The calendar flipped from March to April this week, bringing signs of spring to the Twin Cities. But for people struggling to stay in their apartments, the calendar flagged another month of rent coming due. 

Months of intense ICE presence on the streets of working-class neighborhoods have exacerbated the ongoing housing crunch. In 2026, immigrants already at the margins of the housing market have borne the brunt of both overlapping crises.

In the face of this monthly pressure, philanthropy and crowdfunding only go so far. Neighbors unable to work, for fear of being grabbed, have become more vulnerable, and rental assistance funds are waning while the calendar ticks on incessantly.

New job numbers show how the economic effects of Metro Surge have harmed immigrant economics, particularly in working-class neighborhoods like South Minneapolis’ Lake Street. The one that sticks in my mind: an acquaintance put out a post this week to support an Ecuadorian immigrant whose husband was taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Every day, there are dozens of such calls to action, but by many accounts, online fundraising has waned as the news cycle churns on elsewhere. Inevitably, Minnesota disappears from public view.

Related: Emergency assistance for renters is coming to Minneapolis, but from where?

Back in Twin Cities working-class neighborhoods, the housing crisis continues to overlap with the threat of persecution by the Trump administration. There are apparently over 600 federal immigration agents stationed in Minnesota right now, three times the “normal” 2025 contingent. For populations targeted by the Trump administration, the ICE occupation isn’t over, making paychecks more vulnerable than any time since the COVID pandemic. 

Predictably, these cascading crises have triggered a rise in evictions.

“We had 25,500 evictions filed last year, the most we’ve ever seen,” said Eric Hauge, the co-director of HOME Line, the go-to Twin Cities nonprofit for renters seeking assistance with any number of problems with their housing. So far this year, evictions are on pace to match or exceed the 2025 figure.

What solutions are there?

It begs the question of what policymakers can do to help. The temporary 30-day stays passed recently by cities like St. Paul or Brooklyn Center are helpful, but seemingly only delay the inevitable. A stay can be a lifeline, but doesn’t in itself change the fundamental problem of housing affordability. Meanwhile, Minneapolis’ eviction extension, passed by the City Council last month, was vetoed by Mayor Jacob Frey. 

Luckily, state laws have been changing to be more supportive of renters facing persecution. For example, one of the changes taking place during the 2023 session was a pre-eviction notice policy, an official notice that gives tenants clarity around past-due rent. In this case, the required notice is 14-days; until a few years ago, Minnesota was one of the rare states that didn’t require this at all. Having a formal letter allows negotiation, assistance, or even tenants to simply leave on their own without a formal eviction taking place. 

According to Hauge, over the last few months financial concerns — including evictions for past-due rent — have spiked, almost doubling from last year’s number. 

“Fundamentally, it’s about the power dynamic and power imbalance in that relationship,” Hauge said.

In my view, the tenant-landlord power dynamic is a matter of finding the balance, ensuring that rental housing stock remains in good condition and welcoming to investment, providing quality homes for people throughout the cities.

Hauge would like to see reduced barriers for assistance and a general acceleration of often-creaky local government supports. For example, assistance funds should allow pre-eviction notices to serve as documentation for aid, allowing counties to extend financial or legal help before the official eviction process begins. 

Another helpful policy would be for assistance programs to reduce barriers as much as possible; many working-class immigrants are reluctant to appear in public due to threats from federal police, posing a challenge for bureaucratic requirements. Hauge suggests using trusted nonprofits instead. These are intermediary groups that can reduce risk for people seeking aid.

(On the other hand, this kind of informal approach is precisely the decentralized structure that triggered the state’s social service fraud concerns, and Trump administration persecution, in the first place.)

The result is an extraordinary catch-22 for Minnesota’s renters. Minnesota was politically targeted and working-class people of color — particularly vulnerable immigrants — were harmed by the daily onslaught of masked federal agents roaming the streets. People who were already struggling to stay in their homes face a doldrum economy and inflation-fueled housing costs. It’s little surprise that evictions are spiking. 

Not a new issue for renters

Evictions are a problem that’s been in the spotlight for years. Ten years ago, sociologist Matthew Desmond’s influential book, “Evicted,” rightly put a focus on evictions as a social problem around housing and poverty. It raised the profile of ongoing foundational problems: a lack of low-income housing, challenging economic circumstances for people in poverty and an unfair legal system that is usually stacked against renters. 

Related: The ICE occupation, unlike the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, is an intentional disruption

Desmond’s book urges better policies across all levels of government, calling for programs offering court assistance or funds aimed at helping low-income people afford housing. The problem is that the scale of these problems requires federal support, an ironic prescription given the case of Minnesota, where the federal government is the source of the problem.

At the local level, cities have fewer levers to pull. Temporary eviction stays are a useful tool, prolonging the timeline and allowing other assistance programs to kick in. Cities can provide some marginal financial assistance of their own, though local government budgets are in dire shape already. They can reduce the pressure on the housing market by building new housing, reducing the ongoing shortage that’s plagued cities like Minneapolis for decades. But that is a long-term indirect solution that doesn’t help people in real time. 

These are not easy problems, but one through line is that prevention is the best medicine. Evictions offer a textbook case of a “penny-wise, pound-foolish” outcome, where small sums of money trigger an expensive process whose effects ripple outward for years. 

(This is why expungements are so important, something Hauge says that HOME Line has been focusing on in both Ramsey and Hennepin Counties.)

Minnesota is rightly garnering praise from Bruce Springsteen and the JFK Library Foundation for the collective approach to ICE. This attention points to the fact that, right now, housing represents an emergency. People behind on their rent through no fault of their own deserve support. Ideally this would come from the federal government, but let’s not kid ourselves. State and local sources, and philanthropists around the world, have to step up and prevent a slow-motion catastrophe.

“Eviction numbers are climbing above record rates last year,” Hauge said. “What we need to see is any way to delay filings, and get emergency rental assistance out to people as fast as possible.”

In the meantime, rent comes due every month.  

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