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MPR News with Angela Davis
Kerri Miller and Kelly Gordon

Rural Voice: Creative solutions to the rural housing crunch

Coming up at 9 a.m. on Thursday

The scene shows a residential neighborhood with mobile, manufactured homes aligned in rows. In the background, there are fields and hills. The sky clear with clouds. The land appears flat and green.
The scene shows a residential neighborhood with mobile, manufactured homes aligned in rows. In the background, there are fields and hills. The sky clear with clouds. The land appears flat and green.
Greg Kelton | Getty Images

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There’s a lack of affordable housing across Minnesota. State projections say more than 182,000 new housing units across all types and prices points are needed by 2035 to create a healthy housing market.

But the problem is especially acute in rural communities, due to a complicated mix of older housing in need of repairs, seniors remaining in single-family homes and high construction costs.

MPR News host Kerri Miller devotes the final Rural Voice town hall discussion of 2026 to affordable housing — a topic that came up at everywhere she went for the series this fall.

Coming up at 9 a.m. on Thursday, listen to a recording of a lively discussion she led recently in Marshall, where community leaders said housing is needed across the board — renters need more apartments, young families need single-family homes and seniors need places where they can affordably downsize. Creative solutions could include updated modular housing and repurposing the second stories of downtown spaces.

They also linked housing to employment. Businesses can’t grow because there is no housing for more workers. Chad Adams, CEO at the Southwest Minnesota Housing Partnership, said the business community needs to do more to help with the housing crisis and reminded local leaders that “housing is economic development.”