ST. PAUL — A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers announced last week a package of seven bills to address housing shortages throughout the state, with a focus on multi-family housing options.
The Wednesday, March 5, press conference launching the "Yes to Homes" housing package was hosted by Minnesota lawmakers comprising a wide range of political views and communities across the state: Sen. Lindsey Port, DFL-Burnsville; Sen. Jordan Rasmusson, R-Fergus Falls; Sen. Liz Boldon, DFL-Rochester; Sen. Larry Kraft, DFL-St. Louis Park; Rep. Spencer Igo, R-Wabana Township; Rep. Mike Howard, DFL-Richfield; Rep. Jim Nash, R-Waconia, and Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth.
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The three main bills in the package — the "Minnesota Starter Home Act" ( / ), the "Transforming Main Street Act" ( ) and "More Homes, Right Places Act" ( ) — are set to focus on construction of mixed housing options in both residential and commercial zones throughout the state, lawmakers explained Wednesday.
The “Minnesota Starter Home Act,” authored by Port and Igo, focuses on residential areas and aims to allow for the construction of smaller lots, duplexes, accessory dwelling units and townhomes, according to the bill language.
The "Transforming Main Street Act," authored by Sen. Doron Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, proposes permitting more condos, apartments and mix-used developments in downtown commercial areas, according to the bill language.
The “More Homes, Right Places Act,” authored by Boldon, targets the creation of "mixed-use housing zones" next to "municipal state-aid streets" to allow for duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes, according to the bill language.
“The nice thing about these bills is they are straight policy,” Port said at the press conference. “Every single one of our proposals is simply policy changes; there is no fiscal impact on them. The fiscal impact will be to Minnesotans who are able to actually buy homes, and that housing we will be able to build. But there's no fiscal cost to the state with any of these bills.”
Daniel Lightfoot, lobbyist and senior intergovernmental relations representative with the League of Minnesota Cities, on Wednesday said cities will take on the financial burden and that some of the proposals are "unfunded mandates."
"The fiscal impact is going to be on cities," he said. "The cities that have done a lot of work at the local level to overhaul their zoning and land use ordinances, address density in ways that engage the public and engage the developer community, that takes a lot of resources, and for us, that that means cost to tax taxpayers, frankly."
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Howard said Wednesday that the state hopes to provide some funding through and , which would allocate $5 million to Greater Minnesota housing.
“These bills are all crystal clear … we are not going to force a housing development where the infrastructure does not support it,” he said. “So there's a clear indication in these bills that cities have that ability because we would not want to force that kind of development.”
The Starter Home Act bill draft says that for residential developments, municipalities can “approve or deny a request for a building permit or proposed subdivision based on the request's alignment with the municipality's comprehensive plan, applicable zoning requirements, and subdivision regulations.”
The bill also says cities can "require one community meeting before approval of a request, or more if required by state or federal law, or the project involves or affects a lot located in a historic district."
Shelly Carlson, president of the Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities, echoed Lightfoot's concerns in a statement Wednesday, saying the proposals don't target the real barrier to housing development in the state.
"Greater Minnesota is not facing a housing crisis because our cities are unwilling to allow new residential construction or reevaluate local policies," Carlson said. "Our cities are facing a housing crisis because the cost of constructing a unit of housing is more than what our economies can support in rent or mortgages. Almost all our cities would welcome any of the housing types mentioned in this package, and many are currently trying to work with developers to do so. Still, the housing market mismatch in Greater Minnesota makes it extremely difficult."
Carlson also noted in her statement that there has been more effort this session by lawmakers to talk with cities, but both Lightfoot and Carlson said these proposals fall short for cities.
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"Nonetheless, it appears the spirit of these proposals retains the same one-size-fits-all directives that place legislators in St. Paul and unaccountable developers in the driver’s seat rather than local residents and their elected officials," she said.
Lightfoot said he will continue conversations "in good faith" and that lawmakers have incorporated some city concerns, such as "ensuring that projects could still be denied based on lack of infrastructure capacity or a public safety and general welfare issue in the city."
The only other bills within the "Yes to Homes" package that have been formally introduced are / , which aim to prohibit "minimum parking mandates," and , which aims to reform “aesthetic” requirements for construction standards, according to bill drafts. Lawmakers also talked Wednesday about proposals to modernize condo defect laws and ban exclusionary zoning practices.
Even with a tighter budget and a split Legislature, Nash said the bipartisan nature of this housing coalition will position lawmakers well to move the bills forward. He joked at the press conference that he and former housing chair Howard “duked it out” in committee 20 minutes prior, yet they are “locking arms” on these proposals.
“Look at who you have up here,” Nash said. “You've got people who are progressives and conservatives and everything in between. As I have said in the past, housing is a North Star issue ... Republicans and Democrats and progressives and liberals are all saying, let's fix this, and we're going to work together to make sure that it happens.”
Lawmakers on Wednesday were also joined by a large coalition of support from groups including the Minnesota Housing Partnership, Minnesota Habitat for Humanity, Housing First Minnesota, Zillow and AARP.
In 2023, Minnesota made its largest-ever investment in affordable housing at . In 2024, housing proposals similar to the "Yes to Homes" act — then dubbed the "Missing middle" bills — failed to pass . The failure of the bills was fueled partially by concern for city authority as well as the bills being some of the first multi-family housing proposals discussed in the Minnesota Legislature, 2024 session housing champions Kraft and Howard told Forum News Service in December.
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The median salary required in Minnesota to afford a median-priced house in the state is roughly $100,000, and the estimated salary to afford a two-bedroom apartment is $50,000, according to the Minnesota Housing Partnership 2025 . MHP's 2023 report found that there is a shortage of 103,626 "affordable and available rental homes for extremely low-income renters in Minnesota."
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