Our Future Starts at Home is fighting to make sure our families and future generations of Minnesotans can live and thrive here. Dedicated revenue will make stable housing affordable by dedicating sustainable funding for housing. We need our legislators and community leaders to implement new solutions and policies that put housing within reach for everyone.
We are a broad coalition of advocates, community and faith leaders, and housing champions who believe housing is a basic human need. Every Minnesotan, no matter their age, race or income level, should have access to a safe and secure place to live.
Bourque Family – Brooklyn Center, MN
Housing is Our Future
Stable housing should not be something you have to worry about, and it should be something that families can count on every day. But today, many Minneostans are struggling to find a safe and stable place to live, make rent, or cover their mortgage. We need stable housing to ensure Minnesota can thrive and prosper.
When everyone, including the people who work in everyday, regular jobs, can afford to live near where they work, our communities are not only better, they’re stronger. Affordable housing of all kinds is key to thriving communities, attracting good employers and improving the economic wellbeing for families. Children who grow up in stable homes are healthier, perform better in school, and families who have homes they can afford have more opportunity to build generational wealth – securing a future for generations to come.
We call on our lawmakers and community leaders to implement new solutions and policies that put housing within reach for everyone. This constitutional amendment would make sure that hard working Minnesotans – from teachers and nurses to firefighters and waitresses – can afford to live in the communities they’re serving.
About Us
Our Future Starts dedicated revenue for housing will raise critical, predictable funding so Minnesotans can afford a home, and it will also ensure that communities have a powerful voice in where that funding goes and that we’re meeting the needs on the ground.
Nuah Family – Spring Lake Park, MN
In addition to the prescribed purposes, each fund must also aim to:
Reduce
disparities
Support community-based solutions
Improve the condition of homes
Increase
accessibility
Decrease energy cost and improve efficiency
An amendment will create three funds with guidance from appointed councils:
Household Community Stability Fund
- Support people facing housing instability and homelessness.
- Ensure people have safe, stable and secure homes.
Home Ownership Opportunity Fund
- Build new housing in neighborhoods where there is a shortage of affordable options.
- Ensure that all Minnesotans, no matter what they look like or come from can become homeowners.
Rental Opportunity Fund
- Provide renter and tenant protections to families struggling to make ends meet (Bring It Home, MN).
- Create more rental homes so more Minnesotans have a safe and stable place to call home.
2026 Bills
Constitutional Amendment Draft Ballot Language
“Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to remove barriers to homeownership, to make our rental housing safe and affordable, and to protect our vulnerable households and communities from displacement and homelessness by increasing the sales and use tax rate beginning July 1, 2026, by three-eighths of one percent on taxable sales until the year 2050?”
Vang Family – Minneapolis
The Our Future Starts at Home campaign for housing reflects the following campaign values
This campaign is shaped by the values needed to address our problematic housing system: sustainability, equity, resilience, uplifting rural voices, and accessibility.
Calling on elected officials to make stable housing affordable and ensuring everyone can afford a place to live.
Securing sustainable, predictable, and ongoing funding– an essential part of fixing the growing housing problem.
Creating a powerful and activated statewide housing movement that is led by frontline leaders and grassroots groups who understand how essential housing is to making Minnesota a fair, affordable and prosperous place to live.
Coalition Members
Our coalition includes more than 60 housing, faith, and community groups who are fighting to make sure every Minnesotan, whether they are loved ones or complete strangers, have a safe place to lay their heads each night.
The Our Future Starts at Home coalition is made up of the following members:
Frequently Asked Questions
Minnesota is a place where everyone – young and old, Black and white, rural and city dwellers – should have a safe and healthy home. We have an opportunity to change the future of generations of Minnesotans, and to do so we need bold investments in housing now, and each year for years to come. The amendment will generate dedicated funding for housing, much like we dedicate funding for education, health care, infrastructure, and transportation. We propose a sales tax of 3/8 of 1%.
- For decades, the state has underinvested in homes-with too many Minnesota families left without a safe home and shut out from homeownership opportunities. Housing that people can afford is becoming harder to find, pushing out not only families, but also good-paying employers.
- An amendment will provide stable funding, regardless of the budget or who holds power at the Capitol.
- This constitutional amendment will ensure that communities have a powerful voice in where the funding goes. Minnesotans with diverse housing expertise and experiences will guide the funds to eliminate homeownership disparities, provide emergency rental protections, and build climate resilient and sustainable housing. That’s community-led change.
- It includes a commitment to allocate funding with an eye toward reducing disparities, supporting community-based solutions, improving the conditions of homes, increasing accessibility, decreasing energy costs and improving energy efficiency.
Minnesota’s constitution says that the people of Minnesota can change the constitution to make it work for us.
A majority of the Senate and a majority of the House of Representatives must agree to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the ballot for the next statewide election. A majority of all Minnesotans who vote in the election must vote to approve the constitutional amendment.
No. The Our Future Starts at Home constitutional amendment would guarantee ongoing funding, whereas historically, appropriations are mostly one-time funding. We’re celebrating a significant investment that creates new housing options for thousands of Minnesota families. We need to build on this momentum to ensure that funding towards housing continues for years to come and so that every Minnesotan can afford a safe place to live.
A constitutional amendment is one part of a larger housing vision that also includes biennial legislative allocation, bonding and policy changes. We need to build on the momentum of the historic investments in the legislature passed in 2023 with a long-term strategy to solve a long-term problem.
The amendment will help ensure we address the housing needs of every Minnesotan, no matter their age, race, income or gender. It would dedicate statewide funding to housing, much like that for infrastructure or healthcare, to make sure families and future generations of Minnesotans can live and thrive here by making stable housing affordable.
Yes! In 2008, Minnesotans voted for and passed the Legacy Amendment to the Minnesota Constitution which increased the sales tax by three-eighths of one percent from 2009 until 2034 and distributes those funds towards protecting clean water and land. It has been done before and we can do it again!
We’re working with our chief authors (Rep. Mike Howard and Sen. Zaynab Mohamed) and more than two dozen other lawmaker authors to build momentum for the amendment. We’re also collaborating with a coalition of individual and organizational partners to build energy in communities across the entire state, and to lift up voices and stories about housing.
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