ST. PAUL, Minn. — Yesterday, during the Conference Committee meeting on House File 1141 – this session’s Omnibus Housing Finance and Policy bill – Senator Liz Boldon (DFL-Rochester) motioned to add two bipartisan pieces of legislation to the conference committee report, both aimed at making housing more affordable in Minnesota. Both were defeated, due to the House Republican conferees voting against them.
The first motion would have added the language of the Manufactured Home Park Residents’ Bill of Rights (MHPRBOR) to the conference committee report. This legislation (Senate File 2691) – authored by Senator Boldon and Representative Matt Norris (DFL-Blaine) and passed with bipartisan support in the Senate – contained several provisions aimed at keeping manufactured housing affordable for Minnesotans. A list of protections within the MHPRBOR can be found at this link.
The MHPRBOR was verbally supported by Republican Representative Wayne Johnson in the House. However, when the time came to vote on the legislation in a House Housing committee meeting in mid-March, Representative Johnson conveniently missed the vote, and told Lake Elmo constituents that “politics” was the reason for skipping the vote.
The second motion offered by Senator Boldon would have added Senate File 3173 – legislation from Senator Boldon and Representative Esther Agbaje (DFL-Minneapolis) – to the conference committee report, which would prohibit large private equity entities from owning more than 100 single-family homes. This motion was also defeated due to it receiving no support from House Republican conferees, despite the bill having bipartisan co-authors in both the House and Senate. Additionally, the Trump administration has signaled its willingness to act to curb the purchase of single-family homes by Wall Street investors.
In response, Sen. Boldon, Rep. Norris, and Rep. Agbaje released the following statement:
“We are incredibly disappointed in the House Republican caucus for continuing to be a roadblock for common sense, bipartisan legislation. Housing is not meant to be a cash cow for Wall Street; housing is meant to be a place where Minnesotans can rest, eat, sleep, play, connect, and build memories. As long as these important pieces of legislation are delayed, faceless corporations will continue to take advantage of Minnesotans without consequences.
“Minnesotans in every corner of the state are struggling with the high cost of living precisely because private equity continues to act without any guardrails in every sector of the economy. These are simple, easy changes we could make to stop them. We are extremely disheartened by the House Republicans for choosing corporate profits over people, and standing in the way of legislation that their members claim to support. Minnesotans deserve better. At the same time, we remain fully committed to seeing these protections enacted, no matter how long or how much it takes.”
Today, the Conference Committee Report on HF 1141 passed the House on a vote of 105-28, and the Senate on a vote of 42-25 – without these proposals.
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