Governor Tim Walz today heard from residents of a Section 8 apartment complex in Saint Paul who are concerned about their housing subsidies if the federal government shutdown continues. Kathy says if she lost Social Security, “we wouldn’t be able to live… and if our housing goes up, there’s a lot of us that won’t be able to make the money, the payments. And groceries are going up. Everything’s going up, but our money is going down.”
Governor Walz says he and his administration are still assessing how much the state would have to kick in to plug the gap for Section 8, SNAP food stamps and other programs. Walz says he doesn’t have a rough estimate yet but it will be “fairly substantial” and the decision point is about February 15th. Officials are trying to determine if the federal government would reimburse the state for any money it kicks in.