Senate bill would fund statewide tenant education hotline; author’s amendment adopted

Senate File 672, presented by Senator Mohammed, would appropriate funds through the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency to establish a statewide tenant education and hotline service offering free, confidential legal advice and education to renters.

Senator Mohammed described constituent cases his office receives — landlords entering units without notice, withheld deposits and miscalculated payments — and called for a “widely advertised, fully resourced, and responsive statewide Tenant education hotline service.” Eric Haughey, executive director of Home Line (the existing statewide tenant advocacy organization), testified that Home Line operates a free tenant hotline and other programs and that demand has increased sharply: “Last year... we advised around 19,932 renters from all 87 counties,” he said, and added that the organization had advised about 20,000 households annually since 2022.

Haughey and other witnesses described Home Line’s services and capacity needs: multilingual legal advice (English, Spanish, Somali, Hmong), eviction prevention outreach including multilingual letters to defendants, training for tenants and service providers, and partnership referrals from 2‑1‑1 and other agencies. Michael Dahl, Home Line’s public policy director, read a client letter describing a heating repair and rent escrow case that was resolved with Home Line’s assistance. Nicole Weiler, senior program manager for United Way 2‑1‑1, said 2‑1‑1 referred 2,221 calls to Home Line last year and that referrals to Home Line have increased 63% over two years.

The committee considered and adopted the author’s amendment A1 offered by Senator Mohammed (committee voice vote). Committee members thanked witnesses and the bill was laid over for possible inclusion in the session omnibus appropriation. The committee did not record a roll‑call vote on final passage during the hearing.