Nov 1: Hello community!
We’re kicking off HOME Line’s 30 Days of Giving — a month-long celebration of tenant power, community care, and the impact we build together. Each day, we’ll share stories about our history, programs, and vision for housing justice in Minnesota.
We invite you to follow along, share with your networks, and join us in sustaining this work with your own resources, skills, and solidarity.
✨ Day 1: Consider becoming a monthly donor — a way to provide steady, year-round support that keeps renters informed, protected, and housed.
https://homelinemn.org/donate
Nov 2: 30 Days of Giving Program Highlight: Organizing
At HOME Line, we believe that renters are the most powerful voices in the fight for housing justice. Our Organizing program translates that belief into action—building tenant leadership, creating community networks, and changing the rules that keep renters unstable.
Here’s what we’re doing:
We partner with tenants across Minnesota to form tenant associations, support their training, and help them negotiate with landlords for safer, more stable homes.
We provide tools, resources and one-on-one support so that low-income, BIPOC, and immigrant renters—who are too often excluded—can organize and demand their rights.
We connect organizing efforts with policy change: when renters organize, we document patterns, advocate for change, and build momentum for stronger tenant protections.
Why it matters:
Unsafe housing, arbitrary evictions, insufficient repair standards—these are not just problems for individual renters; they are structural issues. When tenants organize, when they stand together and speak together, they shift the balance of power. That means fewer evictions, more stable homes, and stronger communities.
Your role in this movement:
When you donate to HOME Line, you’re not just supporting services—you’re investing in grassroots power building.
✨ Day 2: Your gift of $100 helps train tenant leaders, hosts tenant association meetings, deploys organizing resources, and fuels the long-term shift from reaction to proactive action in housing justice.
Nov 3: 30 Days of Giving Resource Highlight: Organizing Resources Available to MN Renters
Did you know HOME Line offers free, practical tools to help renters organize in their buildings and communities? Our Minnesota Renter’s Guide to Tenant Organizing walks you step-by-step through how to form a tenant association, hold meetings, negotiate with landlords, and advocate for safer, more stable housing.
🧭 Whether you’re responding to unsafe conditions, rising rents, or unjust evictions, collective action makes a difference—and we’re here to help.
💌 Have questions or want guidance? Use our Email an Organizer tool to get direct support from HOME Line’s experienced tenant organizers. Together, we can build stronger, more connected renter communities across Minnesota.
🔗 Explore these resources at homelinemn.org/organizing
✨ Day 3: Share this with a renter in your community, talk to your own neighbors, and if you are not a renter, consider making a contribution to HOME Line to support other tenants organizing across the state.
Nov 4: 30 Days of Giving Project Highlight: Narratives Storytelling & Just Cause Protection
⚖️ No one should lose their home without a reason.
Under current law, many Minnesota renters can be forced to move—even if they’ve paid rent on time and followed every rule. Just Cause protections would change that by requiring landlords to give a legally specified reason for nonrenewal and ensure renters have enough notice to find a new home.
💬 In these Narratives videos, tenants and advocates share how arbitrary evictions have upended their lives—and why Just Cause protections are essential for housing stability and dignity. These are stories of resilience, courage, and a collective demand for fairness in housing policy.
🎬 Watch the video and hear firsthand how Just Cause could make a difference for renters across the state.
Then, add your own story to the growing call for change:
📹 Record Your Own Testimony – Make Your Voice Heard
We invite you to share a 1–2 minute video that highlights your experience and supports stronger tenant protections.
Your story is powerful—and together, our collective voices can help pass policies that keep Minnesota families housed and protected.
✨ Day 4: Share Your Story to strengthen the movement https://bit.ly/ARenterStory
Nov 5: 30 Days of Giving Project Highlight: Narratives Storytelling & Source of Income Protection
🏠 Everyone deserves a fair chance at housing—no matter where their rent comes from.
Too often, tenants using Section 8 or other housing subsidies are denied homes before they even have a chance to apply. That’s why Source of Income Protections are so critical: they prevent landlords from refusing tenants simply because they use rental assistance or other lawful income sources.
💬 In these Narratives videos, you’ll hear Minnesotans share their real experiences navigating this discrimination—and how policy change could make our housing system more just and inclusive. These stories remind us that access to safe, stable housing shouldn’t depend on the type of income you earn, but on your right to a dignified home.
🎬 Watch the video and listen to a tenant who is speaking up for fairness:
Then, add your voice to the movement:
📹 Share Your Story — Help Push for Stronger Tenant Protections
We’re collecting short 1–2 minute videos from renters and advocates across Minnesota. Your story can help lawmakers understand what’s at stake.
Together, we can make sure every Minnesotan—no matter their income source—has a fair chance at housing.
✨ Day 5: Share Your Story to strengthen the movement https://bit.ly/ARenterStory
Nov 6: 30 Days of Giving Coalition Highlight: Tenant Coalition
At HOME Line, we know that real change can start in living rooms, community centers, and hallway conversations between neighbors. That’s why our work goes beyond providing legal advice—we invest in supporting and training tenant leaders who are organizing for safer, fairer housing across Minnesota.
The HOME Line Tenant Coalition is at the heart of that effort. Now in its third year, the Coalition stipends and trains tenant leaders, offering monthly skill-building and strategy sessions that help renters organize their buildings, connect across communities, and lead campaigns for long-term housing justice.
In 2024, the Coalition deepened partnerships with community allies like Jewish Community Action (JCA), New American Development Center (NADC), and African Career and Education Resource (ACER) Inc., strengthening networks of tenant power across cultural and geographic lines.
And the results speak for themselves—In Saint Louis Park, tenant organizers Chad and Liz are leading efforts in an affordable complex that was recently sold. Discovering that current residents are anticipating significant rent increases, they have led a series of doorknocks and training to support tenants in understanding their rights. After months of collaboration, one Tenant Coalition leader’s testimony helped pass a stronger Pre-Eviction Notice law in St. Louis Park, expanding renter protections beyond state standards.
✨ Day 6: Support this work.
Your donation funds the stipends, training, and organizing support that help renters become leaders—and keep housing justice moving forward across Minnesota.
Nov 7: 30 Days of Giving Coalition Highlight: EIP
Our partnership with The Alliance’s Equity in Place (EIP) means that the voices of renters—especially, black and brown, immigrant, Indigenous, and low-wealth communities— are centered in regional planning, investment decisions, and housing policy. EIP is a diverse coalition of strategic partners led by people of color and housing justice advocates, working to make sure everyone in the Twin Cities region can live where they choose and access opportunity.
Together with EIP, we’ve made tangible progress:
⚡We passed Right to Organize, the only policy of its kind that covers the entirety of the state and all of its renters.
⚡We’re pushing for Just Cause eviction protections, ensuring tenants state-wide know why they’re being evicted and have adequate time to relocate.
⚡We insist that regional planners and investment bodies recognize the role of institutional racism in shaping housing outcomes and give communities of color real decision-making power.
⚡We’ve aligned with EIP’s values: decisions must be made collectively, transparently, and with broad participation—moving away from old models of power toward shared leadership and equity.
✨ Day 7: Your support activates this coalition power.
Every contribution of $25 fuels coalition organizing, policy development, and community leadership. It helps ensure that when housing policy changes, tenants—not just developers or officials—are at the table and call the shots.
Nov 8: 30 Days of Giving Coalition Highlight: HJL
At the heart of the fight for housing justice in Minneapolis is the Housing Justice League — a coalition of community-based organizations advocating for tenant power, ownership, and equity. HJL brings together tenants, activists, and nonprofit partners (including HOME Line) to push bold policy reforms that shift power back into the hands of renters.
One of HJL’s key campaigns is the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) — a tenant-empowerment policy that would give renters the first right to purchase their building when it’s for sale, or the ability to transfer that right to a buyer of their choosing.
This is more than a piece of legislation: it’s a way to prevent displacement, stop corporate profiteering, and build community wealth by giving renters a chance to invest in their homes and neighborhoods.
Because too often, low-income renters — Black, Indigenous, immigrant, Latinx, Asian and white alike — are pushed out by rising rents, corporate buy-ups, and speculative development. HJL argues that when ownership is concentrated in corporations rather than residents, communities lose their stability, investment, and identity.
✨ Day 8: Your support makes this change possible.
Every $50 you give values tenant leadership, supports campaign infrastructure, and amplifies the movement for homeownership and equity for renters in Minneapolis.
Nov 9: 30 Days of Giving Coalition Highlight: MNTUC
HOME Line proudly facilitates and supports the Minnesota Tenants Unite Coalition (MNTUC) — a grassroots, tenant-led movement organizing renters in publicly funded “Section 42” (Low-Income Housing Tax Credit) properties to demand truly affordable housing.
Section 42 housing was designed to help low-income families, seniors, and immigrants find stability. But the federal formula used to set rents — based on Area Median Income (AMI) — has failed to keep up with the realities of today’s economy. In the Twin Cities, where AMI is skewed by high regional incomes, many tenants in “affordable” housing are now facing double-digit rent increases each year.
MNTUC was born from tenants themselves — people directly experiencing these rent hikes, neglected maintenance, and language access barriers. Together, they are organizing for a fairer system: one that reflects the true incomes of low-income renters, not a decades-old formula that prices them out of their homes.
Today, MNTUC includes ten active tenant associations across the seven-county metro area. Each building holds regular meetings to discuss violations, organize collectively, and build renter leadership. Coalition leaders meet monthly to strategize, advance legislative goals, and strengthen tenant power.
Behind this organizing are immigrant families, seniors, and single parents — people who deserve safe, stable homes and a fair voice in shaping housing policy. HOME Line provides facilitation, legal support, and infrastructure to ensure their collective power can’t be ignored.
✨ Day 9: Your donation strengthens tenant-led movements.
Every $75 helps support MNTUC’s organizing meetings, legislative advocacy, and renter leadership development — building the power needed to make “affordable housing” truly affordable.
Nov 10: 30 Days of Giving Staff Spotlight: Tenant Organizer Katherine Banbury
Meet Katherine Banbury — a passionate tenant organizer whose lived experience, leadership, and deep commitment are driving housing justice in Minnesota.
Katherine joined HOME Line in 2022, after years of grassroots organizing and working in wellness education. In 2021, she stepped into the world of tenant advocacy when she helped lead the St. Paul Rent Stabilization Ordinance campaign. As a tenant leader, she coordinated engagement across the city and served on the mayor’s 40-member task force to implement the ordinance.
Choosing to build on her own rental-housing experience, Katherine made the transition into full-time tenant organizing at HOME Line. She now focuses on engaging, educating and empowering renters across culturally diverse communities — helping to form and sustain tenant associations in publicly-funded housing, so everyone can live with dignity, purpose, and connection.
Her work bridges the personal and the systemic. She knows what it’s like to face housing instability, and she brings that experience into policy, organizing, and leadership training — making sure tenants lead the change in the homes and buildings where they live.
✨ Day 10: Your donation helps keep organizers like Katherine active—people who build tenant power from the grassroots up.
Nov 11: 30 Day of Giving Program Spotlight: VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America)
At the heart of HOME Line’s work is the simple belief that the people most impacted by housing instability should lead the fight to end it.
Our AmeriCorps VISTA program builds that leadership from the ground up. Created to directly address the housing instability renters experience, the program supports local nonprofits and neighborhood associations in developing tenant leadership, community networks, and renter power across the Twin Cities metro.
VISTA Members focus on building community capacity — helping low-income, BIPOC, and immigrant renters organize, advocate, and connect with one another to address housing quality, instability, and affordability. They expand both formal and informal networks of renters, turning lived experience into collective action.
HOME Line has hosted VISTAs since the 1990s, and since becoming an intermediary site in 2018, we’ve proudly supported 30 VISTA Members across more than 25 Minnesota nonprofits. Together, they’ve:
Leveraged over $230,000 in cash and in-kind resources,
Recruited and mobilized over 1,100 volunteers, and
Served more than 15,000 individuals statewide.
These numbers represent real tenant leaders emerging to speak powerfully for themselves and their neighbors to build their communities.
✨ Day 11: Your support sustains programs that build long-term housing justice capacity
Every $100 you give helps a VISTA Member and their community organize, connect, and fight for safe, stable homes for all Minnesotans.
Nov 12: 30 Days of Giving Staff Highlight: Meet the VISTAs!
HOME Line’s AmeriCorps VISTA Program builds tenant leadership and community power to address housing instability across Minnesota. Through partnerships with local nonprofits and neighborhood organizations, our VISTA members strengthen networks of low-income renters, support tenant organizing, and expand access to housing justice resources in their communities.
This year’s VISTA cohort is seven strong:
💥 Savannah – VISTA Leader, HOME Line
💥Isa – VISTA, Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization
💥Hannah – VISTA, Phillips West Neighborhood Organization
💥Lucid – VISTA, St. Anthony Park Community Council
💥Josh – VISTA, Windom Community Council
💥Tami – VISTA, HOME Line
💥Miss Beverly – VISTA, Harrison Neighborhood Association
✨ Day 12: Your donation helps sustain and grow this powerful program—funding the next generation of housing justice leaders who are changing systems, one tenant at a time.
Nov 13: 30 Days of Giving: VISTA Host Site Highlight
Since 2023, HOME Line has teamed up with Phillips West Neighborhood Organization (PWNO) to build stronger renter power in the heart of Minneapolis. Through our AmeriCorps VISTA program, a dedicated tenant organizer has expanded PWNO’s housing work, helping to turn renter concerns into neighborhood action.
PWNO is in a neighborhood where about 84% of households rent, many of whom face high cost burdens and systemic barriers.
In collaboration with HOME Line’s VISTA Cohort, PWNO launched a formal Renter’s Rights Training Program—offering deep-dive multi-session workshops covering leases, repairs, resources, and building neighbor networks.
This work reflects HOME Line’s wider strategy of investing in tenant leadership, organizing, and networks so that renters can shape their own housing futures.
✨ Day 13: You can help this partnership grow.
Your donation supports the VISTA placement, training, and mentoring that makes this collaboration possible. It helps more renters in Phillips West—and across Minnesota—gain knowledge, leadership, and collective power to challenge unfair housing conditions.
Nov 14: 30 Days of Giving Impact Highlight: 2024-25 VISTA Cohort
The 2024–25 VISTA cohort just wrapped up a transformative year of service! Over the past 12 months, members completed over 2,000 hours of training and professional development, built cross-sector partnerships across housing, government, and community organizations, and recruited or managed over 300 community volunteers to strengthen tenant leadership statewide.
This year’s cohort launched renter resource guides, multilingual rights campaigns, community zines, and tenant training programs that will continue to empower residents long after their service terms end. Members also supported crisis response efforts, hosted renter forums, facilitated leadership cohorts, and advanced storytelling projects to amplify renter voices across Minnesota.
From West St. Paul to Duluth, VISTAs tackled challenges with creativity, compassion, and persistence—meeting tenants where they are and co-creating sustainable systems for advocacy and education.
✨ Day 14: Your donation helps sustain and grow this powerful program—funding the next generation of housing justice leaders who are changing systems, one tenant at a time.
Nov 15: 30 Days of Giving Staff Spotlight
Meet Austin Fleming, HOME Line’s VISTA Project Director — a dedicated leader who has grown alongside our AmeriCorps VISTA program over the past three years.
Austin first joined HOME Line in 2023 as a VISTA member hosted at Minnesota Housing Partnership, where he led a powerful narrative change project amplifying tenant voices statewide. His creativity and commitment to housing justice quickly stood out.
In 2024, Austin stepped into the role of VISTA Leader, where he provided training, mentorship, and daily support to cohort members. He also launched several capacity-building initiatives, including a tenant–landlord law video series for renters and advocates, and a historical archive of HOME Line’s VISTA program—preserving nearly three decades of impact and community building.
Now in 2025, Austin continues his journey as our VISTA Project Director, overseeing a growing cohort of passionate members and ensuring that each project builds long-term power for tenants across Minnesota. His leadership reflects the heart of the VISTA program: service rooted in learning, collaboration, and the belief that community-led action can transform systems.
✨ Day 15: Your donation helps sustain leaders like Austin—people building the infrastructure for housing justice, one day at a time.
Nov 16: 30 Days of Giving Program Highlight: Policy
At HOME Line, we know that tenant rights aren’t just won in the courtroom or at city hall—they’re also secured through the power of organized renters and informed, community-rooted advocacy.
Our policy program connects what we hear every day from renters on our free statewide hotline to the halls of the Minnesota Legislature. By combining legal services, grassroots organizing, and policy advocacy, we’ve shaped some of the most significant tenant protections in Minnesota’s history—including the 14-day pre-eviction notice, rent fee transparency, heat requirements, and expanded privacy rights.
This work doesn’t happen in isolation. It’s fueled by partnerships with tenant coalitions and local allies who bring real stories and solutions to policymakers. Together, we’re changing how Minnesota talks about—and legislates—housing justice.
✨ Day 16: Your donation helps keep renters’ voices at the center of policy change—powering the fight for safe, stable, and affordable housing for all.
Nov 17: 30 Days of Giving Impact Highlight: 2023 Legislative Wins
In 2023, Minnesota took a major leap forward for renter rights—thanks in large part to the advocacy and organizing led by HOME Line and its coalition partners. These changes mark the most substantial reform of tenant-landlord law in the state’s 167-year history.
Among the key protections now in law (effective January 1, 2024, for many of them):
🌀Landlords must issue a 14-day written notice before filing an eviction action for nonpayment of rent.
🌀All non-optional fees must be disclosed clearly up front—including in advertised rent and on the first page of leases.
🌀A minimum indoor temperature of 68 °F during the cold-weather months (Oct 1–Apr 30) and stronger heat-code protections.
🌀Tenants must receive 24-hour notice before a landlord enters a rental unit, and penalties for violations have been strengthened.
🌀The definition of “emergency repairs” is expanded to include issues like non-functioning refrigerators, promised air-conditioning, and serious infestations.
These laws don’t just update rules—they shift power closer to renters and build real housing stability in Minnesota.
✨ Day 17: Your donation helps sustain this momentum—so renters can keep winning protections and building power.
Nov 18: 30 Days of Giving Impact Highlight: Tenant Bill of Rights
A power imbalance exists between landlords and tenants. Landlords write the leases. So, we need city, state, and federal laws to correct this imbalance.
To address this issue, HOME Line has drafted a Minnesota Tenant Bill of Rights, outlining the key protections our state could adopt to help level the playing field. We’re also developing a companion guide to help cities advance local tenant protections that ensure fairness and stability in every community.
The Minnesota Tenant Bill of Rights defines what every renter deserves, including:
✅The Right to a Fair Application and Rental Process – Transparency and fairness from the very first step.
✅The Right to a Fair Lease – Clear, balanced agreements that protect both parties.
✅The Right to a Habitable Home – Safe, healthy, and well-maintained housing.
✅The Right to Reasonable Rent – Affordability that reflects tenants’ realities.
✅The Right to Balanced Power in Court – Fair access to justice in housing disputes.
✅The Right to Safeguards Against Eviction – Protections that prevent unnecessary displacement.
✅The Right to Clear Rules – Straightforward housing laws that work for everyone.
Together, these principles reflect a simple truth: housing justice starts with balance, transparency, and accountability.
Read the full MN Tenant Bill of Rights proposal here: https://homelinemn.org/mntbor
✨ Day 18: Your donation helps HOME Line push these rights from vision to law—building a fairer housing system for every Minnesotan.
Nov 19: 30 Days of Giving Impact Highlight: 2026 Legislative Agenda
At HOME Line, our legislative work is shaped by renters’ experiences across Minnesota. Every hotline call, tenant story, and organizing win helps guide our priorities at the Capitol. As we look toward the 2026 Legislature, we’re building on recent historic protections and pushing for deeper, lasting change.
🌟 Our 2026 Legislative Agenda includes:
🏠 Source of Income Protections
Ensuring renters aren’t denied housing based on how they pay rent.
🚫 Just Cause Eviction Protections
Requiring landlords to give a legitimate reason before ending a lease.
📜 Housing Constitutional Amendment
Guaranteeing every Minnesotan access to safe, stable, affordable housing.
💵 ERASE Campaign
Securing permanent emergency rental assistance to prevent evictions.
📞 Statewide Tenant Hotline Funding
Expanding access to trusted legal guidance for all renters.
🏢 Stabilizing Rents in LIHTC Housing
Fixing rent formulas so affordability reflects real tenant incomes.
🧾 Technical & Transparency Updates
Improving contact disclosures, protecting minors from eviction filings, preventing mid-lease changes, and letting tenants see units before signing.
🗣️ Why it matters:
These priorities reflect what tenants need most—fairness, safety, and stability.
✨ Day 19: Your donation keeps renters’ voices at the Capitol and strengthens advocacy across Minnesota.
Nov 20: 30 Days of Giving Staff Spotlight: Director of Public Policy Michael Dahl
For nearly three decades, Michael Dahl has been a leading voice for tenants’ rights and economic justice in Minnesota. With over 28 years of experience advocating at the State Capitol—and ten years serving as HOME Line’s Public Policy Director—Michael’s work has transformed housing law and protected countless renters statewide.
During the 2023–2024 legislative biennium, Michael led the charge in passing the most substantial tenant/landlord law reforms in Minnesota’s 166-year history. These victories included new protections like notice before nonpayment evictions, mandatory fee disclosures, expanded privacy rights, and strengthened cold-weather heat requirements.
Earlier in his career, Michael helped craft and win portions of the Minnesota Tenant Bill of Rights, saving renters millions each year in unfair screening, late, and attorney fees, as well as improperly withheld security deposits.
Outside the Capitol, Michael lives in St. Paul with his wife Rebecca and their rambunctious pup, Luca. He’s an avid heirloom gardener, dark chocolate enthusiast, and is known for signing off his emails with:
“Do justice and stay snazzy.”
✨ Day 20: Your gift of $100 fuels ongoing legislative advocacy to protect renters, expand housing justice, and ensure every Minnesotan has a safe and stable home.
Nov 21: 30 Day of Giving Program Spotlight: Hotline
For more than three decades, HOME Line has been a trusted resource for renters across Minnesota. Founded in 1992 to serve suburban Hennepin County, we soon grew into a statewide nonprofit — now supporting renters from the Iron Range to the Iowa border.
Our tenant hotline remains the heart of our work: a free, confidential service providing practical legal advice so renters can understand their rights, prevent eviction, and demand safe, dignified housing.
📞 Today, our small but mighty team advises roughly 3,000 households every month, with about half being new clients. Each year, that adds up to over 20,000 new clients and more than 35,000 conversations helping Minnesotans stay safely housed.
Every call represents a renter finding their voice and stability in a system that too often favors landlords.
✨ Day 21: Your donation keeps the hotline ringing.
Just $75 supports a call that can help prevent an eviction, recover a stolen deposit, or protect a family’s home.
Nov 22: 30 Days of Giving Impact Highlight: Language Lines
Every year, thousands of Minnesota renters rely on HOME Line’s Spanish, Somali, and Hmong language lines for free, confidential support navigating evictions, repair issues, discrimination, and more. Connecting with staff and volunteers who share their language and lived experience builds trust—and helps tenants take action quickly and confidently.
The need is growing – in 2024, calls to our language lines increased 60% compared to 2020, reflecting a sustained, intentional effort to ensure any Minnesota renter can reach us in the language they’re most comfortable using. This year alone, we’ve already taken 1,092 calls, putting us on track to surpass last year’s total.
These connections have fueled culturally specific organizing, new know-your-rights videos and resources in all three languages, and a weekly Radio Jornalera segment where our bilingual team shares tenant protections and answers live questions.
Together, these efforts ensure immigrant and refugee renters are not only informed—they’re organizing, leading, and shaping housing justice statewide.
✨ Day 22: Your donation keeps the language lines open, expands multilingual outreach, and powers the creation of culturally grounded tenant education and organizing tools.
Nov 23: 30 Days of Giving Impact Highlight: Economic Stability
Every year, HOME Line’s Tenant Hotline helps thousands of renters hold onto their homes, their money, and their peace of mind.
Through our free legal advice, follow-up support, and form letters, renters learn how to assert their rights — recovering stolen security deposits, demanding needed repairs, and preventing wrongful evictions. These victories don’t just protect housing; they keep families financially stable.
💰 In the past year alone, renters working with HOME Line have saved an estimated $2 million in rent abatements and returned security deposits. Those savings often mean the difference between keeping a home or losing it.
And the impact doesn’t stop there: our hotline services help prevent approximately 2,600 evictions each year, ensuring thousands of Minnesotans avoid homelessness and the long-term financial harm that comes with an eviction record.
✨ Day 23: Your donation fuels these life-changing outcomes.
Every $50 you give helps another renter keep their hard-earned money — and their home.
Nov 24: 30 Days of Giving Impact Highlight: Tenant/Landlord Law Webinars
Our Tenant/Landlord Law Webinar Series has become a vital resource for renters, housing advocates, and community partners across Minnesota. Throughout this year, these webinars have tackled topics like housing subsidy programs, security deposits, disability rights in housing, lease terms, evictions, and more.
Whether you’re a first-time renter trying to understand your lease, an advocate preparing for a community workshop, or a landlord seeking to better support your tenants, these webinars speak directly to the real issues folks face.
This year, our webinars reached approximately 800 attendees—thank you for being part of the learning, the questions, and the change.
Each session is offered free of charge and recorded for future access, because we believe knowledge is power—and power helps renters stay housed, exercise their rights, and build safer communities.
✨ Day 24: Your donation helps us keep this series running, growing, and accessible to even more renters and allies across Minnesota.
Check out the webinar archive here.
Nov 25: 30 Days of Giving Impact Highlight: Trainings for Justice-Involved Minnesotans
Finding stable housing after incarceration can be one of the biggest barriers to rebuilding a life. That’s why HOME Line partners with the Minnesota Department of Corrections to bring tenant rights education directly to people preparing for release and those on community supervision.
Through this contract, our attorneys and educators provide 2-hour tenant education seminars across 11 correctional facilities statewide—including Stillwater, Shakopee, Faribault, and more. These sessions cover everything from leases and evictions to discrimination, background checks, repairs, and renters’ rights, helping participants build the knowledge and tools to find and maintain safe, stable housing after release.
This partnership bridges the gap between incarceration and community reintegration, reducing barriers to housing insecurity and helping Minnesotans start fresh with dignity and confidence. Each class plants the seeds for long-term housing stability—one of the most crucial steps toward reducing recidivism and promoting equity.
✨ Day 25: Your donation helps sustain and expand this powerful reentry education program—supporting second chances and housing justice for all Minnesotans.
Nov 26: 30 Days of Giving Staff Spotlight: Bilingual Tenant Advocate GiGi Luna
For nearly four years, Angie (GiGi) Luna has been a trusted voice for Spanish-speaking renters across Minnesota. As a bilingual Tenant Advocate, she brings deep commitment, cultural connection, and a passion for strengthening the Latino community through housing education and advocacy.
GiGi joined HOME Line in 2021 and brings a rich background in construction, property management, and community association management—experience that helps tenants navigate complex housing issues with clarity and confidence. An alum of Concordia College with degrees in Business Administration and Communications, she also carries international ties to Spain, Puerto Rico, and Mexico that inform her culturally grounded approach to advocacy.
Every day, GiGi educates tenants on their rights, provides one-on-one support through our hotline, and ensures immigrant renters—regardless of status—can access safe, stable, and affordable housing. She also co-hosts a weekly Radio Jornalera segment with Copal, bringing landlord-tenant law education directly to Latino listeners and answering live questions from the community. Beyond the airwaves, she leads seminars and creates resources that make critical information accessible to Spanish-speaking renters statewide.
GiGi’s work strengthens families, empowers communities, and ensures tenants are equipped with the knowledge they need to stand up for their rights.
✨ Day 26: Support GiGi’s work—and the housing stability of thousands of immigrant and refugee renters—by donating today.
Nov 27: 30 Day of Giving Program Spotlight: Eviction Prevention
Our Eviction Prevention Program targets one of the most important, challenging topics we advise about—eviction actions. Once a court case is filed, tenants are on the verge of homelessness, so it is critical to talk to them immediately about the intimidating court process they will encounter. We collect statewide court eviction filing data daily and mail multilingual resource letters to every tenant defendant urging them to seek free advice from our housing attorneys.
Households contacted per year:
✅2019: 10,721 (Twin Cities metro area only)
✅2020: 2,076 (Twin Cities metro area only, eviction moratorium in effect)
✅2021: 2,677 (eviction moratorium in effect, project expanded statewide in late 2020)
✅2022: 19,982
✅2023: 24,602 (highest residential eviction filing rate in recent history)
✅2024: 22,300
✅2025: 21,035 (as of 10/31)
✨ Day 27: Your donation keeps those lifelines reaching mailboxes every day. Donate today to ensure the program remains a lifeline for tenants for years to come.
Nov 28: 30 Days of Giving: Apply to Join the Board of Directors
Do you believe in housing justice and want to help shape the future of renter rights in Minnesota? We’re seeking passionate, community-minded individuals to join HOME Line’s Board of Directors!
As a Board member, you’ll help guide a statewide nonprofit that provides free and low-cost legal, organizing, education, and advocacy services to help tenants solve their housing problems and build renter power.
What Board Members Do:
✅ Provide strategic leadership and oversight to advance our mission
✅ Ensure financial stability and uphold effective governance
✅ Support and advise our Co-Executive Directors
✅ Serve as ambassadors for housing justice in your communities
✅ Help recruit, onboard, and mentor future board members
Who We’re Looking For:
We value both professional expertise and lived experience in housing. Whether you’re a tenant, advocate, organizer, lawyer, community leader, or simply someone passionate about fair and affordable housing, your perspective is needed.
Commitment:
🕒 About 1–3 hours per month
📅 3-year term (renewable)
🌆 Meetings are accessible and collaborative
✨ Day 28: Interested? Learn more and apply today: https://forms.gle/hCWZATXtdPKpJgk98
Not ready to join but want to help? Support our renter-led work with a donation.
Nov 29: 30 Days of Giving Impact Highlight: Shared Leadership
At HOME Line, we’re stepping into a new chapter — one where leadership is shared, aligned with community values, and built for sustainability. Our recent adoption of a shared leadership model reflects our commitment to collective power, mutual accountability, and long-term impact.
Under this model:
🌈Two Co-Executive Directors — Eric Hauge and Jess Zarik — guide the organization together, blending decades of experience, organizing insight, and strategic vision to foster a more resilient HOME Line.
🌈Decisions, resources, and strategy draw from the full spectrum of voices — staff, tenants, organizers, and community partners — because we believe housing justice is stronger when power is shared.
🌈This structure reduces reliance on a single leader, supports sustainable growth, and aligns perfectly with our mission of renter-led, community-centered work.
We’re proud to model this approach internally while building external frameworks for power redistribution in housing and tenant organizing.
✨ Day 29: Your donation helps support the expansion of this shared leadership model and fuels the next phase of HOME Line’s impact.
Nov 30: Thank you for Building Tenant Power With Us 💙
As we close out this month of impact, we’re filled with deep gratitude for everyone who has joined us to celebrate the work, people, and partnerships that make HOME Line strong.
This month, we shared stories from every corner of our mission — from the tenant hotline that has helped over 342,000 households, to tenant leaders organizing for justice in their own buildings, to coalitions like the Minnesota Tenants Unite Coalition, policy wins that changed state law, and our AmeriCorps VISTA program training the next generation of housing justice leaders.
You met our incredible staff and organizers — like Michael Dahl, leading the most historic legislative wins for renters in Minnesota’s history, Katherine Banbury, who turned her own rental challenges into fuel for tenant power, and Austin Fleming, growing our statewide VISTA program.
You saw the strength of our partnerships — with Phillips West, Equity in Place, Housing Justice League, and so many others working toward a shared vision: safe, stable, and dignified homes for all Minnesotans.
Every call answered, every training attended, every story shared, and every law changed is made possible because of you.
✨ Day 30: Thank you for being part of this movement — for believing in tenant power, collective care, and justice. Continue to follow along with us by signing up for our monthly newsletter.
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