Bemidji Tenants Union aims to get seat at table amid housing crisis

BEMIDJI — Renters in Northern Minnesota are feeling the pinch of increasing rents amid stagnant wages.

It’s a story all too common as the state also faces a housing shortage, with an estimated 100,000 new homes needed to keep up with demand.

In Beltrami County, about 1,000 more affordable housing units are needed, in addition to more workforce and market-rate housing. These findings are part of a Headwaters Regional Development Commission study released last month, detailing the area’s high poverty rate and aging housing stock.

Compounding the issue, Bemidji’s affordable housing stock is aging at the same rate, with three multi-family affordable apartment buildings — Red Pine Estates, Ridgeway I and Ridgeway II — evacuated between 2022 and 2023 due to unsafe conditions.

Brady Crosby, 24, teamed up with housing activist Reed Olson, 49, to form an organization that seeks to act as a voice for renters.

“We're now a majority renter community,” Crosby said Thursday, Oct. 9. “There's only one seat at the table right now, and that's just for the landlords.”

While around 70% of Beltrami County residents own their home, in the county’s seat of Bemidji, that statistic is nearly the opposite: around 60% of the city’s residents are renters.

“Both renters and landlords should have a seat at the table when it comes to city government, when it comes to housing policy and stuff like that,” Crosby said.

Larissa Donovan

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KAXE

Crosby's comments came after around 15 people gathered for the first-ever meeting of the Bemidji Tenants Union.

“Bemidji has had grinding poverty and racial disparity since it was founded,” Olson said during the meeting. “Like we live in a company town ... and the ownership class has always enjoyed this imbalance.”

During the meeting, the group discussed a possible name change and the pros and cons of forming a nonprofit.

“We can educate people about their rights, but hopefully we can actually start to kind of change things, so landlords don't feel the ability to just constantly increase their rents for no reason,” Crosby said.

The group is anticipated to begin selecting members for its board of directors at its next meeting, slated for 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 12 at the Bemidji Public Library.