Low to moderate income renters in Minneapolis bearing brunt of rising rent prices

Cynthia Young was waiting for the bus at East Franklin and Chicago, mulling over rent prices in her mind on Monday, when she spoke to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

“A lot of people can’t make a certain rent and rent’s going higher and higher,” she says. “You’ve still got to pay bills on top of that, like water, trash, and sewage in most apartments.”

Young, who works as a personal care assistant, says paying $1100 a month for a one-bedroom apartment in the city was just too much.

Addressing affordable housing gaps in Twin Cities suburbs

A short time ago, she moved to Bloomington.

She’s not alone.

A new Harvard University report found rents in Minneapolis have risen 2.6% since February of last year.

The study says a record number of renters are “cost-burdened,” paying more than 30% of their income on rent and utilities.

“It’s kind of this persistent, perpetual shortage of affordable housing,” notes Dan Hylton, research manager for Housing Link, a Minneapolis non-profit that provides resources and housing for low to moderate-income families.

He says that with the lack of housing, there’s little incentive for landlords to lower rents.

An economic tug-of-war, where both renters and landlords are feeling the pinch.

“Financially, it just doesn’t work from a developer or landlord perspective, with the market rates are what they are,” Hylton says. “It’s just unaffordable to people at lower levels of income, so in those instances, folks have to look for subsidized housing or living in housing that’s not affordable and finding creative solutions, like doubling up and so on.”

In Hennepin County, the numbers are even higher.

“We have 60,000-plus households that are spending more than 50% of their income towards housing,” explains Will Lehman, the Area Manager for Housing Stability at Hennepin County. “Which means they’re one crisis away from falling behind on rent.”

The county has two programs to help, Lehman says: no-cost legal representation for low-income tenants in Housing Court, and rental assistance, with a per-household cap of $10,000 or ten months of rental arrears.

He notes the county has prevented more than 9000 evictions since 2023 through the provision of $35 million in emergency rent assistance and no-cost legal representation.

Lehman also says the county has committed nearly $10 million in discretionary funding for emergency rent assistance in 2026.

“Oftentimes, legal representation is a critical resource for a tenant facing eviction,” he notes. “But ultimately, what is needed is cash to allow that household to catch up on rent and afford a settlement at Housing Court.”

A new housing bill, recently passed in the U.S. Senate, aims to ease regulations and give developers incentives to build.

But critics say rent and home prices could eventually go up — and that again, could affect the amount of affordable housing in the city.  

“It’s really about economics,” Lehman says. “90% of evictions in Hennepin County are due to non-payment of rent. It’s a result of households struggling to make ends meet.”