Housing Solutions Candidate Education Toolkit Now Available

Affordable housing was listed as a top priority for Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless members in our recent legislative survey.

Not surprising considering the challenges statewide of finding and keeping affordable housing. Whether you work with ex-offenders, homeless youth, battered women, people with mental illness, homeless veterans, homeless single adults or families with children, an overarching theme is lack of affordable housing.

The Coalition responded to this growing need by spearheading an effort in 2005 to advocate for significant new affordable housing resources crucially needed to end homelessness.

In early 2006, the Housing Solutions Alliance formed with a goal of significant new dedicated funding for affordable housing. Comprised of over 110 organizations and thousands of individual supporters, the Alliance promotes the Housing Solutions Act, which will nearly triple the state’s funding for affordable housing programs.

During the 2006 session, the Alliance laid the groundwork necessary to pass the legislation in 2007. With bipartisan support the bill was heard in both the House and Senate and was included in the Senate’s original omnibus tax bill.

Mary Brooks, director of the Housing Trust Fund Project and a consultant on this campaign as well as hundreds of similar efforts across the nation, recently remarked, “The Housing Solutions Act is poised for passage in 2007.”

A key to our success will be raising the visibility about the need for these additional housing resources with candidates for the legislature who will be making decisions in 2007.

To promote these nonpartisan discussions across the state, Housing Solutions Alliance has developed a Housing Solutions Candidate Education Toolkit.

The Toolkit includes links to find your legislative district and your legislative candidates, as well as a guide for meeting with candidates and resources to locate candidate forums in your area.

The toolkit also provides a sample candidate question that should be asked at candidate forums or in your meetings with candidates. The question is:

300,000 low-income Minnesota households cannot afford their housing. By 2010 that number will grow to 330,000. Nearly 195,000 households pay more than half their income on housing–that’s one out of every ten Minnesota households. Will you join the growing support at the State Legislature for a dedicated revenue stream for affordable housing?

Report back to Housing Solutions Alliance on your candidate visit or question at a candidate forum. What questions/concerns did the candidate have? Were they supportive? Were they interested in a leadership role in promoting affordable housing and homelessness solutions if elected?

Have you or your organization endorsed the Housing Solutions Act? To continue building the momentum behind the Housing Solutions Act we need to continue growing this Alliance. An endorsement form is located on the H.S.A. web site or contact Rachel Callanan at (612) 230-3285 or rachelcallanan@yahoo.com. With your help, we will meet our goal of 1,000 organizational endorsers by January 2007!