Senator Lindsey Port’s legislation will immediately help Minnesota families facing eviction
SAINT PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Senate passed Senator Lindsey Port’s (DFL-Burnsville) legislation (HF 1440) providing $50 million in emergency rental assistance to the state’s Family Homelessness Prevention and Assistance Program today in a bipartisan vote of 42-21. The funding will be immediately available to help keep families across the state in their homes.
“We are facing a housing crisis in every corner of our state, and too many families in communities large and small are facing the threat of eviction from their home,” said Sen. Port, chair of the Senate Housing and Homelessness Prevention Committee. “Keeping Minnesotans in their homes will give them the stability they need in their lives to succeed, and today’s bill will immediately help keep families across the state safe and secure. This is only a first step, but this is critically needed now.”
Following the lifting of an emergency federal moratorium on evictions, the rate of evictions in Minnesota has skyrocketed in recent months, with some of the largest increases coming in rural counties. Additionally, the urgency to move this legislation has only increased as the recently released Minnesota Homeless Mortality Report found that homelessness significantly shortens an individual’s life expectancy to the extent that a 20-year-old person experiencing homelessness has the same likelihood of death as a 50-year-old in the general population.
Established in 1993, the Family Homeless Prevention and Assistance Program is administered by the Minnesota Housing Financing Authority, and currently provides funding to twenty grantees across all 87 Minnesota counties, as well as to all eleven tribal nations.
The bill now goes to Governor Walz for his signature.
###
Learn more about Sen. Port.
Read more news from Sen. Port.