HousingLink

Empowering Renters with Barriers to Find a Place to Live

For 25 years we have served as a reliable, trusted, and effective nonprofit helping low income renters find a place to live.  

A current area of focus where we need your support is our Beyond Backgrounds program. 

In short, Beyond Backgrounds helps renters with criminal, credit, and rental history barriers find a place to live. 

How do we help them?

• Education and coaching on how to explain their barriers to landlords. 
• Property Owners/Managers can list openings for Beyond Backgrounds participants.
• Financial Assurance for landlords that rent to Beyond Backgrounds participants.

Over 600 renters have found a place to live through the support of Beyond Backgrounds!

BUT there are currently over 4,000 (yes, 4,000+) Beyond Backgrounds participants still searching for a place to live. 

Your donation makes it possible for us to support the thousands of renters with barriers as they look for housing. 

Your financial support also helps us carry out the following essential community services:

Housing Search 

Our site has over 1 million searches for affordable rental housing each year.

On average, each case manager that uses HousingLink finds housing for 4 of their clients every month!

Landlords love using our site too!

When asked, “Why do you post vacancies on HousingLink?” here are some of the responses that we received in our annual survey:

"Because it is a brilliant way to advertise our low-income housing units."

"The site reaches a wide audience of renters and is easy to use."

This amazing service, the heartbeat of what we do, remains free for all to use with your financial support.

Data Driving Sound Decisions

Housing issues are generating more attention, opinions and controversy than we have ever seen.

At HousingLink, we've earned a reputation as data and housing information experts without spin or a political agenda.

Our popular reports include the Minneapolis and St Paul Rental Housing Briefs, Twin Cities Rental Revue, Twin Cities Rental Housing Trends, Minnesota Housing Measures, and more!

Your financial support makes these offerings possible. 

Education for Property Owners

When new programs, rules and regulations arise, we are here to help you make sense of them. Our training library for landlords includes the following:

• Training on the Minneapolis Renter Protections Ordinance
• Rental Property Inspections in St. Paul: What to Prepare for and Expect
• Preventative Maintenance
• Fair Housing
• A fresh approach to resident screening, and more!

Your financial support is essential as HousingLink serves as Minnesota's resource to locate affordable rental housing opportunities and information.