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Faribault discusses emergency rental funding for CAC, tables final decision
By Chloe Kucera, Faribault Daily News
February 12, 2026
With Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents being seen in Faribault, an organization that provides resources for people in need has seen an increase in requests for rental assistance from people who have been too afraid to leave their homes and go to work — but some residents feel that should not be a burden of the taxpayers.
The Community Action Center has submitted a request for $50,000 to the city of Faribault and Faribault HRA to help address the number of rental assistance requests they have received. At the HRA meeting on Monday, the board did not make a final decision on whether they would provide funding and instead took the request under advisement, but several board members were leaning toward no, with some members vocalizing that they would not vote in favor of it.
The CAC has also made a request to the city to consider allocating some of its State Affordable Housing Aid funds.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, several members of the public spoke on the topic, and a work session followed. After discussion, the City Council decided to table their decision for next week’s work session.
Public comment began with Shattuck St. Mary’s Head of School Matt Cavalier, who spoke in favor of providing the funding. To give context to the situation, Cavalier said that many families have already decided not to send their children back to Shattuck next year due to ICE’s presence in Minnesota and the community, causing financial losses for the school.
“I need people to understand that while we may have differences in opinion on how and whether it’s right to be here without documentation, there are ramifications and ripple effects that roll out into the community that I don’t think we’re always taking into consideration,” Cavalier said. “Number one, Shattuck-St Mary’s is an incredible source of income for this town. Our students provide an incredible source of income for this town, and we are going to get hit by that. So are all of the restaurants in town, hotels in town, and the stores in town.”
Cavalier said the $50,000 request is “a drop in the bucket to help some people in our community in a situation where we don’t know how long this might last.” He spoke again about a ripple effect that would occur if a large number of people were evicted.
“If we all of a sudden have 60 families who are evicted, that is going to increase the workload of almost everybody in public service here in Faribault,” he said. “It’s going to increase the workload of the police officers and increase the workload of the fire department. It’s going to increase the workload of the social services.”
Faribault resident Dana Plank spoke out against the city giving the CAC the funding.
“I am actually against the fact that they’re trying to justify $50,000 for people that should not be in the community, as it states,” he said. “If they’re an illegal immigrant, illegal alien, they should not be here. So there should be no dollars in any amount that should be allocated for those people in this community, let alone the state, to be able to get rental assistance.
“I, for one, am completely for ICE and what they’re doing. I think it should last as long as it possibly can. If you are here illegally, you need to leave,” he continued. “There’s not much more that I think that we should be talking about. This is a common sense issue. There’s no reason for us as taxpayers to be able to fund an illegal alien to live in our community.”
Plank also spoke about ripple effects like Cavalier did.
“We have illegal aliens that are in our community that can cause crime, they may have done identity theft,” Plank said. “If they’re paying taxes, they could be removed, so that way, we actually have a place for someone else for taking that apartment or the housing that they’re in.”
Faribault resident John Kingland asked the council if there was a surplus of funds to be able to allocate money to the CAC.
“If we have a balanced budget and have surplus funds, are the taxpayers, the good and legal citizens in our community?” Kingland said. “Are they in agreement and content with the amount of taxes being burdened on them today, or do they want the surplus to be directly back to them as the taxpayer? Questions we should be asking.
“We should strive to be fair and just and to be careful not to give aid to illegal activity, no matter the financial deficit, giving funds shelter or any type of help to those that are criminals or those who are participating in illegal activity,” he continued. “That should be considered aiding and abetting. We should not have a desire to support illegal activity and losses. It is not fair or just, especially to those who strive daily to be law abiding, productive citizens and so good standing members of our community, nor is it the right and loving thing, a way to treat our neighbors, people that have gone through the right way to do this.”
Work session
After the council meeting, the council moved into a work session to discuss the funding request.
City Administrator Jessica Kinser explained that the funds they would be able to give would differ from those from property taxes that the HRA can provide. Faribault can use SAHA funds, which are state dollars given to cities to support emergency rental assistance for households earning less than 80% of the area median income, affordable housing projects, or the development of properties rented at market value. SAHA funds are awarded annually, and the city must use some of them by this year.
“It was not anything we applied for,” Kinser said. “The state of Minnesota created this program and just automatically distributed funds based on the formula.”
Kinser said the funds they need could go toward either emergency rental assistance or wrapping up an unspecified project that has been in the works for years.
Executive Director Anika Rychner spoke before the council to explain that the increased need for rental assistance stems from some people’s fear of ICE.
“What is happening because of that fear is we have people who are missing work, and that means lost wages, and that means the inability to pay rent, and what that means for the community as a whole is of a lot more cost down the road,” she said.
Rychner said no one knows how long ICE will be in the community, but the need for assistance is affecting people right now.
“The emergency is that people need to pay rent or they will become homeless, and then we all collectively have a much larger problem,” she said. “Right now, the Community Action Center has been fundraising, and we’ve opened a Community Response Fund. We’ve been fortunate to be able to keep over 150 households housed across Rice County, about 60 households here in Faribault, and there are at least a dozen or more requests, just as of yesterday, of people who are facing eviction in Faribault.”
With the situation being dire, Rychner said things will not get better by waiting a month.
Mayor Tom Spooner asked how it could be guaranteed that this money wouldn’t just go right to landlords “who know how to grease the wheels and get the paperwork done.”
“Us in government right now, we’re all slightly afraid of fraud,” Spooner said.
Rychner assure the Spooner that the city would be able to see documentation of every payment made.
Councilor Adama Doumboya thanked the CAC for the work they do and voiced his support for allocating funds to them.
Councilor John Rowan said even though the money comes from the state, it is still from tax dollars.
“I can’t stress this enough, people felt like they were getting taxed to death last year, state, county, federal, city, township, when does it end? That’s what I keep hearing. Every decision we make, good or bad, somebody has to pay for and you guys are the ones that are paying for it,” Rowan said, referring to the audience.
Also serving as a member of the HRA, councilor Mandy Barnes said the HRA would discuss their decision on funding further, but their reluctance stems from the fact that $50,000 is “a band-aid for right now” that would only help temporarily.
“It’s a big chunk,” she said. “And to reiterate what [Rowan] was saying, we hear daily how people can’t pay for medication, groceries, and it’s everybody. So we really are being told,’ be careful what we spend, be cautious what we spend.’” Barnes said, referring to the spending decisions the council makes.
Councilor Chuck Thiele said he needed time to think before making a final decision and the rest of the council agreed to table it until the Feb. 17 work session.
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