At 90 years old, Hilda Chavera has found a new purpose in life: tenant organizing.
A Minneapolis resident for 50 years, Chavera said she has seen her city change, with many of her neighbors struggling to stay in their homes.
“People can’t afford their rent. They are getting kicked out of their homes. They feel like they aren’t being heard,” Chavera told Stateline. She began organizing during the pandemic in 2020 with advocacy organizing group United Renters for Justice. “I may not live much longer to see anything change, but I want the younger generation to not feel like they need to choose between a place to live and what to eat.”
In the decade preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, Minnesota-based tenant advocates lobbied state lawmakers for a slew of rental protections, but those efforts were unsuccessful.
This spring, however, the newly Democratic-controlled legislature passed roughly 15 laws in a session advocates described as the most substantial change to the state’s tenant-landlord laws in a century. The measures include the right to legal counsel for tenants in public housing who face eviction, limits on the scope of landlords’ eviction powers and more transparency on required tenant fees.
“Prior to this session, several [Minnesota cities] all enacted their own local pre-eviction notice protections because the state was taking so long,” said Eric Hauge, executive director of HOME Line, a Minnesota-based tenant advocacy group.
“With these bills, the state legislature finally caught up to the tenant organizing that was happening in our cities.”
Tenant advocates told Stateline that the tenor of tenants’ rights movements has shifted over the past three years. Prior to the pandemic, battles at the statehouse often revolved around repairs and substandard housing. Now, those debates are more likely to center on affordability and keeping people in their homes.
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