Effective January 1, 2024, tenants in Minnesota now have new protections and rights thanks to laws passed during 2023’s historic legislative session. Statewide legal aid offices, and partner program HOME Line, are gearing up to help tenants understand and utilize their new rights. These provisions and regulations impact evictions, disclosure of fees, heat, emergency repairs, inspections, privacy, leases, pets, and more.
Mike Vraa, managing attorney of HOME Line, said the new laws represent "the most substantial change in Minnesota tenant/landlord law in a single session of the Legislature in the 165-year history of the state." Read more.
Minnesota Lawyer Spotlights Award Winning Attorney Mary Kaczorek
This summer, Mary Kaczorek was honored by the Hennepin County Bar Association (HCBA) with its 2023 Excellence Award for Improving Access to Justice. The award was in recognition of Kaczorek’s outstanding leadership of the housing unit at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA) during the height of the pandemic, as well as her legislative advocacy for remote court hearings and eviction reform.
This fall, Kaczorek transitioned to MMLA’s consumer unit and will turn her attention to the prevention of home foreclosures on Minnesotans who’ve lost home equity in scams or are dealing with predatory financing terms.
In its Breaking the Ice series, Minnesota Lawyer gets to know one of legal aid’s most passionate advocates a little better. Read Breaking the Ice: Housing advocacy brings award, gratitude.
MMLA Warns Renters about Section 8 Voucher Discrimination
After lengthy legal delays, enforcement of a five-year old Minneapolis ordinance to protect Section 8 voucher recipients from discrimination was recently begun. Section 8 vouchers, which are used to help cover rental expenses, are issued through the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority from funds provided by the federal government. The Minneapolis ordinance aims to protect families with low incomes who are discriminated against or denied housing by landlords because they use the vouchers.
Despite protections from the Minnesota Department of Human Rights for things like social security and public assistance benefits, renters who use Section 8 housing vouchers are not protected against discrimination by state law.
Elana Dahlager, assistant supervising attorney with the housing unit at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA) noted, “The Minneapolis ordinance is different in that it is explicitly saying that to deny someone solely on the basis of the fact that they get the Section 8 voucher is discriminatory. In Minneapolis, I think that that’s a major form of discrimination.”
In addition to prohibiting landlords from rejecting potential renters because of Section 8 use, they must also provide all tenants the same services and amenities no matter how they pay their rent.
Dahlager encourages renters to file complaints if they think they’ve been discriminated against so the matter can be investigated by looking for patterns with landlords and other evidence. Discrimination is not always obvious. Read more in the Sahan Journal article, “Minneapolis city leaders urge renters to report discrimination against Section 8 vouchers.”
VLN Staff Attorney Honored with Outstanding Service Award from Minnesota Justice Foundation
This week marked the Minnesota Justice Foundation's (MJF) Annual Awards Celebration at the Campus Club in Minneapolis, and remotely. Every year since 1991, MJF has honored the work of public interest attorneys, private pro bono attorneys, advocates, and law students whose commitment to service shines as a beacon of hope and embodies the very best of our profession. This year, MJF welcomed keynote speaker Justice Margaret Chutich, who presented in a conversational format moderated by MJF board member Jacob Harris.
The 2023 award winner for Outstanding Service by a Direct Legal Service Attorney is Muria Kruger, Housing Program manager and resource attorney at Volunteer Lawyers Network (VLN).
As the Housing Program manager, Muria oversees a staff of 5 and several hundred volunteers to coordinate volunteer legal services at housing court clinics in Anoka, Hennepin and Ramsey Counties. VLN’s housing court clinic presence expanded from Hennepin County to include Anoka and Ramsey counties as a result of Muria’s work. Under her leadership, the housing program has increased both the number of services provided to pro bono clients and the level of service received. Any tenant with a housing court hearing in one of these counties who qualifies for legal services through VLN can talk with a pro bono lawyer at their first appearance hearing. In addition to providing eviction defense and rent escrow services at housing court, the Housing Program also provides full representation legal assistance to tenants needing help with eviction expungement or getting landlords to make repairs.
Muria has always been a public interest attorney at heart. She started participating in MJF even before law school and has volunteered with VLN and other organizations since graduating from law school. Right out of law school, she did antitrust and securities work at a small, private law firm and then served as the director of International and Graduate Programs at the University of Minnesota Law School for several years. Muria joined VLN’s staff in 2017 after having coordinated a community legal clinic just outside of downtown Minneapolis for over 8 years.
When she is not working, Muria loves to run, make her children practice their instruments, grow giant pumpkins and read to expand her mind.
Mary Kaczorek, housing unit supervisor and managing attorney at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, noted that “Muria is great at developing and fostering relationships and partnerships among providers. She has a knack for taking big picture views and thinking creatively about ways programs can work together to provide the best client experience possible. She cares deeply about housing issues and manages to be a bold and zealous advocate who is somehow always polite and kind at the same time.”
MJF's other awards for outstanding service went to the following deserving individuals:
Law Student Award, Mitchell Hamline School of Law – Ryan Boevers
Law Student Award, University of Minnesota Law School – Perry Keziah
Law Student Award, University of St. Thomas School of Law – Noor Dastagir
Advocate Award – Catherine Ahlin-Halverson, Maslon LLP’s UPLIFT Legal Institute for Teens
Private Practice Lawyer Award – Erica Holzer, Maslon LLP
A Short History of Rent Escrow and MMLA's Settlement for a South Minneapolis Tenants' Group
In an unusual and complicated set of rent escrow cases that stretched from August 2022 to July 2023, Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA), led by housing attorney Julia Zwak, represented a total of 12 primarily Spanish-speaking clients in seven separate rent escrow lawsuits that were combined for settlement and trial. A housing court referee agreed to combine the cases because of common building-wide issues in addition to individual repair issues in each client’s unit. The tenants and landlord agreed to formal mediation and the appointment of a third-party administrator to collect rent payments and inspect repairs, a notable departure from most rent escrow cases. The parties reached an agreement in November 2022 and by mid-April 2023, the administrator was satisfied that the landlord had fulfilled the settlement terms. Some of the tenants objected to the quality and scope of some of the repairs and so a two-day bilingual trial was held.
In June, the court referee who decided the case ruled that several of the tenants’ objections were valid and that some repairs were incomplete. However, the referee stopped short of ordering the landlord to complete repairs according to the tenants’ recommended specifications. “That’s one downfall of the rent escrow statutes in general … a tenant can’t necessarily dictate the means of repair if they identify the problem and a landlord fixes it — whether it’s the way the tenant would have fixed it, it’s not really up to the tenant to make that call as long as the problem is resolved, at least for the time being,” Zwak said.
Ultimately, most of the referee’s decision sided with the tenants and Zwak acknowledged it was beyond perhaps what the court might have awarded in a typical post-trial order. Zwak also noted the unique feature of the case — multiple tenants banding together — also created the challenge of getting tenants on the same page. Despite these challenges, the tenants’ tenacity and commitment to securing justice in their cases forced the landlord to make many significant repairs.
Read more about these cases and about Minnesota’s rent escrow history in MinnPost’s “Determined south Minneapolis tenants fought for repairs in their apartment building: inside a ‘rent escrow’ case.”