Bills before the Minnesota Legislature currently could address voter concerns
Today, Neighbors for More Neighbors and their coalition partners, including ISAIAH, Sierra Club, and Move Minnesota Action released a poll showing the critical importance of housing as an issue for Minnesota voters. The poll showed 85% of Minnesotans say that the cost of renting or buying a home in Minnesota is a major problem or somewhat a problem, while only 2% say it is not really a problem.
“Over three quarters of Minnesotans agree that the Legislature should take action to address Minnesota’s housing shortage and the cost of homes,” said Andrea Riehl, State Policy Lead for Neighbors for More Neighbors.
Perhaps more surprisingly to some, Minnesota voters strongly prioritize building more housing over concerns about “neighborhood character” or “local control.”
- 55% of survey respondents said building more affordable housing is more important than protecting the character of neighborhoods from change versus only 31% who prioritized neighborhood character.
- In a separate question, 58% said Minnesota Legislators should prioritize building more homes and bringing down housing costs over preserving the power of city governments to control what type of homes are built.
- This support is even higher among inner ring suburbs residents, at 67%, compared to only 29% of voters in inner ring suburbs that prioritize local control over expanding housing.
“It is clear from these results that Minnesotans prefer we do something to build homes that are affordable,” said Sue Budd, a leader with ISAIAH. “Legislators can be assured that Minnesota voters know how badly 100,000 more homes are needed.”
“Suburbs are not a monolith,” said Peter Wagenius of Sierra Club. “Tons of suburban residents know that we need more homes. They’re telling their elected officials that young adults should be able to afford to live in the communities they grew up in.”
“Metro residents understand that we need to be able to plan for the future of our communities and our climate without jumping through endless procedural hoops,” said Sam Rockwell, Executive Director of Move Minnesota Action. “Metro residents understand we need to allow for more homes. Planning for the future and increasing housing concentration is critical for creating thriving, walkable, and transit friendly communities.”
The poll of registered voters, conducted by YouGov between April 4 and April 14 showed that only 4% of respondents said their city or town was doing a very good job of keeping housing affordable, while 40% said their town was doing a poor or very poor job of keeping housing affordable.
