In case you’ve missed it, we wanted to highlight just how broadly housing has been covered across the state this legislative session. From Bemidji to Rochester and far beyond, housing has been in the news.

In particular eight superintendents from across the state have underscored in a MinnPost commentary how essential it is to fund housing. Each day in their schools they see children experiencing homelessness and its devastating impact. The superintendents from Rochester, Duluth, Moorhead, Brooklyn Center, Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Anoka Hennepin, and Bloomington public schools have publicly come out in support of Homes for All and $100 million for bonding for housing. The superintendents explained:

“Every day teachers and other school staff hear from students the realities of their young lives made harsh by lack of safe and stable housing.

• A student’s mom loses both of her part-time jobs, and the family starts moving from one place to another, sometimes staying just a week before their welcome wears out.
• A teacher notices a student falling asleep in the classroom. Privately he confides that he’s uncertain where he will be spending the night — again.
• A worried student tells her teacher that she wants to check on her younger siblings — or even her parents – because they are anxious about not having a place to live with her parents unable to find work.

Younger students are more likely to share such stories with teachers day-to-day. The older ones more often turn to teachers only reluctantly, out of desperation.”

The superintendents also appeared on television on most Twin Cities stations, in conjunction with the release of the MN2020-MHP Uneven Recovery report.

But it’s not just the schools and children capturing the media’s attention. TV and newspapers in Bemidji, Duluth, Rochester, St. Cloud and smaller presses such as the Southwest Journal have picked up housing, due to its statewide impact across our communities. The Rochester Post Bulletin specifically endorsed bonding for housing in a recent editorial.

You can check out the recent coverage of Homes for All in the Media and MHP in the Media. It’s also a good time, as we go into the final stretch at the state legislature, to write a letter to the editor about why housing matters to you and your community.