On January 28th, the Minnesota House’s Housing Finance & Policy Committee met to hear from HOME Line and Legal Aid about issues facing Minnesota renters as well as to hear testimony from two tenants who have been directly impacted by eviction and displacement.
Three years ago, Tamika Walton had an eviction filed against her for nonpayment of rent. It was resolved without further issues. For the next three years, she was the perfect tenant. But when she tried to move, nobody would rent to her because of an eviction action (the request of a landlord to open a court case against her for nonpayment of rent) still on her record. Amarilis Carrión, attorney for HOME Line, described how an eviction filing can limit renters’ future housing options: “a renter carries their history with them to every landlord they try to rent from, no matter how long ago the bad record applies to”.
Another Minnesota renter, 
Calondra Chandler of New Brighton, could no longer afford her apartment after the building was sold and the rent increased. Despite residents’ best efforts to stay, they were notified of their involuntary displacement on New Year’s Day. Many people were displaced by this event: some remain homeless, and those like Calondra that have managed to secure housing have limited options and are forced into poor housing conditions. Her current building has broken windows, a lack of heat, and the ceiling leaks. Being desperate for housing isn’t uncommon: in a study by Dr. Brittany Lewis of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, only four out of sixty-eight renters surveyed wanted the apartment they live in. In her words, “choice is an illusion”. Calondra, who has chronic health conditions and provides for a large family on a limited income, is disappointed with the lack of protections for renters like her: “As a tenant, I have many rules I have to follow or else I face the consequence of losing my housing. Bad landlords, on the other hand, get away with tenant abuses all the time. I don’t think that’s fair”.
Of course, not all landlords are bad, but the state still has a responsibility to protect Minnesotans who rent from a handful of harmful practices–and renters make up nearly 30% of the households in our state. Larry McDonough of the Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law put it this way: “Most landlords are good landlords. Most drivers are good drivers. We don’t need laws for most people to know that they should drive slowly in a residential neighborhood where kids are. But we have laws to penalize the people who don’t think that way.” Landlord-tenant laws are necessary to protect renters. It’s also necessary for laws to evolve and any gaps in them to be filled. Emergency repairs and evictions are two examples of areas that can be changed. Currently, repairs that are considered “emergencies” and expedited in the courts include a lack/loss of heat, hot and/or running water, electricity, and sanitary facilities. But what if the refrigerator that holds all your food and medications stops working? Or the elevator, or air conditioning? There are other essential services that can be emergencies. Another change that can be made has to do with evictions—an eviction filing on your record can limit your housing options well into the future and it is difficult to get it removed. Instead, an eviction filing could be removed from records after a period of time (HOME Line’s position is three years.) and only included if a judge rules in favor of a landlord. For more information about ways that the law can change to help renters, read HOME Line’s 2021 Minnesota Renter’s Agenda below.
2021 Minnesota Renter’s Agenda
How To Contact Your Legislator
Emily Sailors is a third-year International Studies student at St. Catherine University. She is interning at HOME Line through her university’s Community Leaders program.
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