St. Paul rent control debate set to heat up again
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Three St. Paul City Council members are preparing legislation to exempt newer buildings from the city's rent control regulations.
Why it matters: Housing construction has stalled, and while rent control is one of many reasons for that stagnation, supporters hope loosening regulations will signal to developers that St. Paul is still open for business.
State of play: Council Members Saura Jost, Rebecca Noecker and Anika Bowie plan to introduce an amendment next week that would permanently remove rent control from housing built in St. Paul after 2004, as Mayor Melvin Carter proposed last year.
- Under the current ordinance, newly built housing is exempt from rent control for the first 20 years. After that, the city's 3% cap on annual rent increases kicks in.
Plus: Council members plan to pair the rent control proposal with separate legislation reviving many of the tenant protections the city first tried to enact in 2020, Jost and Noecker told Axios.
- A federal judge blocked that ordinance in 2021, largely because it limited a landlord's right to evict tenants without "just cause." The new legislation wouldn't include this provision, Noecker said.
What they're saying: "No amount of policy can get us out of a housing crisis if we're not building more housing," Carter told Axios, noting he previously called for pairing the rent control changes with restored tenant protections.
- "Investors are really hesitant to build in St. Paul," Jost, the lead co-author, told Axios. "The longer we would wait to make a change [to rent control], the longer that development and investment would take to come in."
- Noecker called the package an "elegant solution" to stimulate housing construction while still leaving rent control protections in place in most of the city's housing stock, more than 90% of which was built before 2004.
Zoom out: The Twin Cities led the Midwest in housing construction in the early 2020s, but that pace has since slowed.
- High interest rates and soaring materials and labor costs are among the many reasons why — but St. Paul leaders have seized on rent control as one factor that sits within the city's control.
- Developers have said rent control makes it difficult to obtain financing for new rental housing projects.
What we're watching: Whether the three council co-authors can find the fourth vote they need to pass their rent control proposal through the seven-member council.
- Council Member Cheniqua Johnson told Axios in an email she won't support a new rent control exemption without the council passing and implementing tenant protections.
The other side: Council Member HwaJeong Kim opposes the rent control change, saying the ordinance was always meant as a counterweight to developers.
- Weakening it would make St. Paul less affordable for working-class tenants, she told Axios.
What's next: If Jost, Bowie and Noecker introduce their ordinance as scheduled next week, the earliest the council could vote on the proposal would be at its April 9 meeting.