MMLA Appeals Utility Shut-off Case

Can a third-party utility biller legally disconnect a tenant's power? That question is at the heart of a case that Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA) will appeal on behalf of their client whose housing hangs in the balance. The landlord had its contractor shut off the electricity when MMLA’s client was behind in her utility payments. Now that client faces eviction for violating her lease in an attempt to restore power to the unit herself because she believed the shut-off was illegal. Even with Minnesota’s cold weather rule preventing utility shut offs between October 1 and April 30, there are questions about whether it applies to landlord contractors as well as utility companies.

MMLA’s client lost her housing court case and was found to have violated her lease, but the eviction is on hold during the appeal. MMLA’s appeal will question the application of the cold weather rule beyond public utilities like Xcel Energy and CenterPoint Energy. The Public Utilities Commission did not offer comment on the legality of third-party disconnections during the cold weather months.

MMLA staff attorney Gary Van Winkle noted that third-party billers, such as the one hired by his client’s landlord, often add fees that are confusing to tenants and that quickly add up for those struggling to make payments. "Her bill after about four months was about $800," Van Winkle said. "This is for someone who was living in a subsidized property paying very low rent, and this billing dwarfs her other living expense overhead by quite a bit." Read more in Case of evicted Minneapolis tenant poses questions about legality of power shutoffs in the Star Tribune.

Legal Services Advocacy Project Makes Gains for Clients in Active Legislative Session

The 2023 legislative session was historic. The well publicized “trifecta” produced perhaps the most momentous and transformative set of legislation in Minnesota’s history. Many major advancements for legal aid's clients, and all Minnesotans, that were enacted include paid family leave and earned sick and safe leave time; codification of reproductive freedoms; passage of significant gun safety laws; a 100% carbon-free energy requirement by 2040; and a massive affordable housing funding bill, which includes a permanent rental assistance fund. 

While these broader issues captured headlines, the Legal Services Advocacy Project (LSAP) worked to pass a wide range of bills across a variety of substantive areas that made significant inroads in advancing protections for legal aid clients.  

  • Universal free breakfast and lunch for Minnesota students; 

  • Ending school suspensions for children in grades K-3;  

  • The first increase in General Assistance in 30 years; 

  • Giving survivors of domestic violence a path to relief from “coerced debt”;  

  • MFIP disregard for participants receiving RSDI; 

  • Major MFIP sanction reform and MFIP drug testing repeal; 

  • A massive Child Tax Credit;  

  • Banning school seclusion for children through 3rd grade; 

  • Funding to fully fund wage supports for persons with disabilities holding subminimum wage jobs;   

  • Extending the period within which to file a UI appeal to 45 days;  

  • Providing for an annual COLA to the housing assistance grant;

  • Extending MNCare coverage to undocumented persons;

  • Providing for recertifications once every 12 months for MA recipients;

  • Removing asset limits for persons applying for MA-EPD; 

  • Eliminating the requirement that tenants must pay back rent to assert a habitability defense;

  • Making eviction filings nonpublic until the court issues a final judgment;

  • Providing that the new 14-day pre-eviction notice is prima facie evidence of an "emergency" for purposes of emergency assistance eligibility;

  • Payday lending reform; and 

  • Eliminating the court-imposed bar to taking actions under the Consumer Fraud Act.

LSAP — which is comprised of staff attorneys Jessica Webster, Ellen Smart, and Ron Elwood — annually champions both discrete and systemic policy issues that fundamentally impact the lives of thousands of Minnesotans. They work with lawmakers, legislative staff, government agencies, legal aid staff, and dedicated partner advocacy groups to design, negotiate, and refine hundreds of new and existing laws, and always with legal aid’s clients and mission guiding their work.

Dee Baskin and Mary Kaczorek Recognized with 2023 HCBA Excellence Awards

Dee Baskin, LRAP

Mary Kaczorek, MMLA

Each year the Hennepin County Bar Association (HCBA) presents its Excellence Awards to honor individual bar members for their service to the local legal profession, the community, and the association. HCBA is the largest of Minnesota’s local bar associations, with a membership of over 8,000 attorneys and law students serving the profession and the public. This year, the HCBA selected eight attorney members and two organizations from nominations received in different categories, including one member for career contributions to the profession. The 2023 HCBA Excellence Awards will be presented at the association’s annual meeting on June 8, and members will be recognized in the Hennepin Lawyer publication.

This year’s honorees include Dee Baskin, executive director of the Loan Repayment Assistance Program of Minnesota (LRAP) and Mary Kaczorek, managing attorney with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA). Both Baskin and Kaczorek will receive the association’s Improving Access to Justice Award.

Kaczorek has led MMLA’s housing unit through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and zealously advocated for remote hearings to benefit MMLA’s clients with low-incomes and disabilities. In addition to supervising attorneys and litigating her own cases in housing court, Kaczorek has also advocated for eviction reform at the Minnesota legislature. 

Baskin has been a behind-the-scenes champion for legal aid attorneys seeking public service loan forgiveness and has helped Minnesota attorneys navigate each pause on student loan payments through articles, CLE presentations, and social media updates.

Minneapolis Cited in Newsweek Article on Eviction Crisis

Though Las Vegas was cited as “leading the pack” in mounting U.S. evictions since the pandemic began, Minneapolis was also cited in a recent Newsweek Magazine article. Along with Austin, Minneapolis has seen a five-fold increase in eviction filings between 2021 and 2022.

To help shine a light on the nationwide eviction crisis, Newsweek spoke to Mary Kaczorek, managing attorney of the housing unit at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA), along with other legal aid organizations across the country.

”I keep thinking each month is going to be lower, but the last couple of months are actually higher," Kaczorek said.

With eviction protections dwindling and ending, and filings rising dramatically across the country, tenants’ rights groups are urging government officials to respond with new and increased rental assistance programs. A housing affordability crisis, inseparable from rising evictions, is also adding to the situation, which existed before the pandemic and has only exacerbated it.

The Star Tribune also published an article this month about the increase in public housing evictions in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, with some filings for falling behind on as little as $100 or less in rent.

”The stakes are so high in these cases because it takes years and years to get into public housing, and once you're evicted from there, there's really nowhere else to go," Kaczorek explained.

The Star Tribune also spoke with Heather Mendiola, staff attorney with Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS), about public housing tenants facing multiple financial obstacles all at once.

"Unfortunately, low-wage jobs aren't always flexible with paid time off. We see public housing tenants hit hard with unplanned catastrophic events, like hospitalizations and funerals, who are in the forced position to use the rent money to cover these unexpected expenses,” Mendiola said.

Read Las Vegas Tops Nation as Eviction Crisis Spreads Across America in Newsweek and Minneapolis, St. Paul public housing evictions outpacing pre-pandemic rates in the Star Tribune.

Bill Would Offer Protection from Eviction for Renters Seeking Assistance

Last June, when protections for tenants seeking help from RentHelpMN expired, there was nothing to stop eviction actions from moving forward, even as financial hardships endured for many in the wake of the pandemic. Now, proposed legislation supported by housing advocates, including Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid (MMLA), could prevent eviction for non-payment of rent as long as the tenant has a pending application for rental assistance with a federal, state or local agency.

Mary Kaczorek, managing attorney with MMLA, told KSTP News, “COVID is still very real. You have people paying a ton of their income to their rent and they get COVID, a family member dies, or their car gets in a car accident, just one thing can change their whole situation. They fall behind in their rent and because these protections are not in place their landlord can file right away.”

The Minnesota Multi-Housing Association supports the concept of the proposed bill, but hopes that reasonable guidelines, particularly about time limits, are added so that both residents and property owners will benefit. Read more on KSTP.com.