Across Minnesota’s Second District, the cost of having a roof over your head has outrun what most families earn. Rent climbs every year. Starter homes that a teacher or a tradesperson could once afford now sit out of reach. Young families are leaving the communities where they grew up, and seniors on fixed incomes are being priced out of neighborhoods they helped build. Housing is no longer a market problem alone. It is a family problem, and it is the foundation everything else in a person’s life is built on.

I have spent my career working with families and youth, and I have watched what housing instability does to a child. When a family is forced to move three times in two years, the child changes schools, loses friends, and falls behind. Stable housing is not a luxury. It is the precondition for a stable education, a stable job, and a stable life. That is why I treat housing as one of the most urgent issues in this race.

In Congress, I will fight to cap excessive annual rent increases so families can plan their lives instead of bracing for the next jump. Renters deserve protection from being squeezed out of their homes by increases that have nothing to do with the cost of maintaining a building. At the same time, renting should not be the only option available to working people. I will push to expand affordable homeownership through down-payment assistance, support for first-time and first-generation buyers, and incentives that help build the kind of modestly priced homes our district actually needs.

We also have to build more. Much of the pressure on prices comes from a simple shortage of homes that ordinary people can afford. I will support federal investment and zoning reform incentives that encourage construction of affordable and workforce housing in both our suburban and rural communities, paired with protections that keep that housing affordable over the long term rather than letting it flip to the highest bidder.

None of this is charity. A family with secure housing spends in local businesses, volunteers in local schools, and stays long enough to strengthen a neighborhood. When we make it possible for people to live where they work, we keep our communities whole. I am running to make sure that the next generation in Minnesota’s Second District can afford to stay, raise a family, and call this place home.