Mpls City Council budget prioritizes housing aid over MPD, mayor’s staff

After weeks of negotiations, the Minneapolis City Council approved and finalized its amended 2026 budget this week, sending the revised amendments to the mayor for approval. Within the budget, more than $2 million is recommended for housing resources, including an attempt to revive the Emergency Housing Voucher program (EHV), and increase funding Stable Homes Stable Schools Core Program (SHSS), in an effort to slow the rise in the unhoused population.

Mayor Jacob Frey originally introduced his 2026 budget proposal in August. Still, the City Council sent its amended proposal early this month, with one approved on Dec. 5 to revive the EHV program by decreasing funds to the Minneapolis Police Department, Public Safety Services, and the Office of the Mayor. 

The motion, led by Ward 2 Councilmember Robin Wonsley and supported by Councilmembers Osman, Chavez, Chughtai and Chowdhury, would increase funding for the EHV program by $1.4 million to house and support at least 50 unhoused individuals and families each.

The Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program was introduced during the pandemic. It was a significant resource for the city, with Hennepin County being one of the few counties in the country with a 97% success rate and all vouchers used. 

The City Council declared homelessness in the city a public health emergency in December 2023. Still, the federal EHV program will face a severe funding cut by the new year, effectively freezing the processing of new EHV applications and the reissuance of existing EHVs.

The number of people unhoused in Hennepin County is reported to be down 33% with more than 400 individuals being unhoused in January 2025. Homelessness disproportionately affects Black and Native residents. HUD Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Programs data from 2023 in the Minneapolis/Hennepin County area reported that 35% of unsheltered residents were African American, and 30% were Native American. 

Councilmember Wonsley originally introduced this amendment last year for the 2025 budget, which was adopted. However, Wonsley received an update in July from the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority that they would no longer be able to issue EHV’s due to not receiving the funding agreement from the City.

“That slow walking from the administration in terms of implementing these policies and programs left at least 150 residents out on the streets this year when they could have been indoors and receiving wraparound services,” Wonsley said during the budget meeting on Dec 5. 

She additionally requested a legislative directive, which would require the Mayor’s Office to send more regular updates to the City Council of their efforts in revitalizing the EHV program.

Another part of the amendment would be to reallocate the $1.4 million that went unused this year into the Stable Homes Stable Schools Core Program, in an effort to continue using the funds for their intended purpose. Currently, the SHSS program has a $3.2 million funding gap. 

The Stable Homes Stable Schools program is for families with at least one child enrolled in the Minneapolis public school system, and according to its website “is a holistic approach to addressing homelessness through prevention (emergency short- and medium-term assistance) and intervention (multi-year rental assistance and support services).” The program has successfully helped more than 6,600 kids and 2,300 families since 2019.

While only 26% of Minneapolis public school students are Black, 47% of Black students experienced homelessness according to data taken from the 2024-2025 school year by the Minneapolis Public Schools. Additionally, 68.3% of the 1515 families the city’s Housing Stability Program helps are Black, underscoring the clear need for this type of work in our community.

To fund the EHV program for the upcoming year, Wonsley proposed cutting $1,098,362 from the Minneapolis Police Department and decreasing funding for the Office of the Mayor by $301,638. Wonsley’s proposal claims the cuts should not heavily impact the Police Department, which just made headlines for being $19 million over budget this year, according to KSTP. 

Wonsley wrote, “This reduction is less than 1% of this portion of their budget and can be recouped by MPD by no longer using general fund dollars to subsidize off-duty work.”

MPD Chief Brian O’Hara defends the department’s spending, saying that it has gone into back pay and new hires. The MPD made around 174 new hires, costing the department a significant amount of money for training and education. 

While the amendments await mayoral review, the mayor’s administration sent a response to the City Council on Dec. 5 criticizing the proposed cuts to his offices and the police department’s budget, claiming they will result in staff reductions.

“A cut of this magnitude will require civilian layoffs and restrict MPD’s crime and intelligence analyst capacity,” the Mayor’s Office stated. “The amount of MPD off-duty oversight was estimated at $264,000, and the revenue allocation from off-duty use of resources has not been determined.”

Frey also claims in his response that the proposed cut would result in the layoff of at least eight of his staff members. However, council members agree that the potential loss of some staff members at the City level is worth the ability to house a significant number of Minneapolis’s unhoused population.

Izzy Canizareswelcomes reader responses to Icannizares@spokesman-recorder.com.