With an eviction crisis looming, Minneapolis and St. Paul leaders take a stab at solutions

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (AP) – Across the Twin Cities, residents and leaders alike are calling for rental support for the thousands of immigrant families most impacted by Operation Metro Surge, staring down the threat of eviction. But despite the clear objective, the solutions are murky. Does extending the eviction timeline actually protect residents? Does financial support reach the people most affected by the surge? In Minneapolis, the city council passed an ordinance 7-5 giving renters 60 days instead of 30 to pay rent before facing eviction. The five members who voted against it cited a concern raised repeatedly both by landlords and affordable housing providers: That this well-intentioned measure will actually increase residents' odds of eviction because it provides more time to get further behind on rent. But eviction researchers and tenant advocacy organizations say that while it's hard to predict what could happen months from now, families' needs are immediate. The ordinance, they argue, ensures that people who need to catch up on rent – particularly people who have a means to make money but felt forced to stay home during the surge – can remain housed. People on both sides agree that the snowballing costs to keep people housed will be nearly insurmountable without state help, and that any effort to target the assistance to people most affected by the surge in immigration enforcement will raise its own set of challenges. Twin Cities have sent millions toward rent, but more is neededIn early February, Minneapolis put more than a million dollars toward Hennepin County's estimated $9.6 million in emergency rent relief. St. Paul made a similar move on Feb. 26, redirecting $1.42 million into emergency rental assistance. Minnesota state senators also introduced a bill that would provide $75 million in emergency rental assistance to the state, though it faces tough odds. A $50 million bill was voted down in a House committee earlier this month. So far, calls for Gov. Tim Walz to institute an eviction moratorium in the state have not succeeded. And a threatened rent strike led by a newly-formed tenants union, aimed at pushing leaders to address the issue, came nowhere near securing the 10,000 pledges organizers said were necessary to go ahead with the plan. Barring the ability to issue a city-wide eviction moratorium, Council member Jason Chavez (Ward 9) said that an extension to the eviction process through Aug. 31 would be "the bare minimum." A similar ordinance is currently under consideration in St. Paul, with a final vote likely on March 18. If approved, it would last through the end of the year. "I'm very surprised that there is so much hesitancy to move on this," said Minneapolis Council member Robin Wonsley (Ward 2) , the ordinance's primary author, at a March 5 meeting. But officials at affordable housing nonprofits said that the hesitancy doesn't reflect an ignorance of the core issue so much as a concern for unintended consequences. "There's a lot of unanimity about this ICE surge having a dramatic impact on renters," said Laura Russ, the chief real estate officer at Aeon, a Minnesota nonprofit that owns 5,885 homes across the state per a 2024 report. But that impact shouldn't force a "misguided policy," she said. "When residents get behind, it works best when the process that then happens is predictable and consistent," Russ said, saying that situations like the COVID-19 eviction moratorium had led to confusion about eligibility for rental assistance and other issues. Russ and others expressed concerns that the extended eviction period could lead to unmanageable debt. There's also an issue of timing, she said: Hennepin County's emergency rental assistance is targeted at households who have already had a court filing regarding their eviction. The extended timeline, then, would in practice extend the timeline for receiving financial support. And there's the issue of their own organizations' budgets, Russ said. Aeon and other nonprofits depend on rent payments to maintain buildings, pay staff and address expenses. "We're on the same page here," Russ said. "We're trying to house people and people are trying to stay housed." 'We're just barely scraping by'Eric Hauge is the co-executive director of HomeLine, a Minnesota tenant advocacy organization that supports the extension. In a letter to the City Council in support of the ordinance, Hauge said that "in the last quarter alone we have received more financial assistance calls than in any quarter during the COVID-19 pandemic." However, he added, when it came to concerns from housing providers, "I don't think it's quite fair to compare it to the pandemic," saying that the eviction moratorium then ran, in some form, from March 2020 to June 2022. The current ordinance is, he said, "a temporary solution to a temporary problem." The concerns raised to the Council by housing providers and landlords reflect a more permanent problem, Hauge said – and not a new one: the lack of emergency rental assistance and affordable housing across the state. Nick Graetz, a University of Minnesota-based research collaborator at Princeton University's Eviction Lab, agreed, telling MinnPost that in any given month in Minnesota, there's a need for about $22 million in emergency rental assistance. The focus on the issue given Operation Metro Surge, Graetz said, is throwing light on the fact that "we're just barely scraping by helping the most affected folks in a normal month." Given that, both Hauge and Graetz said that a crucial part of addressing the issue would be rental assistance at levels that only the state would be able to provide. Asked about concerns that the extension could actually lead to an increase in evictions, Graetz said that there was no extensive research on their effects, but that the "devastating" effects of an eviction were well documented. What's harder to nail down is whether these efforts can – or should – be targeted to help residents most affected by Operation Metro Surge. While targeting aid to those most in need makes sense, Hauge said it can often slow the process and create complications. Graetz agreed, saying "it's going to be really hard to make sure money is going to folks most acutely affected right now." The Minneapolis City Council's appetite for it may be limited as well. Council member Jamison Whiting (Ward 8) discussed a possible amendment to the ordinance that would allow the extension to be in place for any resident who gave their landlord an attestation that federal immigration enforcement activities had impacted their ability to pay rent. Council member Chavez likened the idea to an "ICE hit list" and said he would not support it. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey now has until March 12 to decide whether to veto the ordinance. In a statement, he called the move a "blunt measure" and said he would take time to decide whether it "helps or hinders our city." Graetz said he was hopeful that the renewed focus on the issue of housing had perhaps made clear how challenging the system had become for all involved. "It's something that at some point we're going to have to deal with on that structural level," he said."