On Tuesday, September 20, the Senate Banking Committee’s Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development, chaired by U.S. Senator Tina Smith, held a hearing on rural housing issues titled “Examining the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service: Stakeholder Perspectives.”

The committee included testimony by Elizabeth Glidden, Deputy Executive Director of MHP (above), which focused on rural rental housing needs, specifically related to the Section 515 program, and recommended policy solutions.

MHP is one of a small number of organizations that have provided technical assistance with grant funds from USDA's Multifamily Preservation Technical Assistance (MFTA) program, which supports preservation of affordable homes through the transfer of Section 515 properties from current owners to nonprofits or public housing authorities. MHP’s efforts, led by Community Development Manager Jill Henricksen, have helped preserve eighty-two units as affordable properties in Minnesota and Illinois, including securing $18.5 million in funding for preservation. As well, MHP’s research on Section 515 properties in Minnesota has caught the attention of housing advocates, cities and counties, and lawmakers.

The Senate committee also featured testimony from Marcia Erickson of GROW South Dakota, Tonya Plummer of Enterprise Community Partners, and David Battany of Guild Mortgage Company. Ms. Plummer’s testimony included advocacy for support of the Native American Rural Homeownership Act (S. 2092, H.R. 6331), a bill endorsed by MHP, would authorizing the USDA Secretary to use $50 million of existing 502 single family housing direct loan appropriations for a national relending program so that Native CDFIs across the country can increase access to affordable home loans in rural Native communities.

The MHP and Habitat for Humanity of Minnesota Candidate Questionnaire now has dozens of responses from candidates for the Minnesota Legislature. See if your candidate has completed a 2022 Candidate Questionnaire on Housing Issues. It's not too late to email, tweet, and call candidates for office to urge them to share their views on housing by responding to the questionnaire. 

• Utilize our Advocacy and Social Media Toolkit for candidate information and more.

• Find your legislative district and 2022 candidates via your sample ballot here.  

• View maps of the new legislative districts here. 

• Find your candidate’s contact information here and a sample script for asking candidates to complete the questionnaire here. 

MHP co-signed comments submitted to the Minnesota Department of Commerce regarding increasing the use of Minnesota’s Weatherization Assistance Program to serve multifamily projects with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds. The comments were submitted on behalf of the National Housing Trust, Fresh Energy, Minnesota Housing Partnership, Midwest Energy Efficiency Alliance and the Natural Resources Defense Council, who are members of the Minnesota Energy Efficiency for All Coalition. View the full comments here. 

The Joint Center for Housing Studies has recently released The State of the Nation's Housing 2022. After a record-shattering year in 2021, the housing market is at an inflection point. Higher interest rates have taken some heat out of the homebuying market, and the large number of apartments under construction should bring some relief on the rental side. For lower-income households and households of color, though, the pressure of housing costs is unlikely to relent. 

The National Fair Housing Alliance Announces New Funding Opportunity 

The Inclusive Communities Fund Grant Program reinvests fair housing settlement funds intended to empower all individuals to access safe, sustainable housing and create well-resourced communities that have been destabilized by housing discrimination.

NFHA is seeking applications for its Inclusive Communities Fund Grant Program by October 14, 2022. The Inclusive Communities Fund is seeking local partners to undertake activities that support Black and Latino communities to access housing (with an emphasis on homeownership) and that support more inclusive, vibrant, and healthy neighborhoods.

View NFHA's full Funding Opportunity Announcement   for the complete details on this opportunity. NFHA is also hosting a webinar on September 27, 2022, at 12 pm CT to learn more about the opportunity and to ask questions about the grant program and application.

with MHP's Vikki Baker-Brockberg