Governor Mark Dayton says a shortage of affordable housing is reaching serious proportions in Minnesota, and a special task force will make recommendations by next summer on dealing with the problem. Dayton finishes his term at the end of 2018 and apparently views it as a legacy issue. “With one year to go and I look back at something like this and say, well,… why didn’t I do this seven years ago? And that’s my regret, but we’re doing it now,” he says.
Dayton says counting inflation, wages for lower-income people have been stagnant or even declined. “Rental housing costs have gone up. Affordable housing has not kept pace, and the result is more and more people and their families are in crisis situations,” he says.
State officials say one big problem is that moderately-priced units are being converted to high-end properties that are out of reach for low- and moderate-income families.