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A common theme from both parties this Legislative session has been addressing affordability. 

One area many lawmakers think is key to that is more affordable housing, and, for some, helping people out with rent.

A rental assistance bill passed on the Senate floor last week 35-32, with one Republican, Sen. Jim Abeler of Anoka, joining all Democrats in support.

The DFL-backed bill would provide $40 million for rental assistance to thousands of Minnesotans who were adversely affected by the months-long immigration enforcement surge in the state.

Alibella Rodriguez with United Renters for Justice, spoke about her experience through a translator outside the House chamber last Thursday.

"My husband has not been able to go to work for fear of being kidnapped. My daughter is fearful of losing her parents,” she said. “We have stopped going to work. Our daughter started taking classes online. [We live with] fear of not being able to go outside, to walk, to even take out the trash."

Rodriguez and others urged Republicans in the House to approve the rental assistance bill. 

But the Senate is the easier hurdle for any bill from Democrats because they have a one-vote majority. In the evenly-split House, the bill will face a much tougher road.

Shortly after the bill passed in the Senate, House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said the bill as written has "no path forward" in the House.

She said giving state money to undocumented immigrants is not something her caucus will support. Democrats have countered that this money, which comes from a court settlement, will go directly to landlords, not the renters.

Demuth said some DFL leaders encouraged people to participate in the one day general strike against the immigration surge. She said that did not help anyone, and discouraged people from working.

"When people make choices, you don't reward choices that impacted negatively others with a financial handout, and that's the way it appears,” Demuth said in an interview with MPR News. ”Do I want to help people? Yes, but I want to help people in making their lives overall more affordable, not just paying them to stay home."

DFL House Leader Zack Stephenson said this bill is one his caucus will fight for.

“House Democrats will make this bill a priority all session long, because we will stand up for those Minnesotans who had to stay home because of ICE,” he said. “We will stand up for them every single day, and we will use every tool in our arsenal to ensure that people are protected.”

Despite the standoff on rental assistance, there are some areas of bipartisan agreement around housing.

One bill, which has been introduced but hasn’t moved forward in previous sessions, is aimed at cutting down on home building costs and encouraging cities to adopt zoning that creates more opportunities to build new housing. 

Reps. Mike Howard, DFL-Richfield, and Spencer Igo, GOP-Wabana Township, have been pushing the bill the last few sessions.

Howard says the bill is focused on reducing costs and red tape involved with building new homes. 

It would cut down on certain aesthetic standards and review processes, which Howard said can delay construction for years. The bill also would require cities to designate one third of their single family home zoning to duplexes and granny flats. Cities would also have to allow multi-family housing in at least one third of commercial zones.  

“This aims to jump start the kinds of starter home constructions, but allow cities to decide where that's going to occur in their cities,” Howard said.

Howard said he and Igo have revised the bill to get past previous objections by giving cities more options and more control over some changes. Howard said because of the revisions, the state's largest advocacy group for cities says it will no longer lobby against the bill. Because of that, Howard believes the bill might have traction to pass this session.

“This bill - the Starter Home Act - has more momentum than ever before for a couple of reasons,” he said. “One, our crisis continues to worsen. The average age of a homeowner is now 40 years old. The longer we wait to act, the worse this problem becomes, and I think the Legislature feels that pressure we all should. And two, we have worked really hard to collaborate with cities on this new approach. So I do have more optimism than ever before.”

Other bills have been introduced at the Capitol to cut down on large corporations buying single family homes, to cut down on property tax costs for homeowners and to rein in rental prices.

Some of those proposals mirror changes in a 

 passed last week by the U.S. Senate with broad bipartisan support.

That federal legislation also includes language cutting down on corporate ownership of single-family homes, deregulation of the building of manufactured homes and changes believed to encourage banks to invest in building housing. 

But the bill has a long way to go before becoming law. There are still negotiations ahead with the House and President Donald Trump.

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A rental assistance bill could face trouble in the Minnesota House, but another bipartisan effort is underway to pass a different bill designed to spur construction of new housing. Sponsors say it will make housing more available and more affordable. 

Legislature looks at ways to address housing affordability

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