St. Paul, MN—On Thursday, the Senate Housing Policy and Finance Committee passed its $115 million budget bill out of Committee, authored by Senator Rich Draheim (R-Madison Lake). Senate File 969 focuses on housing affordability and closing the homeownership gap.

The key theme for this legislation is making common sense reforms to lower the cost of housing. Notably, this includes encouraging municipalities to facilitate unsubsidized affordable housing by authorizing smaller lot sizes for single-family homes, allowing the construction of duplexes through fourplexes on lots that would otherwise be zoned exclusively for single-family houses, and allowing for mixed-use development.

“As a state we need to be doing everything we can to lay a path to affordable home ownership for every Minnesotan,” Senator Rich Draheim (R-Madison Lake), Chair of the Housing Policy and Finance Committee, said Thursday. “Owning your own home has been proven to lead to more wealth, kids doing better in school, better mental and physical health, and more community involvement.  These are all things we strive for and home ownership is such an important piece.”

This bipartisan legislation allocates $1.6 million a year to the Workforce Homeownership Program to provide one-time grants of up to $375,000 for the development of workforce and affordable homeownership projects across Minnesota. Additionally, this bill allocates $150,000 per year increase to the Home Ownership Education, Counseling, & Training (HECAT) Program which helps to prioritize decreasing the homeownership gap between white households and households of color.

“What it boils down to is closing a loophole in state law and makes it so cities can’t require specific cosmetic features, like brick fronts, that drive up the cost of a home. Ending this type of exclusionary zoning will lead to an overall lower cost to build,” Senator Draheim.

This legislation also includes an eviction moratorium phase out. An eviction moratorium was originally established by Governor Walz through Executive Order 20-14, which became effective on March 24, 2020. The bill covers the governor’s list of reasons evictions or terminations of leases are currently allowed under EO 20-79 into session law, and adds ‘step down’ phases to the current moratorium.