City/Town: Lake Crystal

Legislative District: Senate District 22

Party: R

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?

Housing and lending policies should follow equal housing laws and our law enforcement should be enforcing existing laws. The inequity I have witnessed in my 32 years working in real estate and property management stems from a failure of educating the importance of making sound financial choices and protecting one’s credit rating. Legislatively, we should be promoting consumer finance competency throughout K-12, post-secondary and through online learning for adults seeking to improve their credit rating.

Additional actions I support involve reducing regulations and expanding consumer choice in housing. “Starter Homes” have been nearly eliminated due to local and state regulations and regulatory costs.

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?

I served five years on the Human Services committee in the MN House and believe we can do so much more in appropriately matching and bundling support services for individuals who in the greatest need. It is also important to map out trends in cases where people have lost their homes to better understand how the timing of support would have had the greatest impact.

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?

In addition to the education need to address trends in poor financial decisions or damaged credit, the legislature can take action in expanding the variety of home ownership options by reducing regualtions and mandates on new, renovated, or converted housing.

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 applaud efforts to streamline the building of a diverse product offering of homes through regulatory reforms. I do believe, however, that local control is best. We should remove State barriers and recognize the importance of local authority – townships, cities, and counties. Rarely do I support a top-down preemption law that handcuffs locally elected representatives. Similarly, I support State control over a one-size federal mandate. Let’s give the cities the knowledge and tools to improve their tax base. If they refuse, let’s show the voters in those cities how to elect new leaders who will.

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?

Property taxes are now one of the largest drivers in the costs to renters and homeowners. Counties now take more money from many families and retirees each year in the form of property tax than the total paid for their principle and interest on their loans. This tax is passed to renters as well. If we don’t work to lower property taxes, we will see many more unhoused families as a result.

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

I have several mobile home communities and a coop which I have worked with in past years. I have served on the Housing Committee for two terms in the MN House and look forward to working either on that committee or with its members.