HOME Line’s tenant hotline first opened on January 13, 1992. Back then, it covered the suburbs of Hennepin County, as it was a program of a local community action agency. Now, 30 years later, HOME Line serves the entire state of Minnesota, offering timely, accurate, and confidential legal advice to any Minnesota renter free of charge. See the original announcement letter and hotline flyer to the right. Note that we’ve redacted some of the outdated contact/phone info on these original documents.
In the past 30 years we’ve:
- Advised over 275,000 renter households throughout the state on a variety of issues including repairs, evictions, security deposits, leases, privacy, and more.
- Organized thousands of tenants to build power and collectively respond to risks harming their homes, such as termination of housing subsidies, substandard conditions, mismanagement, harmful leasing practices, threats of displacement, gentrification, and more.
Click to view larger version - Advocated for and helped influence public policies that support and protect renters, as well as increase affordable housing funding on local, state, and federal levels.
- Provided over 2,400 trainings or educational sessions to over 72,000 attendees on tenant/landlord legal topics—including audiences such as renters, landlords, service providers, government & court staff, high school & college students, and many more.
- Participated in and led efforts in critical impact litigation, seeking to improve the impacts of existing laws for tenants.
- Researched and produced original reports on topics ranging from Section 8 voucher acceptance to the impacts of eviction actions.
- Trained and benefited from the help of over 1,400 volunteers and interns, who put in over 61,000 hours of their time supporting HOME Line and our clients
- Established and now oversee an AmeriCorps VISTA cohort program of tenant organizers who provide community organizing expertise and capacity to local organization host sites, while developing future housing leaders in the nonprofit field.
Every client has mattered, but in the last two years, our services seem more important than ever. We’re helping thousands of renter households understand complicated changes in tenant/landlord laws covering the most essential thing in most people’s lives right now: their home. If you are financially able, there are endless ways to make donations to worthwhile causes right now. But know that helping to fund HOME Line’s work, which has been uninterrupted through the COVID-19 crisis, will likely help thousands of low-income Minnesota families navigate the very uncertain waters that they are facing and will continue to face.
We rely on the support of the community to help us continue to offer trainings and provide free and essential legal advice to tenants who call or email–over 15,000 renter households each year. Your support to HOME Line assists us in integrating legal services, organizing, and public policy. Thank you for considering a donation:
I remember when we were back in the first building that HOMELine ever resided. Great memories! Imiss those talks with Charlie Warner about his expeience living in the building that was part of the Fritz v. Warthen case that first gave tenants the right to withhold their rent. Charlie was such a great storyteller!