City/Town: Blaine

Legislative District: Senate District 32

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?

These disparities continue to disproportionately hurt marginalized and underserved groups across Minnesota. This gap undermines intergenerational wealth-building and long-term prosperity. I’d expand down-payment assistance and community land trusts, reform exclusionary zoning to enable missing-middle housing, strengthen fair-lending enforcement, and target funding to BIPOC homeownership programs to close the gap.

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?

We should continue to invest into our proven programs, like the Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program, while at the same time expanding first generation down payment assistance, supportive housing units, and hands-on programs that connect community members to aid. Everyone is deserving of housing security and as a legislator I will support policies designed to keep community members in their homes and investments in comprehensive programs that coach stability practices for high-risk communities. Additionally, further investments and policy changes to increase the number of available homes is needed to bring down cost and lower the barriers to home ownership. Bridging funding gaps, and supporting vulnerable populations is also key to addressing the need for stable 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?

I’ll support expanding down-payment assistance and first-generation homebuyer programs, and push to streamline local permitting so more starter homes, condos, and cooperative ownership developments can be built faster and more affordably. I support a Manufactured Housing Bill of Rights to protect one of Minnesota’s most affordable paths to ownership. I’ll also fight for property tax relief for first-time buyers and hold insurance companies accountable for unjustified rate hikes through stronger rate oversight and transparency requirements. For renters, I’ll work to strengthen pathways into cooperative ownership models, so building equity isn’t limited to those who can already afford a large down payment.

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?

I support giving cities the tools to build more housing types by right: allowing accessory dwelling units, duplexes, and fourplexes in residential areas, permitting multifamily and mixed-use development near transit and commercial corridors, and reducing minimum lot sizes so smaller, more affordable homes are possible. I’d also support easing parking mandates where transit or walkability make them unnecessary. As a city council member, I’ve seen how outdated zoning limits both housing supply and city tax revenue — modernizing these rules grows the tax base while giving working families more affordable paths to homeownership and stable housing.

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?

Housing is chronically underfunded because it’s treated as a discretionary line item instead of core infrastructure. I support dedicating a reliable, ongoing revenue stream — whether through a real estate transfer fee on higher-value transactions, an increased share of the existing mortgage/deed recording fees, or a dedicated portion of state sales tax revenue — specifically to affordable housing production and preservation, rather than relying on year-to-year budget negotiations. I’m open to a constitutional dedication if it guarantees funding survives future budget shortfalls, similar to how we protect other core priorities like transportation and the environment. As someone who’s managed multi-million-dollar public budgets, I know dedicated funding needs real accountability and measurable outcomes attached — new units built, cost savings passed to families — not just a bigger pot of money. Minnesotans deserve to know their tax dollars are producing homes they can actually afford.

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

My district — Blaine, Ham Lake, and the surrounding area — is one of the fastest-growing parts of the metro, and growth is outpacing infrastructure. I’ll prioritize state support for water, sewer, and road capacity so new housing developments don’t stall out or push costs onto existing homeowners. I also want our local zoning codes modernized to allow more housing types by right — including accessory dwelling units, duplexes, and starter homes on smaller lots — so our cities can grow sustainably instead of relying only on large-lot single-family development. Manufactured housing communities are a vital, affordable option here, which is why I support a Manufactured Housing Bill of Rights protecting residents from unfair lot-rent hikes and sudden park closures. I also want to see more workforce and senior housing options so young families and longtime residents alike aren’t priced out of the community they grew up in.