City/Town: Hastings

Legislative District: Senate District 41B

Party: Republican Party of Minnesota

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 affordability is the most important housing issue facing Minnesota families today. We should address inequities by making it easier and less expensive to build homes, rather than creating more government programs that drive up costs.

Minnesota should reduce unnecessary zoning and permitting barriers that prevent new housing from being built, especially starter homes, townhomes, and other affordable options. We should also support policies that help families purchase and maintain homes, including targeted property-tax relief and programs that expand opportunities for first-time buyers.

For Minnesotans with disabilities and others who need additional support, we must ensure housing and supportive services are available without allowing fraud and waste to divert resources from the people who actually need them. Rural communities also deserve attention, including infrastructure investments that make housing development possible outside the Twin Cities.

Most importantly, housing policy should focus on expanding opportunity rather than treating people differently based on race or other characteristics. Every Minnesotan deserves a fair opportunity to find a safe, affordable place to live, raise a family, and build a future. The best way to achieve that is to increase housing supply, reduce government-imposed costs, protect taxpayers, and make homeownership attainable for more families.

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 approach homelessness with compassion, accountability, and a focus on outcomes. Every Minnesotan deserves the opportunity to live with stability and dignity, and supportive housing can be an important tool for helping people facing the most significant barriers to independence.

As a legislator, I would support expanding partnerships among housing providers, local governments, nonprofits, and health and human services agencies so people can access housing alongside the services they need to remain housed. That can include mental health and substance-use services, employment assistance, transportation, and help navigating benefits and other programs.

At the same time, we must make sure taxpayer-funded programs are actually producing results. Minnesota has seen far too many examples of fraud and poor oversight in programs intended to serve vulnerable people. Funding should follow measurable outcomes, with strong auditing, transparency, and consequences for organizations that misuse public dollars.

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 would work to reduce unnecessary zoning, permitting, and regulatory barriers that make it harder and more expensive to build starter homes, townhomes, condos, and other forms of attainable housing. Local governments should have flexibility to plan their communities, but regulations should not unnecessarily prevent young families and first-time buyers from entering the market.

We also need to address the ongoing burden of property taxes and homeowners’ insurance. I support meaningful property tax reform and targeted relief that helps families remain in their homes.

The goal should be simple: build more housing, lower unnecessary costs, and give more Minnesotans the opportunity to own a piece of their community and build generational wealth.

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?

Minnesota should modernize zoning in a way that increases housing opportunities while respecting the character and needs of individual communities. The biggest priority should be reducing unnecessary barriers that make it harder and more expensive to build homes.

I support allowing more housing types where appropriate, including duplexes, townhomes, accessory dwelling units, and smaller single-family homes on smaller lots. Communities should also have the ability to allow multifamily housing in appropriate commercial areas, particularly near existing infrastructure, jobs, and transit.

I would also support giving local governments greater flexibility to reduce or eliminate excessive parking requirements when they are not justified by actual demand. Requiring developers to build unnecessary parking increases the cost of housing and can make otherwise viable projects impossible.

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 do not support raising taxes to address housing affordability. Minnesota families are already paying too much in taxes, and another tax increase would only make it harder for families to afford a home.

Instead, the state should prioritize housing within the existing budget by eliminating waste, improving coordination among programs, and directing existing resources toward policies that produce measurable results. We should also reduce unnecessary regulations, permitting costs, and other barriers that increase the cost of building housing.

I would support responsible use of existing state resources to expand housing opportunities, while ensuring programs are transparent, accountable, and focused on helping Minnesotans afford and maintain stable homes.

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

In my district, housing affordability is closely tied to property taxes, the cost of building, and the availability of starter homes. I would prioritize policies that allow working families to afford a home without placing additional burdens on existing homeowners.

We should also make sure communities have the infrastructure needed to support responsible growth, particularly water, sewer, and transportation infrastructure. State mandates should not simply be passed down to cities and counties and ultimately paid for through higher property taxes.