The House Tax Committee released its omnibus bill last week (HF3669). It includes several exciting new funding proposals for housing. MHP’s Director of Policy testified in support of the bill’s funding provisions.

The bill includes:

• Allocates $25 million one-time in emergency rental assistance to counties.  

• Creates the County and Local Affordable Housing Aid Program to distribute $77 million in aid to counties and local governments based on each share of cost-burdened households paying more than 30% of income for housing. Projects must assist families at or below 115% of the greater of state or area median income (AMI) for homeownership and 80% state or AMI for rental properties. Aid can be used for construction, acquisition, rehabilitation, demolition, construction financing, permanent financing, interest rate reduction, refinancing, and gap financing.

• Makes community land trust properties eligible for 4d class rate.

• Ensures taxpayers are eligible for property tax refunds if they reside in community land trust property receiving the 4d class rate. 

• Creates a single classification for manufactured home park property and lowers the class rate to .75.

• Increases the maximum homestead credit refund by $200 for all income ranges. Lowers the property tax threshold and increases the maximum refund from $1,000 to $2,000.

• Increases the value thresholds for the homestead market value exclusion to $80.300 and the home value at which the exclusion is fully phased out is increased to $437,100.

• Allows property owners to qualify for homestead with an individual tax identification number. 

• Converts the renters’ credit into a refundable income tax credit and simplifies the measure of income used to calculate the credit. As a result, renters would claim the credit as part of their individual income tax return and the refund would be paid out on the same schedule as other income tax refunds instead of August or October.  

• Increases the income limit for the senior citizens’ property tax deferral program from $60,000 to $96,000 and minimizes the number of years the homeowners must own and occupy the property to 5. 

Weekly State Actions!

The priorities of lawmakers are becoming more clear. While we do not yet see the amount of rental assistance needed proposed by the House, Senate or Governor, we need all advocates to continue fighting for the resources needed to support housing for Minnesotans.

Please contact your lawmakers here. Let them know rental assistance is essential to Minnesota families and should be included at the highest levels possible.

Lawmakers released most omnibus supplemental spending and policy bills last week. Included in the House Housing Finance and Policy bill is an additional $7 million for Local Housing Trust Funds (LHTFs). Please take a moment this week to contact key committee chairs here.

The City of Minneapolis is accepting applications for the Introduction to Real Estate Development Training through the Small Developer Technical Assistance Program. This free training supports small and emerging Minneapolis real estate developers. Eligible: aspiring developers with no or limited experience, businesses or nonprofits considering becoming an owner-occupant or landlord, and those seeking to make a living from developing and owning real estate. Apply here through April 18. 

The Small Developer Technical Assistance Program provides training and 1:1 consulting to support community wealth building through real estate. More information. 

Since the release of President Biden’s fiscal year (FY) 2023 budget proposal, attempts to jumpstart negotiations on a final spending bill have stalled – while Congressional leaders had hoped to debate topline funding numbers for FY23 discretionary spending before Congress left DC for a two-week recess beginning April 8, we are still in a waiting pattern. Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has stated he hopes to reach an agreement on funding levels by May, with the goal of holding committee reviews of the spending bills in the summer and enacting an FY23 spending bill before the new fiscal year begins on October 1. Appropriations leaders are reportedly planning on meeting to begin discussions in earnest after Congress returns from recess. 

The FY23 bill presents Congress with the opportunity to make significant investments in affordable housing and community development programs.

Weekly Federal Actions!

State and local governments and the communities they serve rely on federal resources to meet the housing, homelessness, and community development needs of their communities. However, Congress has underfunded these resources for decades. Contact your members of Congress and urge them to support top housing priorities in FY23, including:  

• An expansion of housing choice vouchers to an additional 200,000 households; 
• Significant funding to preserve and operate public housing;
• Additional Low Income Housing Tax Credits, to help produce and preserve homes 
• Critical funding for rural rental housing needs, including $200 million for USDA’s 515 program;
• Expand the Native American Section 502 relending pilot program, to increase access to affordable home loans in rural Native communities.

Contact your Senators here.

Contact your Representatives here.

Inflation is the word on everyone's lips right now, but there's a new paper released by the National Low Income Housing Coalition that shows how investing in housing alleviates inflation.

The targeted housing investments in the Build Back Better Act are critical to addressing a central driver of inflation – the rising cost of rent. Housing accounts for at least one third of a household’s budget, making it the single largest component of the consumer price index (CPI), a popular measure of inflation. For 7.6 million households with extremely low incomes – those with incomes below the federal poverty limit or 30% or less of area median income – housing consumes 50% or more of their monthly budget. 

A $25 billion investment would expand rental assistance to an estimated 300,000 households, protecting these households from the harmful impacts of inflation and preventing housing instability and homelessness. Read more here.

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