In a continuing effort to keep the congregation informed on affordable housing issues, your Beacon Housing Committee would like to share a series of articles about the eviction crisis in
Minnesota. The following excerpt is taken from an article in the Beacon newsletter.
Twin Cities evictions have spiked again. Can Minnesota solve its housing crisis?
Housing advocates in Hennepin and Ramsey counties are scrambling to help a growing number of tenants facing eviction.
More than a year after the end of Minnesota's pandemic-era eviction moratorium, Twin Cities eviction cases are still surging at one of the fastest rates of any U.S. metro area.
Through the first nine months of 2023, Hennepin County eviction filings jumped 44% over the previous year, while Ramsey County evictions were up 25% in the same period. Nationally, the Twin Cities is second only to Las Vegas for the increase in eviction cases compared with the pandemic era, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, which tracks filings in
34 cities across the country.
The spike is driven by multiple factors: individual financial struggles made worse by inflation, a persistent lack of affordable housing and rising costs for developers looking to build affordable units.
To combat the trend, advocates and local leaders are rushing to intervene before tenants end up in court to help them find settlements to stay in their homes. And they now have some additional help: a $1 billion funding boost from the state Legislature, plus nearly $200 million in annual revenue from a new 0.25% metro sales tax that took effect Oct. 1.
Learn what Beacon Interfaith Housing is doing about the housing crisis at beaconinterfaith.org
In next month’s newsletter, we will dive into why most people get evicted.
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