Vision: Everyone has an affordable home, and our basic needs are met.

Minnesota has a shortage of at least 50,000 homes. This requires holistic State solutions so that every family has access to an affordable, stable place to call home. With approximately 10% of Minneapolis Public School students experiencing housing instability and homelessness disproportionately impacting LGTBQ+ youth, it’s an urgent issue the State needs to address for our most vulnerable community members.  It's also an issue with a history of racial discrimination through redlining that has exacerbated disparities through segregation for generations, contributing to our State having one of the largest racial homeowner gaps in the country. To truly solve for lack of affordability, we need an abundance of housing options for people at all income levels.  That means removing barriers for homeowners to choose to add additional homes to their properties. State policy that gives all cities the same guardrails and parameters can help alleviate this burden. As an engineer that deals with energy I know that the largest drivers of greenhouse gas emissions in Minnesota are from land use and transportation. Smart land use policy can reduce the emissions from both sources, while preserving existing natural and agricultural land.  The more we address the structures underlying our housing system, the more we can make a safe stable home within reach for everyone, no matter their income.
We must:
  • Address homelessness with a full-spectrum approach.  It’s clear that our cities need help in responding to the challenges of our unhoused neighbors. As a State legislator I want to make sure that the city and county agencies have what they need to be successful, including funding for key resources and tools to take a collective approach to solving this problem. That means abundant housing options, supports for disability, mental health and substance abuse, and addressing the bottleneck of case workers tasked with helping individuals and families find stability.  I'd like to see our State improve the systems we have in place and work to increase the number of available beds and case workers to meet need. We should work to provide opportunities to alleviate suffering and work collectively to effectively support people by removing barriers connecting people experiencing housing instability and homelessness with adequate resources. This is something that can be addressed at the State level in partnership with the city, county, and advocates and I am prepared to dig in.

  • Acknowledge the current realities of modern work.  Whenever I visit downtown, I see large empty office towers that were created at a time when in-person office work was the norm. I am interested in working with partners to find ways to convert office towers to housing, community, and amenity spaces that serve our current culture and meet needs. 

  • Reduce sprawl.  Land is a limited resource and urban sprawl eats at our valuable farmland and our beautiful natural resources. It also puts people further away from jobs, friends, activities, and amenities making people lonelier and our democracy less robust. That’s why I support building the right homes in the right places, including filling in the missing middle housing options, making sure we have diverse housing types within neighborhoods for the diverse needs of the people of the district and MN.

  • Focus on resiliency.  As the climate changes, we must harden our systems to unpredictability. That means weatherizing buildings so that they are less susceptible to temperature swings, developing community resilience hubs for emergency power and resources during extreme weather events, and preparing our land use structures to adapt to increasing numbers of climate refugees. When we design for resilience, we are able to respond quickly to problems and government is not in the way. 
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  • Invest in community land trusts.  Community land trusts keep housing affordable and in local control.