Housing Groups To Lobby at State Capitol Today
The Charles Horn Towers, a three-building low-income and senior-designated Minneapolis Public Housing Authority (MPHA) 500-unit apartment complex with a concrete facade. The three towers are: 115 West 31st Street, 3110 Blaisdell Avenue South, and 3121 Pillsbury Avenue South in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo by Tony Webster.
By Robert Lawson
News Director
KTOE News
Minnesota Housing Partnership announced today’s rally of housing champions will call on legislators to ‘Start with Home’ at the Capitol, according to a press release.
“Every Minnesotan should have a safe, healthy, and dignified home they can afford, no matter where they live and what they look like,” a statement the group sent to the media stated.
The Start with Home Rally will champion a wide range of investments and policies to make housing affordable for all Minnesotans. This year, the lobby is calling for advancing affordable home ownership statewide, especially for marginalized communities; $500 million in Housing Infrastructure Bonds (HIBs); making it easier to build more types of homes; fully funding the Bring It Home, MN state rental assistance program; funding services in supportive housing; giving undocumented immigrants housing rights; passing Source of Income Protections for renters; and passing the Minnesota Constitutional Amendment for Housing.
The rally will take place today, February 20, from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. at the Minnesota State Capitol Rotunda at 75 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd in St. Paul. Organizers say show up by 1:15 for setup.
Co-hosts at the rally will include Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, Bring it Home Minnesota, COPAL MN, Habitat for Humanity of Minnesota, HOME Line, Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers (MCCD), MHP (Minnesota Housing Partnership), Minnesota Public Health Association, Our Future Starts at Home constitutional amendment plus dozens of supporting organizations from housing and other fields such as Greater Twin Cities United Way, MN Social Services Association and Violence Free Minnesota.
Speakers at the rally will reportedly include Dr. Habon Abdulle, Executive Director of Ayada Leads; Angela R. Fields, Associate Executive Director of the Minnesota CHW Alliance (MNCHWA); Sondra Herman, Executive Director, Habitat for Humanity of South Central MN; Babette Jamison-Varner, Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative’s Vice President of Supportive Housing; The Reverend Elijah Llewellyn McDavid III (Emcee), Pastor of the Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church in North Minneapolis; Mayor Nadia Mohamed, Mayor of the City of St. Louis Park; David Perdomo, Lead Organizer for COPAL in Rochester, MN; Cecil Scott, founding member of Street Voices of Change and housing advocate; Ubah Shire, tenant advocate; and Leila Shukri Adan, founder, Aim Community Health.
Senate President Bobby Joe Champion; House Majority Leader Rep. Jamie Long; Rep. Michael Howard, Committee Chair Housing Finance and Policy; and Sen. Zaynab Mohamed, on the Housing and Homelessness Prevention Committee will also be there, according to the news release from MHP.
The rally’s purpose is to call on legislators to fund housing as a cornerstone investment and to support equitable housing policy.
