MHP Announces 2023 State Legislative Agenda

MHP is excited to work on a bold, transformative agenda in 2023. We are focused on the ABCD’s* of housing so that more Minnesotans have safe, healthy, and resilient homes. In 2023 we are advocating for $2 billion in bonds and appropriations to fund housing in the FY24-25 biennium. We will work tirelessly to get a constitutional amendment on the 2024 ballot to secure dedicated revenue for homes. The constitutional amendment will result in hundreds of millions in ongoing funding each year.

Between appropriations, bonding, and funding through a constitutional amendment we hope that lawmakers will establish Bring it Home, MN, and increase funding for ownership (production and down payment assistance), deeply affordable rental homes, emergency rental assistance, gap financing, local housing trust fund state matching funds, and workforce housing. We are also committed to passing 4D tax relief this year to ensure housing providers maintain affordable rents and provide safe, healthy homes. We anticipate Source of Income Protections, which make it illegal to deny someone housing because of their income, will become law this year.  —Libby Murphy, Director of Policy, MHP

*Appropriations, Bonding, Constitutional Amendment, 4D, source of Income Protections

ERA2 Survey: Help Direct $75M

During the COVID-19 pandemic, states received historic levels of federal emergency funding. Minnesota Housing has remaining funds and seeks input on their best use to balance our state’s immediate and long-term housing needs. 

Some of these dollars were also made available with more flexible guidelines, allowing them to be used for purposes beyond emergency direct assistance. Please complete the following survey and submit your response by December 28. You may share the survey with others.

MHP coordinated a letter signed by more than 40 organizations to be sent to all Minnesota Members of Congress, asking for their support for expanding and improving the low income housing tax credit as part of the end-of-year tax extenders package for 2022. 

MHP is also excited to announce its 2023 federal priorities. MHP works federally in partnership with numerous organizations and coalitions. FY2023 area's of support include, dramatically expanding rental assistance, expanding and improving LIHTC, authorizing and funding resources for tribal housing, and several others. Read the full list of supported items on MHP's website.

MHP & Taos Pueblo Housing Authority Collaboration Leads to New Housing

3 Former Taos Pueblo Governors listen to a prayer by a Tribal elder during groundbreaking ceremonies: Gilbert Suazo Sr, Richard Aspenwind, Nelson Cordova. Rick Romancito for the Taos News

For the past three years, MHP's Community Development team has been working with the Taos Pueblo Housing Authority to provide technical assistance on multiple fronts, including supporting their mission and helping to create a guide for staff in maintaining compliance. Another collaborative project is the funding and design of a 50+ unit new single-family housing development! Along with Heroda Bikax^e Consulting LLC, MHP brought in Ferguson Pyatt Architects to complete revisions to a site plan for the Spider Rock development needed to accommodate recently discovered cultural artifacts. We've provided guidance on potential funding resources, layering and leveraging resources for infrastructure and vertical construction, and assisted in submitting multiple state and federal grants. These units will be the first houses built by the Taos Pueblo Housing Authority in over 30 years. Infrastructure groundbreaking took place on October 28th, with the first units slated to be built in the summer of 2023.

Over the upcoming months, MHP will continue to work with the Spider Rock development team to submit more funding requests, assist the TPHA Executive Director in creating a strategy for selecting new homeowners to serve the needs and priorities of the Pueblo while maintaining financial stability, participate in a design charette and community education event, and set the stage for the next phase of the development of 26 units non-NAHASDA homes (The Native American Housing Assistance and Self Determination Act of 1996). More on the long history of this project was featured in the Taos News. 

Barbara Dolan, Deputy Director of Community Development says, "It's been a privilege to be working with the many devoted staff and leaders from Taos! A lot of hard work, time, and money from a truly committed team is making this project a reality!" It's one more example of how MHP is working nationwide to live into its mission.

Want to know how your organization can receive technical assistance to further your community development project?

Now the Family Housing Fund has released Zero Balance Project: Key Facts & Figures. The new report describes important results and data from the program. 

The Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) has released new analysis examining energy insecurity among lower-income households. As winter approaches, the analysis recommends both short-term supports and utility shut-off protections as well as long-term investments in weatherizing homes to reduce lower-income households’ energy usage.

All of MHP's past newsletters are now available on our website! Check them out here.

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