Housing Justice Center

"Sold Out: Affordable Housing at Risk" segment feat. Tim Thompson, HJC Attorney; Linda Soderstrom & Warren Hanson, HJC Board Members

At Housing Justice Center (HJC), we believe that everyone deserves a safe, stable, affordable, and dignified place to call home free from discriminatory barriers. 

HJC is proud to work alongside renters, manufactured home residents, community partners, and policymakers to ensure that housing laws are not just words on a page but real rights that people can access. We work to expand and preserve affordable housing across the state.

Led by the communities most deeply impacted by housing injustice, our team of lawyers, policy advocates, and organizers fights to improve our housing system so all Minnesotans can be stably housed with dignity—while remaining rooted in community.   

HJC is the only organization in Minnesota using a combination of legal tools, policy advocacy, tenant organizing, education, and research to bring our vision to life:

• Legal advocacy: We focus on impact litigation — prioritizing cases that could set legal precedent in order to promote broader systemic change. We use legal advocacy to raise the profile of critical affordable housing issues, to test new legal theories related to affordable housing, and to expand the application of existing laws. 
• Policy advocacy: We create and advocate for innovative policy changes that preserve, produce, and protect affordable housing. What sets us apart from other housing advocacy groups is our deep understanding of the legal details. Other organizations turn to us for our expertise in crafting policy that can achieve major impact.
• Community organizing: We help people organize for housing justice in their communities. HJC believes that organized communities are at the heart of effective systems change. Our staff organizers work with tenants and manufactured home park residents across Minnesota to build collective power, assert their legal rights, and shape their housing futures. 
• Education: We educate the public, the media, community-based organizations, and policymakers about affordable housing law and policy to identify emerging issues and advance innovative solutions. HJC is an expert at distilling problems and cutting through jargon so everyone can understand the real issues at stake.
• Research: Our technical expertise means HJC often produces research that answers key questions for the field. Affordable housing developers, economic development agencies, policymakers, coalitions, and community organizations rely on this research to make the case for new housing investments, tenant protection, and affordable housing preservation.

To learn more, please visit us at www.hjcmn.org. 

Thank you for your support!