Minnesotans have responded to a fast-moving rent crisis for immigrant families with a mix of online fundraising, nonprofit casework and emergency municipal funding, as ongoing federal enforcement pressure keeps some residents from working and makes eviction timelines harder to manage. The surge in urgency has been punctuated by social-media campaigns that ask for money quickly—without the slow steps that typically come with emergency assistance programs—while local officials weigh what, if anything, a moratorium could do for families facing the prospect of losing their housing.
The first spark came from Ashley Fairbanks, who, while getting her hair done in Minneapolis, posted a call to her roughly 49,000 followers on BlueSky: she said she needed help paying the rent for 12 families “urgently.” She said there was no time for fundraisers or for applications for emergency rental assistance; she asked that people with the means send money directly to the families through Venmo. Within two hours, the rent for those families had been paid, and within 12 hours the effort had expanded to 43 families.
Fairbanks’ campaign was part of a broader pattern that has unfolded online, with other residents “tak[ing] up the challenge” and starting their own rent-relief drives. Even as some people described a possible “drawdown,” the AP reported that the continuing presence of ICE and other federal law enforcement officers has continued to compel thousands of immigrants to stay in their homes and out of work—conditions that leave rent due even when paychecks stop.
For many households, rent remains an immediate bill rather than a problem that can wait for federal or state processing timelines. The AP reported that Minneapolis and St. Paul city councils have called on Gov. Tim Walz to implement an eviction moratorium, which would allow more time for residents to come up with the cash needed to avoid eviction. Still, local leaders and immigrant activists said the overall need extends well beyond what can be raised through individual campaigns, especially as the deadline approaches when eviction processes can begin.
Inside that tension between urgency and scale, Minneapolis Council member Robin Wonsley told the AP that the situation should not be treated as something residents can solve by themselves through online giving. “This is not something that we will GoFundMe our way out of,” Wonsley said.
Nonprofit organizers say they are trying to bridge the gap using both pandemic-era approaches and existing capacity. Jessica Mathias, executive director of Open Your Heart To The Hungry And Homeless, told the AP that during the COVID-19 pandemic her organization quickly raised funds to assist renters in need, and that she is using what she called a “COVID-era playbook” to manage the current moment. Mathias said her team is running rent relief through existing fundraisers as well as organizing its own efforts, and that it is prioritizing households with children and those at immediate risk of eviction.
Mathias said Minnesota is “a very generous state,” and she described how her organization expanded access to assistance through an application process. She said that after opening applications on Jan. 28, the first round of rent relief reached 12 households within a week, and she pointed to the broader fragility of rent arrears: she said the crisis highlights how many people are one paycheck away from losing housing, particularly those who lack a safety net of friends or family. “I think it’s our calling to be able to do so,” Mathias said.
While Fairbanks said she is “just a lady with a website,” she described how the stand she created—Stand With Minnesota—has become a centralized hub for Minnesota-based fundraisers, organizations and mutual aid networks seeking donations, including rental assistance funds. She said her site had 2 million hits since she created it about two weeks earlier, and she described what she called an “adopt-a-rent” campaign, which she said helped show that elected officials still need to step up with more robust efforts. “It’s not sustainable,” Fairbanks said, adding: “People are maxing out their credit cards and emptying their savings accounts to pay other people’s rent.”
Others described the limitations of how quickly money can arrive and how long it must last. Yusra Murad, an organizer with United Renters for Justice, told the AP that many renters in Minnesota faced challenges even before what she described as Operation Metro Surge. Murad said that nearly half of the state’s renters are housing cost-burdened—paying more than 30% of their income for housing—and she said those figures are higher for immigrants and people of color. She also described how, when renters feel unsafe going to work, the resulting crisis can unfold indoors in a way that is less visible than detentions or arrests outside.
Murad said she tried to track the flood of rent-relief campaigns that appeared online but found it impossible to keep up. She told the AP that while some fundraisers raised “thousands” and others raised “hundreds of thousands,” she still believes the total effort is not enough to cover even short time horizons. “I still know that it’s not enough,” Murad said. “It’s not enough even for the month of February.” She pointed to one fundraiser that she said raised $200,000 for a community focused on a school and that she said “It was gone within the first two days of February.”
Municipal spending has also moved, though advocates described it as incremental against a larger need. The AP reported that on Feb. 5 the Minneapolis City Council approved sending $1 million in funds to Hennepin County to support one-time rental assistance, after a two-hour discussion that included two failed votes on how to find the money. Council member Aisha Chughtai said the funding would help about 250 families and called it “a drop in the bucket.”
Hennepin County’s expected capacity is framed by the resources the county says it already has for emergency rental assistance. The AP reported that Will Lehman, who works for the county in homelessness prevention, said the city’s $1 million would add to an estimated $9.6 million available from Hennepin County for emergency rental assistance. Lehman said that combined level of support would be enough to help about 2,500 families avoid eviction.
Other observers said the difficulty of estimating need—and matching it with budgets—makes the mismatch between mutual aid and eviction risk harder to close. The AP reported that Nick Graetz, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota, said it is a tough question and one that cities ask regularly when setting budgets. Graetz said while the work of mutual aid groups is inspiring, “we need to be serious about the scale of need.” The AP also cited a 2025 report from Minnesota Housing estimating that the annual cost of meeting emergency assistance for the state’s low-income households alone is $350 million, and that the $28 million available through state programs would “fall short.”
Murad said her focus is on expanding every path that can keep families housed, even as she acknowledged the scale challenge. “Every single avenue that could possibly keep a family housed is worth pursuing,” Murad said.