Successes during the 2023-2024 Legislative Biennium
Good news, Minnesota renters! Beginning January of 2024 and throughout the next year, many new tenant protections that HOME Line advocated for at the Minnesota Legislature have or will become state law. This will be the most substantial change in Minnesota tenant/landlord law in a single session of the Legislature in the 166-year history of the state.
Click below for brief summaries of the laws past in both 2023 and 2024, as well as links to HOME Line webinars that provide detailed information about each.
2025 Legislative Agenda
(Downloadable PDF copy here. Note: Additional legislative proposals may be added to this agenda.)
HOME Line is a nonprofit tenant advocacy organization providing Minnesota renters free and confidential legal advice. Since opening in 1992, we have advised over 330,000 renter households from every county in the state. In 2023, we advised over 20,000 households—the most clients we have served in a single year in our history. Because we work directly with so many renter households, we have a unique insight into the issues facing many Minnesotan tenants and the policy fixes that will help them thrive.
Legislation which HOME Line will lead on:
- Advance measures contained in HOME Line’s 2025 Minnesota Tenant Bill of Rights. Support measures included in the 2025 Minnesota Tenant Bill of Rights that will help correct the power imbalance between landlords and renters. To achieve this, HOME Line outlines seven broad housing rights that tenants should be entitled to—a Fair Application and Rental Process, a Fair Lease, a Habitable Home, Reasonable Rent, Balanced Power in Court, Safeguards Against Eviction, and Clear Rules—each right includes several detailed proposals policymakers can pursue for more equitable rental situations.
- Mandate that renters insurance policies protect a tenant when they damage their apartment by any non-intentional means, not just by fire.
- Secure funding for a statewide tenant hotline. Advocate that Minnesota Housing appropriate funds to support a statewide tenant hotline so that renters can seek legal help regarding any tenant-landlord issues regardless of income.
Legislation which HOME Line will work with coalition partners on:
- Guarantee statewide source of income protections. Clarify that the state’s civil rights law ensures landlords cannot refuse to rent to or otherwise discriminate against someone because they receive and use rental assistance to pay their rent.
- Attain statewide just cause eviction protections. Safeguard tenants from extremely fragile leases by prescribing that landlords cannot issue notices terminating tenancies or refuse to renew leases unless they can provide just cause for doing so.
- Pass legislation putting the Minnesota constitutional amendment for housing on the ballot, dedicating predictable housing investments in homes we can afford for our families and Minnesota neighbors for years to come. Pass legislation putting the Minnesota constitutional amendment for housing on the ballot to raise the state’s sales tax by ⅜ of 1%, using the receipts to remove barriers to homeownership, make rental housing safe and affordable, and protect our vulnerable households and communities from displacement and homelessness.
- Secure additional funding for emergency rental assistance and pursue policies that will prevent evictions and create support for long-term policy changes to end housing instability and homelessness.
Legislation HOME Line supports:
- The Minnesota Fair Chance Access to Housing Act: Ensures that landlords assess rental applicants on more than just their conviction histories. In summary, the act will:
- prohibit landlords from asking rental applicants about their conviction histories during the initial screening process;
- postpone any background check until the applicant receives a conditional offer;
- limit the use of system-involvement history screening to specific types of convictions within established timeframes; and
- allow applicants to undergo an individualized review of their conviction histories and offer evidence of rehabilitation before a potential denial by a landlord.
- Creation of a Statewide Landlord Database:
- The rental market is often opaque and lacks transparency. To be more transparent, this statewide database would require public disclosure of investor ownership information for rental properties. This includes ownership and financial interests, affordability information such as rent, and shareholder information on each LLC member.
- These measures would strengthen enforcement efforts by providing transparency and accountability and allowing uniform applicability of local ordinances and renter rights. Cities could be more proactive and straightforward, allowing staff to act with certainty and better hold owners and managers accountable in cases of housing code and renter rights violations. Without this data, enforcement efforts around investor-owned properties and portfolios are limited, slower, and require a higher level of resources for background research.
For updates about this advocacy and information about how you can contribute to these efforts, sign up below for the HOME Line Connection newsletter!