City/Town: Fergus Falls

Legislative District: Senate District 9

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

Safe, stable housing is foundational to nearly everything else we want people to achieve—good health, education, employment, family stability and financial security. Yet too many Minnesotans face barriers because of where they live, disability, income, discrimination, or generations of unequal access to homeownership and wealth-building opportunities.

Minnesota needs an all-of-the-above housing strategy. We must increase affordable and workforce housing, preserve and rehabilitate existing homes, expand accessible housing for people with disabilities and seniors, and invest in homelessness prevention, emergency shelter, supportive housing and pathways back to permanent housing. We should also address discriminatory barriers in renting, lending and homeownership so that opportunity is truly available to everyone.

Rural communities deserve particular attention. Housing shortages make it harder for employers to recruit workers, seniors to remain near family, young people to stay in their hometowns, and families to find a first home they can afford. State programs must recognize that housing challenges and solutions look different in Greater Minnesota.

I strongly support expanding pathways to homeownership and partnerships with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, which help families build not only homes, but stability, equity and stronger communities. We should encourage public-private and nonprofit partnerships and make it easier to responsibly build and rehabilitate housing where it is needed.

Housing policy should meet people where they are—from preventing someone from becoming homeless to helping a family purchase their first home. Every Minnesotan deserves a safe, stable and affordable place to call home.

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 believe housing is a starting point for stability, not a reward someone must earn after overcoming every challenge in their life. If we want people to successfully obtain and keep housing, we must address the circumstances that can make housing instability difficult to escape.

I will support investments in permanent supportive housing and Housing First approaches that connect people with stable, affordable homes while making individualized services available—including mental-health care, substance-use treatment, disability services, healthcare, employment assistance, transportation, and help navigating benefits. Those services should preserve autonomy and dignity rather than create unnecessary barriers to housing.

We also need to intervene earlier. Emergency rental assistance, eviction prevention, legal assistance, landlord mediation, and rapid rehousing can keep a temporary financial or personal crisis from becoming homelessness. When someone does become unhoused, outreach, emergency shelter and transitional resources must provide a genuine pathway toward permanent housing.

Rural Minnesota presents additional challenges. Services are farther apart, transportation is limited, shelters and supportive housing are scarce, and homelessness can be less visible. State funding formulas and programs must recognize those realities rather than relying on solutions designed primarily for metropolitan areas.

I will also support partnerships with counties, housing authorities, healthcare providers, nonprofits, landlords and community organizations because no single system can solve homelessness alone.

Our goal should not simply be getting someone housed tonight. It should be giving people the support and opportunity to remain safely housed, regain stability, and build the life they choose for themselves.

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?

Homeownership has long been one of the most important ways families build stability, equity and generational wealth. Increasingly, however, Minnesotans who work hard and pay their rent every month still cannot overcome the combined barriers of home prices, down payments, interest rates, insurance and property taxes.

I will support expanded down-payment and closing-cost assistance for first-generation and first-time homebuyers, affordable mortgage programs, homebuyer education, and programs that help renters establish pathways toward ownership. We should also support community land trusts, cooperatives, condominiums and other models that create more affordable entry points into ownership.

But assistance cannot solve the problem if there aren’t homes to buy. Minnesota must increase the supply of starter homes, rehabilitate existing housing and encourage development that includes smaller and more affordable ownership options. In rural communities, restoring existing homes can be just as important as new construction.

I strongly support partnerships with organizations like Habitat for Humanity that combine affordable homeownership with education, community investment and long-term stability. We should expand successful public-private and nonprofit partnerships that help families move from renting into sustainable ownership.

We also have to confront the rising ongoing costs of owning a home. I will support efforts to address homeowners’ insurance affordability and provide meaningful property-tax relief targeted toward homeowners who need it most.

A family capable of sustaining a mortgage should not be locked out of homeownership simply because accumulating the upfront wealth required to get through the front door has become impossible.

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 modernizing zoning rules that unnecessarily limit housing supply and drive up costs, while still respecting legitimate local concerns about infrastructure, safety and community character.

Minnesota should make it easier to build a wider range of housing—including duplexes, townhomes, accessory dwelling units, smaller starter homes, apartments and mixed-use developments. I support allowing more residential development in appropriate commercial areas, particularly where infrastructure already exists, and reducing excessive minimum lot-size and parking requirements when those mandates add significant cost without providing a clear public benefit.

I also support giving communities greater flexibility to encourage “missing middle” housing. A duplex, fourplex or accessory dwelling unit can create more affordable options for young adults, seniors, multigenerational families and workers without requiring large-scale development.

At the same time, statewide policy should recognize that Fergus Falls, a small rural town and Minneapolis do not face identical circumstances. Local governments need meaningful input, particularly when water, sewer, roads, emergency services or other infrastructure may limit development.

The goal should be removing unnecessary barriers, not eliminating thoughtful planning. Increasing the number and variety of homes can make housing more attainable, strengthen local tax bases, support businesses that need workers and allow communities to grow without relying solely on expensive outward expansion.

I would support bipartisan zoning reforms that balance those goals and help communities say “yes” to more housing where it makes sense.

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 too fundamental to be funded only when there happens to be room in the budget. Minnesota needs a reliable, long-term funding strategy that matches the scale of our housing shortage.

I am open to supporting a dedicated constitutional funding mechanism for housing, including the proposal to dedicate sales-tax revenue to homeownership, rental housing, homelessness prevention and supportive housing. I would want to ensure that any final proposal is structured fairly, includes strong oversight, and delivers meaningful investment to Greater Minnesota as well as the metro area.

I also support a broader mix of revenue tools. That includes state bonding for housing infrastructure and preservation, continued appropriations through Minnesota Housing, public-private partnerships, tax-credit programs that leverage private investment, and dedicated resources for workforce housing, first-time homebuyers and homelessness prevention.

Reliable funding matters because communities cannot plan housing development around one-time appropriations. Builders, nonprofits, cities, counties and housing organizations need predictability if we expect them to create and preserve homes at the scale Minnesota needs.

I also believe every housing dollar should be accountable. Funding should be tied to measurable outcomes, geographic equity and transparent reporting.

If Minnesota is serious about workforce shortages, homelessness, aging in place and keeping young families in our communities, then housing cannot continue to be treated as an optional budget item. It is essential infrastructure, and we should fund it accordingly.

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

Housing is one of the most important rural economic-development issues facing Senate District 9. Our communities need more than simply additional units—we need the right mix of housing for workers, young families, seniors, people with disabilities, and people experiencing housing instability.

I want greater state investment in rural workforce and starter housing, including infrastructure assistance that helps small communities prepare sites for development. Small cities often have land and demand but cannot absorb the cost of extending water, sewer, streets and utilities necessary to make a project financially viable.

I also want greater emphasis on rehabilitating existing housing. Rural Minnesota has homes that could become affordable starter homes or rentals with investment in repairs, accessibility, energy efficiency and modernization. Preserving those homes can strengthen neighborhoods while making good use of infrastructure already in place.

We need more options for seniors who want to downsize or age in their own communities. When appropriate senior housing is unavailable, larger homes that could serve young families also remain unavailable.

Finally, rural homelessness deserves greater attention. It often looks different here…people sleeping in vehicles, staying temporarily with friends or family, or moving repeatedly because no affordable unit is available. Smaller communities also have fewer shelters and supportive services.

Housing connects directly to workforce development, healthcare, education and the survival of our small towns. If we want rural Minnesota to grow, people need somewhere affordable and safe to live.