City/Town: Maple Plain

Legislative District: House District 37A

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?

At minimum, there should be availability of safe shelter for anyone that seeks it. We have the resources to convert unused buildings or build new structures. This could also provide jobs: construction, social services, maintenance, management.

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 is key to successfully providing shelter to all, sustainably. Providing support is a win-win as it would also provide jobs for our communities: counseling, security, maintenance, human services.

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?

As a realtor, I specialize in helping low-resourced homebuyers. We have some fantastic programs, but they must be expanded. Down payment assistance and land trust programs are all under-resourced and need funds and inventory.

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 an exploration of all of these options. ADU’s are a great way to provide multi-generational housing and/or a method to entry with income generation. Commercial zoning changes would permit availability of inventory for low to no cost 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?

We need reform on housing. This is a crisis and it has effects on all levels of all communities. Shelter is a human right. We can provide funding by closing loopholes for corporations, and reforming our current budget use such as sales tax use.

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

In our district, we are grateful to have one of the highest rates of homeownership. Yet, with rising costs, we are also seeing a new generation struggle. Reform is needed to reduce barriers to entry, and we must support our unhoused neighbors in MN.