August 30, 2026
On August 30th, MHP’s Elizabeth Glidden, presented on state housing solutions at the Midwestern Legislative Conference (MLC) Annual Meeting in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The annual conference brings together the region’s legislators for four engaging days of connection, collaboration, and learning. MHP’s presentation is available here.
August 24, 2026
Elizabeth Glidden of MHP was invited to attend a housing roundtable with Congressman Brad Finstad on Monday, August 24, 2026, in Worthington, Minnesota, as part of a conversation about rural housing needs and solutions.
Thank you for those who joined MHP and Habitat Minnesota for Housing on the Ballot: Engaging Candidates in 2026.
We invite our advocacy partners to join us in elevating housing as a priority this election and to encourage candidates to share where they stand on policies that advance housing stability and end homelessness.
Check out these resources to support your candidate engagement:
Ready to join us in this work connecting with Minnesota State Legislative candidates? Make your Questionnaire Action Commitment here! Whether contacting candidates, writing a blog, or encouraging community members to participate, every action helps elevate housing as a priority issue during the election season. Together, we can ensure housing remains at the forefront of policy conversations so that every Minnesotan has a safe, stable, and affordable place to call home.
Questions? Please reach out to communications@mhponline.org.
A stable home is the starting point for opportunity—for our kids, our health, and our economy.
Unfortunately, Minnesota’s housing shortage continues to strain renters, workers, and first-time homebuyers. Nearly half of Minnesota renter households are cost burdened, leaving families less money for food, health care, and other basic needs. Older adults face even greater pressure, with 63% of senior renters cost burdened. The median age of a first-time homebuyer in Minnesota has risen to a historic high of 40 years. None of Minnesota’s top five in-demand jobs pay enough for workers to afford homeownership, and only registered nurses earn enough to afford decent, well-maintained rental housing.
With smart investments and policy change, Minnesota can create more homes and keep opportunity within reach for all. As you consider the below questions, please consider how you will include community voices in developing and implementing housing solutions.
Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP) and Habitat for Humanity of Minnesota (Habitat Minnesota) invite you to complete our 2026 Candidate Housing Questionnaire. All candidates have been invited to complete the questionnaire. The purpose of the questionnaire is to educate and inform residents of candidate responses to housing issues. This questionnaire is not meant to serve as an endorsement of or for any candidate or political party.
Responses will be posted here on a rolling basis as received. The deadline for submission is October 16, 2026 at 11:59pm.
Please keep each response to fewer than 250 words.
In the summer of 2026, MHP team members Jill Henricksen and Matthew Prediger traveled to West Alabama to meet with local leaders and organizations preparing to participate in MHP’s first Housing Institute outside Minnesota.
The expansion is made possible through MHP’s partnership with Rural Studio at Auburn University. Rural Studio staff introduced MHP to organizations and community leaders across the region and helped lay the groundwork for the new Institute. During the visit, Jill and Matthew also toured Rural Studio’s campus and community-based design projects in Newbern.
Established in 2010, MHP’s Housing Institute brings together community stakeholders through customized learning, guided collaboration, and capacity building. Its team-based approach helps participants strengthen partnerships, develop practical housing solutions, and move specific projects forward.
Jill and Matthew met with Selma’s mayor and planning director, the CEO of the Selma Housing Authority, and staff at the Selma Center for Nonviolence, which is developing a hub to connect community members with housing resources. They also met with regional housing authorities and nonprofit organizations, including Sewing Seeds of Hope in Marion and Demopolis Area Habitat for Humanity.
These partners will participate in four in-person workshops beginning in October in Demopolis. Over the course of the Institute, participants will share knowledge, build regional connections, and work together to advance housing projects that can strengthen their communities for years to come.
Photo from Rural Studio’s project “Rosie’s Home” in Newbern, AL
MHP is celebrating three recent grant awards that will help two Native Nation partners improve existing homes, develop new housing, and better serve community members experiencing homelessness.
The Manzanita Band of the Kumeyaay Nation received two awards totaling more than $1.5 million. MHP provided detailed application and narrative support for both grants. A $985,949 federal award will support rehabilitation of 13 homes, advancing the Nation’s longer-term goal of improving housing conditions across all 40 homes on the Reservation. A separate $526,586 California award will support new housing and services for community members experiencing homelessness.
The Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel received a $1 million federal award for housing rehabilitation. MHP funded a conditions assessment of 50 homes, which gave the Nation the documentation needed to plan the project and strengthen its application. Iipay leaders credited the assessment and MHP’s partnership with helping secure the award.
Together, these successes show the value of sustained, partnership-based assistance. By working alongside Native Nations to document housing needs, strengthen applications, and advance locally led priorities, MHP helps communities move housing projects from planning toward action.
This webinar, hosted by MHP’s Kendra Home and Alma Perez, will provide an overview of the USDA Rural Development Section 515 program, preservation strategies, available tools, and MHP’s free support opportunities for nonprofits and housing authorities interested in acquiring, rehabilitating, preserving, or recapitalizing RD 515 properties. Fee-for-service technical assistance is also available to for-profit organizations and other entities.
This session is ideal for:
We encourage you to share this webinar with those interested in learning more about the RD 515 program and preservation of affordable rural housing.
The enactment of the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act marks a meaningful step toward making sure more people can afford a safe, stable place to call home.
For too long, communities across Minnesota and across the country have had the ideas, partnerships, and local commitment needed to build and preserve homes, but outdated federal programs and limited tools have too often stood in the way. As a Minnesota-based organization working with communities nationwide, MHP knows that local leaders need federal tools that are flexible enough to meet local needs. This legislation helps remove some of those barriers. It gives communities more flexibility to build the homes they need, preserves rural rental homes that families and seniors depend on, supports manufactured housing communities, and strengthens programs that help people stay rooted in the places they call home.
We are especially grateful for Senator Tina Smith’s leadership in advancing the Rural Housing Service Reform Act as part of this package. In rural Minnesota and across the country, USDA-financed rental homes are often one of the only options people can afford. At MHP, we have seen this firsthand through our national rural housing preservation work, including helping partners in Minnesota and other Midwest states preserve USDA Section 515 homes through ownership transfers and other preservation strategies. Preserving these homes means older adults can remain near family, workers can live in the communities they serve, and small towns can keep the housing foundation they need to thrive.
This bill affirms what communities across Minnesota already know: housing is not a partisan issue. Every community needs homes people can afford. It reflects the same practical approach MHP has advanced through Yes to Homes: communities need modern tools, flexible rules, and local choices that make it easier to create the homes people need.
MHP is proud to have helped elevate the importance of rural housing preservation and community-driven housing solutions, and we look forward to working with partners to put these tools to use for Minnesotans.
—Anne Mavity, MHP Executive Director
MHP is joining Minnesota Housing and other partners for a regional housing event to explore housing development resources and technical assistance to help your community meet its needs. Connect with other attendees from the region to discuss housing needs and brainstorm opportunities. In addition to speakers on housing development resources, this event will feature panelists highlighting local community collaborations and housing developments in the region.
This event will focus on the Tribal Nations of Upper Sioux and Lower Sioux and the counties of Big Stone, Chippewa, Cottonwood, Jackson, Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, McLeod, Meeker, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Renville, Rock, Swift, Upper Minnesota Valley, and Yellow Medicine.
MHP’s Policy Manager Courtney Schaff joined housing and healthcare leaders from across Minnesota for a discussion on the 2026 legislative session and opportunities to strengthen housing outcomes through cross-sector collaboration. Hosted by the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund’s Healthcare for Housing initiative, the conversation brought together representatives from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, CentraCare, Children’s Minnesota, Essentia Health, and Fairview Health Services. Participants also heard from Representative Spencer Igo, co-chair of the Minnesota House Housing Finance and Policy Committee, who shared insights on the legislative session and the role housing plays in supporting healthy, thriving communities.
