Section 8 Housing in Minnesota

Low Income Housing Information

Low income housing can be a godsend, but if you don't know how to apply, or who to get your information to, how can you ever expect to be approved?

Since laws and procedure vary from state to state, you'll need to learn a few specifics before applying. We can help!

What are the Benefits of Section 8 Housing in Minnesota?

It probably is not appropriate to talk about benefits of Section 8 housing since in order to qualify the recipients have to be in pretty bad financial shape. However, some states are certainly better than others for people in need of housing assistance, and Minnesota is one of the better states out there. While basic Section 8 housing is a federal program that is available in all fifty states, Minnesota offers a number of additional programs, both federal and state that are not necessarily available elsewhere. Many of these additional programs may be of interest to people that qualify for Section 8 housing in Minnesota.

Originally established in 1971, the primary statewide authority of low income housing and rent assistance is the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA, www.mnhousing.gov). Their website provides a wealth of information about the various programs - including both project-based and tenant-based Section 8 options - available to residents of Minnesota. The website links directly to the HUD list of approved public housing authorities (PHAs), which in Minnesota are usually called Housing and Redevelopment Authorities (HRAs) and more often than not, a basic online search for the community in question will pull up the website of the local HRA. Further, the MHFA provides a comprehensive directory of subsidized housing units in Minnesota, indicating which ones are appropriate for low income families, seniors, the disabled, and veterans.

One of the things that make Minnesota better than some states is that they have fully implemented a number of more specialized programs above and beyond basic Section 8 housing. The Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) is one that has not been implemented in many states, though as a federal program it is available. The Bridges Program is specifically designed to help people with serious and persistent mental illnesses lead productive lives as integrated members of the community and offers, in part, rental assistance. Further, Minnesota actively supplements Section 8 by offering its own rental assistance program through the state run Housing Trust

Fund (HTF). HTF rental assistance is designed to be temporary in nature, but has a higher income limit to qualify than Section 8 - sixty percent of the local median income as opposed to fifty percent for Section 8 - and is meant to help people in danger of losing their housing that make too much to qualify for Section 8. There are a number of other specialized programs as well.

Compared to many states that offer the bare minimum levels of assistance possible through the federal programs and do not make it easy to learn about these resources, Minnesota is much better. The MHFA provides a wealth of general resources that should help most people looking for low income housing in Minnesota. Further, Minnesota has a strong network of nonprofit companies, foundations and charities actively working to maintain affordable housing in the state. This is exemplified by the Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP, www.mhponline.org), which brings together community organizations, developers, and others interested in maintaining good options for people in need of housing assistance in the state.