Everyone needs a safe, stable place to live.
A safe, stable roof over your head is not a luxury.
In a Minnesota winter, it is the foundation for health, family, work, school, and the ability to build a life.
Right now, that foundation is getting harder for too many people to reach. Rents are rising. Home prices have pushed first-time buyers to the sidelines. Seniors on fixed incomes are watching housing costs take up more of budgets that already have no room to give. Young people entering the workforce are spending so much on rent that saving money, starting families, or putting down roots can feel out of reach.
And for people who fall through the cracks entirely, homelessness can follow.
Erik believes homelessness is not a moral failure. People end up in crisis for all kinds of reasons; job loss, illness, addiction, mental health struggles, family breakdown, domestic violence, or a run of bad luck that compounds faster than anyone can recover from.
In Otter Tail County, the department Erik works for developed a program called “The Big Build” and this team facilitated the building and refurbishment of more than 3,000 housing units to start the process of putting a dent into the supply crisis. Local solutions like this require federal help and we can make sure the USDA and Rural Development Agencies have the resources they need to help loosen up the housing supply.
Lifting up people who are struggling does not just help them.
It makes the whole community stronger.
We can do better by building more housing, supporting first-time buyers, protecting renters, addressing homelessness with real services, and making sure local communities have the tools to solve the housing challenges they actually face.
Erik’s Priorities
Erik will fight to:
- Increase the supply of affordable housing
- Remove unnecessary barriers that slow responsible housing development
- Support first-time homebuyers and young families trying to put down roots
- Strengthen renter protections and rental assistance
- Help seniors, workers, and families stay housed
- Treat homelessness as a housing, mental health, substance abuse, and economic stability issue
- Support housing-first approaches and wraparound services that help people rebuild
- Empower local, county, and state solutions with federal support
…by treating housing as the foundation it is: building more homes, supporting first-time buyers, protecting renters, helping people through crisis, and giving local communities the federal support they need to keep people housed and communities growing.
Build More Housing
Housing is a supply problem.
When there are not enough homes for people to rent or buy, prices rise. That affects everyone — renters, first-time buyers, seniors, families, workers, and employers trying to recruit people to their communities.
For too long, a mix of rising construction costs, restrictive zoning, regulatory delays, infrastructure gaps, and too little affordable development has made it harder to build the housing communities need.
Erik supports practical steps to increase housing supply, including incentives for affordable housing construction, infrastructure investments that make new housing possible, and removing unnecessary barriers that slow responsible development.
Building more housing also means more good jobs in the trades.
That matters in Western Minnesota.
Support First-Time Homebuyers
For generations, homeownership helped working- and middle-class families build stability and wealth.
That path is getting harder. The average age of a first-time home owner in the US is 40 years old, an all-time high.
More and more we’re seeing homes being purchased by mega-corporations and private equity firms as investments to flip, further driving up the price of homes. The current housing bill attempts to address this, but the cap is too high at 350 homes.
High home prices, higher interest rates, student debt, rent costs, and stagnant wages have made it harder for young people and first-time buyers to save for a down payment and compete in the market.
Erik believes people who want to stay in Western Minnesota and build lives here should have a real path to do it.
He supports policies that help first-time buyers, including down payment assistance, tax incentives, affordable mortgage options, and housing supply investments that bring home prices closer to reach.
A permanent rental economy is not good enough.
Protect Renters
Not everyone is ready or able to buy a home.
Renters should still have stability, safety, and basic fairness.
Seniors on fixed incomes, young workers, families, and people going through hard transitions should not be one sudden rent hike, unsafe unit, or bad month away from crisis.
Erik supports stronger renter protections, better notice requirements, enforcement of basic habitability standards, and rental assistance programs that help people bridge hard moments before they become emergencies.
The goal is simple: renting should be fair, stable, and safe.
Help Seniors and Working Families Stay Housed
Housing costs do not hit everyone the same way.
For seniors on fixed incomes, rising rent, taxes, insurance, utilities, and maintenance costs can threaten the stability they worked their whole lives to build.
For working families, one job loss, medical bill, car repair, or rent increase can be enough to push a household into crisis.
Erik believes housing policy should help people stay housed before they fall into homelessness.
That means supporting rental assistance, utility assistance, home repair programs, senior housing options, and local services that prevent people from losing stable housing in the first place.
Prevention is more humane and more cost-effective than crisis response.
Address Homelessness With Real Solutions
Homelessness is not one simple problem.
It is a housing problem, a mental health problem, a substance abuse problem, a domestic violence problem, and an economic stability problem all at once.
That means the response has to be serious and practical.
People experiencing homelessness need shelter, but shelter alone is not enough. They may also need mental health care, addiction treatment, job training, identification documents, transportation, healthcare, and sustained support as they rebuild.
Erik supports housing-first approaches, expanded shelter capacity, and wraparound services that help people get stable and stay stable.
No one’s lowest moment should define the rest of their life.
Support Local Solutions
Housing challenges look different from one community to the next.
Moorhead’s needs are not the same as Wadena’s. A growing regional center faces different pressures than a small town, a farming community, or a place with seasonal housing needs.
Erik believes federal housing policy should support local judgment, not override it.
The federal government can help with funding, incentives, infrastructure, rental assistance, housing vouchers, and removing unnecessary barriers. States and counties can adapt those tools to local markets. Cities and towns should help decide what kinds of housing they need, where it fits, and how it supports the community.
The best solutions are built with local communities, not imposed on them.
Build Communities Where People Can Stay
Housing is about more than buildings.
It is about whether young people can come home after school or training. Whether seniors can stay near family. Whether workers can live in the communities they serve. Whether employers can hire. Whether families can put down roots.
A community where people can afford to live is a community that can grow.
Erik believes Western Minnesota should be a place where people can build a life — not a place they are priced out of.
House Our Veterans
Veterans who served this country should not come home to no home at all.
Veteran homelessness is one of the most preventable failures in American housing policy. The supports exist. The programs exist. The will to fix it should not be a partisan question. Yet on any given night, thousands of veterans across this country are without stable housing; many of them dealing with PTSD, traumatic brain injury, substance abuse, or other service-connected conditions that make the transition to civilian life harder than it should be.
In Western Minnesota, distance compounds the challenge. Veterans in rural communities are often far from VA services, transitional housing programs, and the mental health care that stable housing alone cannot provide. Getting housed is the first step. Staying housed requires wraparound support that rural veterans too often cannot reach.
Erik believes housing is part of the promise this country makes to those who serve. That means protecting and expanding HUD-VASH housing vouchers, which combine rental assistance with VA supportive services for homeless veterans. It means funding transitional housing programs that give veterans a stable footing while they rebuild. And it means making sure the wraparound services like mental health care, substance abuse treatment, employment support, and peer connection are available close to home, not just in metro areas.
No veteran should sleep outside because the country they served did not follow through. That is not a resource problem. It is a priorities problem. And Erik will treat it like one.
Erik Wants to Hear From You
Housing affects every family in Western Minnesota — whether you are renting, buying, trying to stay in your home, or trying to get back on your feet after a hard stretch.
Erik wants to hear what housing looks like in your community.