Local leaders and housing advocates held a round table discussion Wednesday in Hopkins to determine the future of many Minnesota families, if cuts are made to federal rental assistance programs.
A report from the Minnesota Housing Partnership reveals that even a 1% cut could displace thousands of people if carried out. The Trump Administration is proposing a 43% cut.
This could be catastrophic for people like Theresa Dolata, a community volunteer who relies on this money for housing.
"We already didn't have enough funding and that these cuts are gonna devastate a lot of people, plus with the cuts to Medicaid and SNAP," says Dolata. "I'm really worried about not just people like me ending up homeless again, but the physical and mental stress of it."
Allison Streich is with the Carver County Community Development Agency.
"We've got to come together now and we've got to be prepared with messaging like where are we gonna send our clients? Where are we gonna send our residents because food shelves are already overwhelmed? And, you know cuts to SNAP," she adds. "It's just gonna shift more burden to them. And so, we're trying to figure out how we're gonna navigate that."
Streich said they're calling upon legislators both locally and nationally to step up and prevent this from happening.
For many, the stress of facing an uncertain future is overwhelming.
"I know people who for the last couple of months have been breaking down and having such severe panic attacks," Dolata adds.
She also believes that could send people to the ER who have no home or healthcare, adding to challenges at those facilities.
That report from the Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP) and Minnesota NAHRO shows that federal rental assistance programs keep more than 100,000 Minnesota households safely housed including seniors, veterans, families with children, and people with disabilities. They also say that rural communities are at the greatest risk with a cut in funds.