget surplus, we should be celebrating a massive state investment in home. The Governor’s office and state legislature have decried Minnesota’s housing crisis and shameful racial inequity in housing. Our society has the resources to invest in Bring it Home, Minnesota and abundant housing bonds so all of us have a stable place to call home.
Instead, in this year of surpassing abundance, when advocacy organizations came together to call for $2 billion in state spending for housing, the legislative session ended with no additional spending for housing and no agreement to keep working in a special session.
The Governor, House, and Senate failed to agree on spending budgets and did not pass significant spending or tax bills. There is talk that they will come to some type of agreement in the coming days and get back to work with a special session, but they have not reached any deals.
It is unacceptable that partisan politics won at the state Capitol this year. Housing insecurity and homelessness do not take election years off. We have the resources to pass major solutions on housing, and instead, we got partisan positioning that led to failure.
Amidst the maddening situation, however, Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative made some important advancements that we should recognize. What follows is a summary of what we accomplished together.
Bring it Home, Minnesota Campaign for Rent Support
During the 2022 legislative session, Bring it Home, Minnesota saw its campaign status elevated from a “dream bill” to a serious legislative priority. After our first press conference, campaign membership increased to over 40 partner organizations and momentum grew as 43 representatives and 10 senators signed on as co-authors of our Bring it Home, Minnesota bills.
An extremely successful Week of Action in February involving 300 Beacon congregation members, as well as meetings with Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and other key leaders, resulted in Bring it Home, Minnesota getting a second hearing in the House Housing Finance and Policy Committee. All this hard work paid off when the DFL House Caucus included $400 million for a new rental assistance program in their funding plan.
Unfortunately, our excitement was squelched later in the session when House leadership aligned with Governor Walz’s supplemental budget, which contained no Bring it Home, Minnesota funds. We responded. Our strategy included organizing a Bring it Home, Minnesota Rally at the Capitol in which 22 legislators and over 150 supporters participated to call out the lack of support from top leadership. Finally, in May, we were able to meet with Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller’s office to make a pitch in support of Bring it Home, Minnesota. We have heard nothing as of yet from Governor Walz’ office in response to our meeting request.
Learning from 2022’s legislative session, Beacon’s Bring it Home, Minnesota team has decided to propose a summer candidate and voter education program to gain further momentum and play a proactive role in 2023. We are asking our allies, Beacon organizers, and supporters to engage in these events to help make Bring it Home, Minnesota a reality in 2023. Talk to your regional organizer or email Nestor for more information.
Housing Infrastructure Bonds (HIBs)
We were initially excited when the Governor’s supplemental budget included $400 million for HIBs, which would have been a significant increase over prior years. Housing Infrastructure Bonds are vital for funding the construction of deeply affordable supportive housing, homes like Beacon’s 66 West and Bimosedaa. But as the session progressed, we noted that Senator Rich Draheim, Chair of the Senate Housing Finance and Policy Committee, was making strong, and often inaccurate, statements in opposition to Housing Infrastructure Bonds. This was surprising, since HIBs have been a bipartisan funding priority in the past.
Beacon’s staff took the Senator’s threats seriously, researching and preparing accurate information about HIBs and distributing it to legislators on both sides of the aisle through clergy meetings, action alerts, and our partners in the Homes For All coalition. In growing concern during the final weeks of session, we flyered outside the Senate chambers, sent a letter from 39 concerned clergy leaders to the Governor’s office and key legislative leaders, organized a twitter storm with our members, created a calling campaign to Senator Draheim’s office, made numerous additional contacts to legislators on the housing and bonding committees, and tried to get the attention of the media.
Regrettably, elected officials let the clock run out without passing Housing Infrastructure Bonds, in a huge blow to Minnesota’s families, communities, and future economic stability.
To ensure that Housing Infrastructure Bonds once again become a top bipartisan priority in 2023, we will make meeting with legislators and organizing tours of Beacon homes an important part of our summer and fall public policy plans. We’ll also continue to educate our members about HIBs so they’re prepared for our legislative actions in 2023. Next year, we won’t be surprised by attacks on HIBs–and we’ll be ready for them.
New Staff
Beacon created two new public policy positions, Campaign Manager for our Bring it Home, Minnesota campaign, led by Nestor Gomez Jimenez, and my position, Public Policy Manager. These new staffing investments enabled Beacon to significantly broaden and deepen our involvement at the legislature in 2022, which will bode well for future sessions.
Conclusion
If you’re one of the hundreds of Beacon members, partners, and supporters who participated in our legislative actions in 2022, please know we did make huge strides forward. Thank you!
We may still have an opportunity to pass housing infrastructure bonds if there is an agreement to a special session. Please watch for further email updates on this.
As we move into the summer, please talk to your regional organizer or email Nestor to find out the next steps on Bring it Home, Minnesota!
