St. Paul, MN – A new law signed by Governor Tim Pawlenty could help keep a roof over the heads of thousands of Minnesotans who rent property. It is aimed at making rental rates affordable for people at the low end of the wage scale, according to Barb Jacobs with the Minnesota Housing Partnership.
"The bill includes a provision that gives property tax relief to thousands of affordable rental property owners across the state. Roughly 9,700 units will be given a reduced property tax rate."
Owners of these rental units have been caught between a rock and a hard place, Jacobs explains. Property tax rates and maintenance expenses have been rising, but affordable-housing landlords have been restricted on the amounts of rent they can charge.
"Currently, the properties are in jeopardy of going out of business because their property taxes have gone up, the cost of operations has gone up, utilities have gone up, and these owners can't raise rents because the governor set a rent cap. So they're stuck in a pinch."
The new law provides more than $6 million of property tax relief for rent-restricted housing. As a result, Jacobs says, property owners will be better able to meet their costs, which means thousands of Minnesotans will remain in their rented homes.
"Over the past six years, the cost of housing in Minnesota has gone up, or more people are paying a larger proportion of their paychecks toward their housing so it's less affordable. Anything we can do to keep that housing affordable is going to help Minnesotans."
Jacobs says some 20 percent of Minnesotans spend half their monthly income on housing, which is far too much when the comfortable maximum is about 30 percent. The new law will help low-income renters make ends meet. It affects the "Low-Income Rental Classification" (4d) class rate, in which 75 percent of all units in a property must be rent-restricted to receive the credit.
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As New York housing advocates demand state lawmakers pass a bill to keep landlords from evicting renters without "good cause," a new report cautioned them about getting what they wish for.
The New York University report found good cause eviction can create long-term challenges for tenants and landlords, including discouraging maintenance investments in new and existing housing, increasing costs to resolve disputes and landlords screening tenants more rigorously.
Vicki Been, Furman Center faculty director at New York University, said alternatives could help improve landlord-tenant relations.
"One would be expanded access to legal counsel," Been pointed out. "What we know is when tenants have counsel, they're much better able to raise the kinds of issues that might be causing them to withhold rent; maintenance issues, other kinds of problems."
She added tenants are much more likely to go to housing court and fight for themselves rather than give up quickly. Other alternatives include exemptions for different kinds of buildings and increasing the range of rents deemed unreasonable, to prevent sharp increases. Several New York towns have declared housing emergencies due to high rent prices, part of what is driving statewide eviction increases.
Good cause eviction's financial effects stem from landlords being required to prove in housing court their reasons for not renewing a renter's lease. It means housing court cases could run beyond the average 133 days to settle. Been noted the protections do not help people looking for apartments and could affect housing availability.
"It doesn't add anything to the supply," Been pointed out. "Indeed, it may limit the supply, in the sense that tenants who enjoy these protections may stay in a bigger apartment, even once their kids are grown, or those kinds of things."
She added housing reforms like good cause eviction must be paired with other regulatory changes.
Not all New Yorkers agree with how they want state government to handle this. A Marist Poll found some people want rental assistance vouchers prioritized, while almost one-quarter said they want more funding for new rental housing development.
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This month marks the 25th anniversary of the Renaissance Children's Center, which serves low-income families and those experiencing homelessness with infants and children up to the time they enter kindergarten.
Susan Dunn, director of the center, said many kids who have spent time in the 6,600 square-foot facility in Lakewood have lived in transitional housing, in cars, or have camped out with their parents as they work to get back on their feet.
"The children are coming here while the parents are looking for work, and going to school, and just rebuilding their lives. And it's a safe place for the children to be and learn and grow," she explained.
Launched in 2005 and operated by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, the center has eight naturally-lit classrooms and two outdoor play areas. Kids get breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack prepared onsite by a professional chef. Children have space to direct their own learning experience. And a social-skills curriculum helps prepare kids to succeed in school and beyond, by building emotional competence and strengthening their ability to play and solve problems with others.
The center's staff is trained in trauma-informed education, and mental health services are available for children and parents. Dunn said most of the trauma kids experience stem from living in poverty. Many have been separated from their parents because of behavioral-health issues or incarceration, and adds that consistency is key to their recovery.
"They know when meals are served. Everybody sits down at the table and eats together, so there's that community. And then our classrooms are very home-like. It doesn't look like a schoolroom as much as it looks like a living room and a home," Dunn continued.
The center's woodsy outdoor spaces serve as a natural-learning classroom, which promotes math, science, literacy and other skills. Dunn said children get to connect to nature and experience new ways of learning.
"A lot of the kids, they don't really have a big backyard, and so our playgrounds are their big backyard. They get to use their muscles and their skills to climb and check out bugs and rocks and all kinds of things like that," she said.
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For generations, homeownership has been synonymous with the American Dream, but a new Utah report shows housing affordability is at historic lows, with millennials seeing the largest decrease in housing affordability during what the report calls "peak household formation years."
Steve Waldrip, senior adviser for housing strategy and innovation for the State of Utah, said while Utah has some of the highest levels of homeownership in the country, wages haven't increased at the same rate home prices have, leading to a housing crisis.
"Most of our none-homeowner residents cannot afford to get into a home," Waldrip pointed out. "The vast majority, I think we are probably in the 80% range. And that lack of opportunity is really a significant problem going forward."
The Utah Foundation's report found even with possible declines in interest rates and the potential increase in inventory as older generations leave their homes, trends suggest millennials may not achieve the level of past generational affordability until 2030 or beyond. Waldrip considers the report a crucial tool for not only Utah policymakers but for voters as it's a topic of mounting interest in the upcoming elections.
Waldrip acknowledged homeownership may not be for all Utahns and added there are drawbacks to buying a home, including fluctuating markets and other home buying costs. But data from the report show home equity still composes the largest proportion of wealth for U.S. households. Waldrip noted the barriers to homeownership in Utah and across the nation don't discriminate.
"As home prices increase and more and more people drop out of the bottom, which disproportionately impacts the lower socio-economic class of people in the state, but it's also gone up to people who have done everything right," Waldrip emphasized. "They've graduated from school, they got good jobs, they've got careers."
The report found between 2012 and 2022, the value of a median-priced home in the U.S. increased by $190,000, but in Utah the increase came between 2017 and 2022, when the median home price nearly doubled.
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