Several candidates are running for districts in the Minnesota House this election season. On Tuesday, Oct. 29th a few candidates provided their policies on the ever-growing problem with having enough homes here in the northland. Residents in the Central Hillside neighborhood attended a Duluth Housing Forum to hear from local candidates running for Minnesota House talk about ideas for fixing issues with housing and addressing the problems with homelessness.

Next Tuesday is election day. Early voters are casting their ballots, and candidates are still out on the campaign trail. But over at the One Roof Community Housing, several non-profits asked local candidates about potential ideas to create more housing options in the near future.

Andrea Crouse, the Community Development Manager at Zeitgeist, says only half of the candidates were present to share the ideas. Although the housing forum was an unbiased discussion on what local leaders would do to address the housing crisis.

“We made an invite to all the candidates running for house seats in this area. We’re really happy that we were able to get three candidates here. Sorry that not all were able to show up,” Crouse said. “While there might be national candidates who are getting a lot of attention, these local elections have a huge impact on our day to day lives here in Minnesota. So voting for House, Senate, local candidates is critical.”

Some of the candidates were unable to attend the Duluth Housing Forum due to schedule conflicts. The candidates who were present are running on the Democratic Farmer Labor ticket. WDIO News did reach out to Republican candidates for responses.

In a statement sent from Shawn Savela the Republican candidate, running for MN House District 8B he says the role of government doesn’t directly provide housing.

“It’s not the job of the government to provide housing, but instead to help create the conditions where housing can be created and be affordable. That means it provides infrastructure, public services like police and firefighters, helps control the cost of living by easing the tax burden on citizens. Providing a pathway for abundant and affordable energy. It’s the purview of the city to set zoning rules and provide homeless services. The state can help with funding and some ordinances. I am eager to work with the city on this but the local officials need to have the lead. Once the needs are established and agreed to, my job will be to go to the state and fight for what the city needs. I don’t support the Minnesota Constitutional Housing Amendment. I read it. It’s a convoluted mess of vague requirements, quotas, and government overreach. “

Meanwhile the incumbent DFL candidate Liish Kozlowski says they are in favor of using government programs to help with residents become first time home buyers.

“We made really massive investments and established the first gen home ownership program which is up and running now. I believe it’s about $40,000 that will go towards your down payment,” Rep. Kozlowski said. “But also one of the bills that I carried that pairs with that is the home ownership counseling.”

In a different statement from the incumbent Republican candidate Natalie Zeleznikar, the Representative of Minnesota’s district 3B. She says quote increasing taxes won’t help create more housing options for people seeking to become home owners.

“Housing is an absolutely critical issue because far too many families can’t afford the dream of homeownership. Rather than yet another tax increase, I support efforts to reduce the burdensome and expensive mandates that drive up the cost of building new homes and add thousands of dollars to the price of new homes compared to our neighboring states. Tackling the cost to build new homes is a critical first step toward making housing more affordable for Minnesotans. In addition, building more trade opportunities for students in high school to pursue pathways in CTE is a high priority for me, to ensure the next generation is prepared with necessary skills to build homes as many retire.” 

However, the DFL candidate Mark Munger says his focus would be addressing the number of single-family homes that are used as vacation rentals instead of permanent housing.

“It’s not just a unique situation here in Duluth where we have people buying up Park Point. It’s all in the rural areas too. I mean, the townships are actually dealing with that issue because properties are getting bought up that are single family properties and then they’re getting rented out as vacation rentals. So that takes that unit off the housing market. We need to figure out how to deal with that, right? And have regulation of that. So we have that housing stock available.”

The Duluth Housing Forum is hosted and produced by the Our Future Starts at Home Coalition. Other local partners who collaborated are Duluth Affordable Housing Coalition, The Arc Northland, and Center City Housing Corp. A few other organizations who assisted are Chum, Damiano Center, One Roof Community Housing, and Zeitgeist Arts. Other statewide organizations who assisted are MHP (Minnesota Housing Partnership) and Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless.