Newly released data in Minnesota underscores what housing assistance groups have been preaching - it's become increasingly difficult for many people to keep a roof over their heads.

Minnesota Housing Partnership is out with its latest edition of the State of the State's Housing report.

It says statewide, median rent increased by 8% in just one year - the largest year-to-year increase in the past decade.

And the group's Executive Director Anne Mavity pointed out that 50% of renters pay more for housing than they can afford. That means in some cases, other basic necessities fall by the wayside.

"And trying to maintain that housing," said Mavity, "means that families are making really hard choices."

Regionally, according to the report, Central Minnesota has the highest cost-burden rate for homeowners.

The Twin Cities has the largest shortage of affordable and available rental units for extremely low-income individuals.

The Northwest region has the lowest homeownership rate for Black and Hispanic residents.

Mavity said it'll take a little time for the $2 billion in housing aid approved by state lawmakers last year to help turn things around. She added that more solutions are needed.

Many areas have seen declines in permits for new housing. Mavity noted that market conditions, namely building costs, are pretty tough right now.

She emphasized the need for land-use reforms to foster creativity.

"If someone has a house, if they want to create a basement apartment for their parents to age in, if they want to have an apartment over their garage to get some income," said Mavity, "there are 23 states across the country that have done that. We can do better on that."

Amid heavy opposition from municipal leaders, proposed changes related to zoning failed to advance in this year's legislative session.

That was despite backing from a broad coalition of affordable housing advocates, real estate leaders, and home builders. Supporters say they'll try again next session.




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Rents in Los Angeles were already high before the firestorm earlier this year, but now a coalition of housing groups is suing six landlords for price gouging.

In California, it is generally illegal to raise rents more than 10% following an emergency declaration, but the nonprofit Strategic Actions for a Just Economy has found many units where advertised rates jumped 25% to almost 50%.

Heeyoung Linda Park, an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, a co-counsel for the plaintiffs, has been watching the activity.

"When they tracked these rental prices, they found hundreds of properties illegally gouging rents, and so there were so many that they eventually had to recruit volunteers to help them track the listings and identify the worst offenders," Park said.

Attempts to reach the defendants for comment were unsuccessful. The first court appearance is scheduled for later this summer. The City of Los Angeles is seeking $62 million in damages in a separate lawsuit against different landlords.

Rodney Leggett, an attorney with the Housing Rights Center, is also a co-counsel for the plaintiffs alongside the Western Center on Law & Poverty and the California Center for Movement Legal Services.

"We find it very exploitive to sort of take advantage of people when they're most desperate, including people who have been displaced as a result of the wildfires," he said.

More than 16,000 structures were destroyed by the Palisades and Eaton fires, adding more pressure to an already-stretched rental market.


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A new report on homelessness in Colorado released by the Common Sense Institute has come under fire for muddying the waters for lawmakers and other stakeholders working to get people off the streets and back on their feet.

The report claimed an Intervention First model, where people only get housing if they agree to addiction treatment and workforce training, is more effective than the Housing First with Supportive Services approach, which it said has failed to decrease homelessness.

Cathy Alderman, chief communications and public policy officer at the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, said the report does not even mention rising housing costs.

"When we see housing costs go up, when we see rents increase, we see homelessness increase," Alderman pointed out. "When we don't see more affordable housing being made available to low-income households, we see homelessness increase."

Between 2019 and 2023, Denver's already high rents rose by nearly 30%. Last year, there was a gap of more than 134,000 affordable housing units across the state for workers earning 30% of the median income or less. The Institute defended its report and said by email the public deserves to know whether their tax dollars are helping reduce homelessness, not just reshuffling where people sleep.

According to the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, Housing First reduces homelessness by 88% and improves housing stability by 41% compared with Intervention First programs, which Alderman called a one-size-fits-all approach.

"It said you must participate with those specific services in order to be eligible for housing," Alderman noted. "There are lots of people experiencing homelessness that don't need substance-use treatment, that don't need behavioral health. They need housing."

Housing First programs provide rapid access to housing and care teams connect people to employment opportunities, medical and mental health care and substance use treatment but the services are not required or used as a punitive tool.

Alderman stressed the model works but current investments do not meet the scale of the problem.

"If we had the housing resources and we were providing more housing with supportive services to larger populations of people experiencing homelessness, we would absolutely see a reduction in homelessness," Alderman asserted. "But we've never had the political will to do that."

Keeping more renters in their homes is one goal of a new Utah initiative.

The Utah Housing Coalition has formed a Landlord and Community Partners Coalition to cultivate better relationships and more equitable solutions for issues between landlords and tenants.

A report by the Utah Housing Coalition found a 23% failure rate in Utah's Housing Choice voucher program, which Project Manager Zoe Newmann said underscores the need for action. Multiple bills to help renters have failed in the Utah Legislature and there is uncertainty about how federal funding for housing assistance will fare in the Trump administration's spending cuts.

Newmann pointed out they are aiming to fill gaps where they can.

"We hope that by developing this system, connecting people to services that already exist in their communities, that we can start working towards a place where potentially we have our own lease that people can kind of hop onto," Newmann explained. "Because, as we all know in Utah, the lease is law."

Newmann stressed they see the need for what she calls "more holistic leases." Creating them is a longer-term goal for the coalition, which was launched last week. About 40 partners have joined so far. Learn more online at UtahHousing.org.

Data show housing affordability and availability are top issues for Utahns. Newmann is hopeful the new coalition will be able to bring stakeholders to the table, leading to improved communication, trust building and addressing what she describes as "systemic housing barriers."

"Our case managers are swamped," Newmann observed. "They have 20+ people that they're trying to manage. So, once they get someone placed in housing, just with funding and the need for these services, and then you're on to the next person. So, that continuous case management, we don't necessarily have support systems' help with that."

The Utah Housing Coalition will measure the initiative's success by monitoring increased collaboration between landlords, tenants and community-based organizations. They will also look at whether the effort improves housing stability, and can streamline pathways to mediation and other services.


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