On September 12th, in Duluth, MN the Homes for All coalition put on a successful affordable housing forum for Lt. Governor Candidates Donna Bergstrom (running with GOP Gubernatorial candidate, Jeff Johnson) and Peggy Flanagan (running with DFL gubernatorial candidate, Tim Walz). The forum, Foundation for Our Future: Housing as an Economic Driver, highlighted their respective visions for affordable housing in one-on-one conversations with the candidates and attracted an audience of more than 200 people, 300 people livestreaming, and statewide media coverage.
The forum also caught the attention of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) as an example of how statewide housing coalitions can ensure that affordable housing is highlighted as an important issue on the campaign trail. In conversations with NLIHC, MCCD Senior Policy Advisor, Kari Johnson, discussed that while planning efforts took a lot of time and energy, it was worth it to get commitments from both major gubernatorial campaigns to work on affordable housing issues.
Read the NLIHC post here, and view the archived livestream to hear what the candidates had to say.