Your housing expenses include your monthly rent or mortgage payments, electricity, gas, and heating bills, insurance, home maintenance (repair and upkeep), and anything else directly related to the place where you live. Combined, these housing costs are the largest expenses most people have.

If you are worried that you can’t pay for your housing and that you will have to move out of your place, carefully evaluate your situation to see if you can find ways you can afford to stay where you are. To understand your situation, you must know exactly how much income you have and how much you spend on housing.

How Renters and Homeowners Can Improve Their Financial Situation

Whether you rent or own your home has a big impact on what strategies you can take to improve your situation. However, some things that can help both renters and homeowners who don’t want to move:

• You can boost your income by looking for work
• You can try to lower expenses, such as health insurance, food, cable, cell phone, and utilities.

First, we’ll look at these two strategies and later, we’ll look at more ideas for renters and more ideas for homeowners.

Finding Work

Boosting your income is a great way to make your housing more affordable, but finding work is not easy. Here are a few resources that can help:

• Minnesota CareerForce locations can help you find a job and plan for your career. To find a Center near you, call 1-651-259-7501.
• MinnesotaWorks.net is an online service where you can look for job openings and post your resume.
• The My Skills, My Future website helps job seekers match their skills with new careers and find out what training is needed to move from one job to another.
• CareerOneStop has information about careers, education and training, practical tips on resumes and interviews, job search guidance, and local employment help.
• If you have a disability, Vocational Rehabilitation Services can help you apply, prepare for, and find a job.
• If you get Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits, Social Security’s Ticket to Work Program can help you with free employment-related services, such as training, transportation, and vocational rehabilitation.

Cutting Your Expenses

If you cut your overall expenses, you’ll have more money left over to make your rent or mortgage payments. Here are some tips and resources to help you spend less on some common expenses:

• See if you qualify for Medical Assistance (MA). If you get private health insurance and your income is at or below 138% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines ( if you are single), you may qualify for MA. If you have a disability, you may qualify even if your income is higher. If you can get MA, you may not have to pay your private insurance premium anymore. Learn more about MA on Disability Benefits 101.
• See if you qualify for SNAP. If your income and assets are limited, SNAP may help you pay for your food. Learn more about SNAP on Disability Benefits 101.
• Lower your electric and heating bills. If you have low income, you can get help paying for your electric and heating bills through Minnesota’s Energy Assistance Program (EAP).
• Cut your phone and internet bills. Prepaid cell phone service often charges less and doesn’t come with a monthly contract. If your income is low enough or you already qualify for another benefit, like MA or SSI, you may be able to get discounts on your phone bills. You may also qualify to get high-speed Internet service in your home for less than $10 per month.
• Cut your cable TV. Many people don’t know that there are lots of free over-the-air television stations. Use AntennaWeb to see how many channels you might be able to get with an antenna. For example, a person living in St. Paul could get up to 36 different channels for free.

Combined, you can save hundreds of dollars per month by taking these steps. You might save enough to be able to keep living in your current housing.

More Ideas for Renters

There are more steps that renters and homeowners can take when they can’t afford their housing. Renters should:

• Apply for benefits programs. Many different public programs help people pay rent. Only some will let you stay in the place where you live now. The best-known program that might help you pay rent for your current apartment is the Section 8 housing choice voucher (HCV) program.
• Claim the Renter’s Property Tax Refund. This state tax refund is for people who rent a place and have annual household income below $73,270. With the Renter’s Property Tax Refund, you can get up to $2,570 back on your state taxes.
• Talk to the landlord. If you can’t pay your rent on time one month, try talking to your landlord. You may be able to get a one-month extension on paying your rent. Don’t go for more than one month without paying your rent, though, because your problems could just get bigger.
• Learn about managing your money for rent. The University of Minnesota offers a free Renter 101 online course that focuses on how to make sure you have enough to pay your rent, talk effectively with your landlord, understand lease agreements, and stay aware of other important financial issues for tenants. Minnesota State University in Mankato has a good list of personal budget tools that can also help.

More Ideas for Homeowners

If you own your home and are having trouble paying for your homeownership expenses, like your mortgage and home maintenance, you should look into:

• Short-term foreclosure help, so that you can get help with meeting your upcoming mortgage payments as soon as possible.
• Long-term refinancing, so that you will have a more affordable mortgage for the years to come.
• The Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), which helps you pay for home improvements that can lower your utility and maintenance expenses over the long-term.

To get started with short-term foreclosure aid or long-term refinancing, check out these organizations:

• The Minnesota Homeownership Center has information about foreclosures and can help you find a free local foreclosure counselor.
• The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has a list of housing counseling agencies and a Guide to Avoiding Foreclosures:
  • Search for a housing counseling agency near you or call HUD's Counseling & Agency Locator Line at 1-800-569-4287.
  • Search for a foreclouse avoidance counselor.