City/Town: Coon Rapids

Legislative District: Senate District 35

Party: Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party

Candidate responses in italics.

Q1: Housing plays a critical role in economic stability, health, and quality of life for individuals and families. However, disparities in housing continue to affect communities of color, people with disabilities, rural communities, and other historically underserved populations. What meaningful actions should be taken to acknowledge, address, and eliminate housing inequities and advance housing opportunities for all Minnesotans?

This is an issue that needs to be addressed at multiple levels including the county and state level. In my district and surrounding communities, we are seeing population growth and need housing to support that especially for immigrant communities and seniors who face rising mortgage prices. This means supporting policy that helps first time homebuyers, particularly in the BIPOC community, and including legislation to limit private equity firms from purchasing single family homes and ramping up prices. This takes cooperation from the local and state governments, focusing on zoning requirements and encouraging local buyers.

Q2: Supportive housing combines affordable housing with support services that help people who face the most complex challenges to live with stability, autonomy, and dignity. Supportive housing provides better outcomes and is fiscally responsible. What will you do to ensure community members who are unhoused or unstably housed receive the support they need to obtain or keep their own homes?

This too requires cooperation between the county and state. Local institutions that offer mental health counseling, job coaching, addiction rehabilitation, and many other services need to be financially supported by the state. There are many programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, that can partner with housing initiatives to make sure those struggling with healthcare issues or that are financially drained from dealing with medical issues have the ability to live with dignity and shelter. We also need to protect local and statewide nonprofits that have received funding cuts to make sure they can continue to provide emergency housing.

Q3: Homeownership is a way to build generational wealth, provide family and household stability, and support community vibrancy. More and more Minnesotans are priced out of owning a home because of rising housing costs, including purchase price, homeowners’ insurance, and property taxes. What steps will you take to increase opportunities for renters and first-time homebuyers to purchase homes, condos, or cooperative ownership models?

What we know is that there is a lack of affordable and diverse housing options in our community. This is a complex issue that does require the state to take action, while balancing the need for cities to have choice. Housing is expensive because we haven’t built enough of the kinds of homes people need, where they need them. The construction costs are going up, land costs, interest rates, and worker shortages. Local regulations all contribute to this problem. It affects not just young families looking to buy their first homes, but seniors trying to downsize, people with disabilities trying to live independently, workers in critical sectors like health and education who can’t find a place to live where they want to work. The state needs to focus on construction and expansion while the city needs to make sure zoning regulations aren’t making houses and apartments more expensive.

Q4: In the last several years, bipartisan action to streamline building of new homes and apartments has passed in several states, including: allowing for multifamily buildings in select commercial areas, limiting parking requirements, allowing smaller homes on smaller lots, and more homes per lot in residential areas like duplexes, fourplexes, and accessory dwelling units. What reforms do you support to modernize zoning to both enable homes to be more affordable statewide and improve city tax bases?

Both states and cities need to support zoning regulations that welcome affordable housing options and construction, not turn them away. This includes covering missing choices such as allowing missing middle housing like duplexes and fourplexes in residential areas to create varied price points. Just this year, I had to move out of the home I raised my children in because I couldn’t afford my rising mortgage rate. Luckily, I had these options–we need to ensure that other communities do as well.

Q5: Despite housing being the largest cost in the average household budget, housing receives only a small fraction of the total state budget at just 0.3%. A lack of ongoing reliable funding for housing in Minnesota’s state budget has resulted in an undersupply of stable homes affordable to our workforce, our elders, and our families. In recent years, a constitutional amendment for housing, which would dedicate revenues from a sales tax increase to housing, has gained momentum at the legislature. What revenue options will you champion to more adequately meet our need for reliable funding for homes we can afford?

I would support this legislation and encourage the state to hold corporate and private equity firms accountable ensuring that this revenue goes into land grants and other programs that make our housing more affordable so young families can afford to buy their first home and seniors can age in place. National legislation just passed a monumental housing bill this summer making sure that the regulations in place keep consumers safe, not discourage local builders and investors from being a part of the market.

Q6: If you have other housing policy priorities, especially specific to your district’s housing needs, please share them here.

Because my district is in a growing suburb, we are seeing more and more young families and immigrants move to our communities. These are both demographics that require affordable first homes.