Tolkkinen: Greater Minnesota homeowners nervous about rising costs are taking on renters

Things didn’t go so well for Amanda Wilde of Taconite the last time she let strangers rent space in her house.

That was about a year ago. They never paid rent, didn’t work, and had two big dogs that terrified her young son. They stayed for months.

But like others across greater Minnesota, Wilde is feeling financially pinched, so she’s willing to consider renting out space in her house once again. This time, she’s being picky. She has already rejected some applicants. This time, she specifically wants someone who is quiet and pays the rent, preferably another parent who can swap child care.

“I could really use some more income to help with the bills,” said Wilde, who lives on Social Security payments. “I’m concerned with what’s going on in the political sphere, with possible cuts to Social Security.”

I don’t know how many people across Minnesota are opening up their homes to renters. The idea is one that has been pitched by housing advocates to alleviate the housing crunch, but the homeowners I talked to aren’t doing it out of sheer altruism. They’re alarmed by how significantly inflation has eroded their ability to buy groceries and pay their bills, and are willing — if not all that eager — to take in strangers.

Fanning their concerns is talk of federal spending cuts in programs that benefit low-income Minnesotans, as well as the tariffs that have ignited a trade war and threatened to increase costs for people here.

“The Trump stuff made me a little nervous with tariffs and whatnot,” said Pat Dillon of St. Cloud, who posted an ad online recently looking for someone to rent the downstairs section of his townhouse.

He was especially worried earlier this month when Ontario Premier Doug Ford of Canada slapped 25% tariffs on electricity his province supplies to several U.S. states, including parts of Minnesota. The tariff, in retaliation for the tariffs President Donald Trump imposed on Canada, was short-lived, but it lent a feeling of instability to people who don’t enjoy much cash cushion.

Dillon voted for Trump, and says he still has confidence in Trump’s efforts to use tariffs to force manufacturing back to the U.S. Dillon hates that companies run sweatshops overseas and would prefer to see them supply jobs and be more open to scrutiny within U.S. borders. But he also didn’t like getting caught up as a pawn in the high-pressure game of tariffs.

If he had a choice, he wouldn’t have a roommate, he said. But costs and occasional work slowdowns leave him with little choice.

Renting out a room in a house you own and live in generally doesn’t require a permit in Minnesota, although some homeowners associations may set restrictions.

Mankato is one of the locations that requires a rental permit. When retiree Judy Blume bought a home several years ago in Mankato, it came with a permit in place that she maintained just in case.

That permit has come in handy lately. Like many others on a fixed income, she has had to look for ways to save. She’s thinking about selling her second car. Last year she rented a room to a college senior who studied in the evenings and went home most weekends. It worked out well, she said.

When I talked to her, Blume had just gotten a letter saying that her property taxes and homeowners insurance were increasing $40 a month.

“In most cases, that wouldn’t sound like a whole lot,” she said. “But it’s like, OK, now, what does that affect? What am I going to have to maybe watch a little bit more?”

Renting out rooms in one’s own home is hardly new. In the mid-1990s, I rented a room from an artificial limb maker who was slowly building his fortune through real estate. In the late 1990s, I rented two rooms in a huge 1820s farmhouse in New Hampshire that was owned by a psychologist.

Those landlords never spoke about financial stress. I honestly don’t think they had any. Their motives were to get ahead financially and maybe to have some companionship while doing it.

It’s different for the homeowners I spoke to this month. People who have considered themselves middle class are feeling pinched. Looming layoffs in Thief River Falls and Hibbing will worsen the situation.

It’s something I think about as the Trump administration takes a chainsaw to the nation’s bureaucracy, hurriedly cutting tens of thousands of federal jobs. The latest news is that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will eliminate 10,000 of its 81,000 jobs.

Massive spending cuts, tariffs and more tax cuts will hurt Americans at the bottom. It’s a massive gamble by a man elected by less than half the voting public. Will it work to restore wealth and prosperity to our country? Despite my doubts, I hope it does.

For all our sakes, it better.