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Esther Agbaje (DFL)

Minnesota Votes for Housing 2020

Candidate responses in italics.

Name: Esther Agbaje

City/Town: Minneapolis 

Legislative District: 59B

Party: DFL

1: A national poll in May 2020 found that 78% of the public believes our elected leaders are not putting enough attention on people’s need for help to pay for their housing during the coronavirus outbreak. What do you believe is the role of government in ensuring everyone has access to housing?

It is the role of government to provide everyone access to housing. If housing truly is a human right, then the government must begin to frame housing more as a service rather than a commodity, similar to the post office or public utilities. This is especially necessary in a state where the weather is harsh in the winters and no one should be outside in dangerously cold temperatures. Providing a safe and stable place to live should not be difficult if we care about our neighbors.

2: In Minnesota, 80 of 87 counties do not have the capacity to provide sufficient shelter or temporary housing to those who are homeless. Nationally, a study of US cities found that 25 percent of all requests for emergency shelter went unmet. What will you do to end homelessness? 

I will focus on securing funding to build more public housing across Minnesota. The housing should also be specific to the age group, gender, family, and cultural needs of people facing housing insecurity. For those facing homelessness, Minneapolis in particular needs more beds to properly shelter its homeless residents particularly in the winter months. Organizations like The Link are already doing that work to provide rapid response and appropriate housing for youth, LGBTQ people, and families. These are the types of organizations that the state should continue to promote and partner with to address the immediate sheltering needs.

3: According to the Census Bureau's July 22 Household Pulse Survey for Minnesota, and Stout’s analysis of this data, there are 132,000 potential eviction filings over the next 4 months in Minnesota. Over 90% of evictions in Minnesota are for non-payment of rent. What will you do to prevent evictions?

Part of the reason that people are evicted for non-payment of rent is because they cannot afford the rent. This is either because of jobs that do not pay a living wage or unaffordable rents. To address wages, I will focus on increasing the minimum wage to a living wage so that people can afford a place to live. I will also focus on ensuring that rents are never more than 30 per cent of a person’s income and that prices are pegged to better measurements of income in an area. The housing crisis is now exacerbated by COVID. Until the pandemic is over, the current moratorium on evictions must be maintained. Resuming evictions will only put people on the street in the middle of a public health emergency. And with the brutal winters in Minnesota, I will act with the morality and urgency this issue demands. The state must continue to provide resources to cancel rent and mortgages so that people are not saddled with debt at the end of the pandemic. Working together, we can implement stronger eviction-prevention programs and increase legal representation so that more people can stay in their homes.

4: Being denied where to live because of race, family status, or disability is discrimination. In Minnesota, 53% more whites are homeowners than Black residents, a statistic that dwarfs the national racial homeownership gap of 30%. What meaningful steps will you take to address the root problems of racial disparities in housing?
 
Similar to other areas where we have to break down racial barriers to access, I want to look at lending policies, housing prices, and property values that only fluctuate because of the racial background of the person seeking the loan or an assessment. Those practices should be stopped. Another way I want to address the problems of racial disparities in housing is to focus on building public housing available to everyone, not just low income people. I want to build mixed income neighborhoods where people of different incomes and racial backgrounds can live together and know each other as neighbors and friends. I want to create pathways to homeownership for those who desire it. This also means looking into different concepts of ownership whether through community co-ops of housing that allow for greater access to BIPOC communities to own housing. Efforts like these should start to decrease the racial disparities in housing.
 
5: Our housing crisis includes a lack of safe, stable homes in Minnesota. The 2018 Minnesota Task Force on Housing identified a need for 300,000 new ownership and rental homes over the next decade. While there are 180,000 Minnesota renters with incomes at 30% area median income, only 100 units affordable to these families are produced each year. What steps will you take to support Minnesotans’ access to homes, especially for under resourced households?
 
As discussed above, I am focused on obtaining funding to build more housing. Some of this should go to expanding public housing and erasing the stigma of public housing. Since housing should be seen as a public good, housing provided by the government should be a dignified place that safe and stable. Housing prices should also be made to be affordable to the area where it is built, this means using the correct income measure when building housing so that more Minnesota renters are only paying 30% or less of their income towards housing.
 
6: More than ever, the public understands the connection between housing and health, as well as education, transportation, and more. What housing-based strategy would you use to improve health outcomes for Minnesotans?
 
All housing should be a safe place to live. Where people live should not make them sick. Inspectors must hold landlords accountable for when they violate standards of habitability when it comes to mold, pests, and other unsafe indicators of housing. Additionally, by guaranteeing a safe home for everyone, this will improve peoples’ physical and mental health outcomes. When people are not stressed about where they will stay every night, they can take care of their other needs. When people have a place to store their medication, that can help improve peoples’ health outcomes. Having safe and stable housing helps with people in storing healthy food like fresh produce and meats, leading to better nutrition for people and their children. Safe and stable housing has a direct correlation to health because it gives a peace of mind to many people who can now focus on thriving rather than merely surviving.
 
7: Over 188,000 Minnesota renter households between the ages of 25 and 44 are income-qualified to purchase a home but continue to rent, including 64,000 households of color. What steps will you take to increase opportunities for renters to purchase homes, condos, or cooperative ownership models, if they choose?
 
Some of this is about the lack of public information about how to buy a home or enter into a cooperative model. Knowledge of the financing of homes is important to get out into communities of color in culturally contextual manner. I will support local community organizations who are providing this information to communities of color. There needs to be more readily available information of how communities of color can have access to homeownership should they want it. As discussed above, I also want to work on breaking down the financial barriers to ownership by stopping the discriminatory practices of lending and property assessments to and for people of color. We need to make access to ownership simpler, whether through government grants and tax breaks or fairer lending practices.
 
8: Including community recommendations when developing policies and programs is a best practice for effective and lasting solutions. How will you include those impacted by housing needs in developing and implementing housing solutions? 

I believe in talking directly with the people impacted by the problems that need to be solved. Talking to them about what solutions they want to see is the first place to start when developing equitable policy for the state of Minnesota. I anticipate engaging with community organizations that are on the frontline of housing issues. One of which I have been a part of from the legal perspective is the Volunteer Lawyers Network, and I anticipate continuing to work with them on housing issues. I also look forward to being in dialogue with shelter staff, housing support organizations like HomeLine and more. By working together we can achieve the goal of housing for all.