Renter protections return to St. Paul
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St. Paul will restrict landlords' ability to use criminal records or credit histories when weighing a rental application starting next year.
Why it matters: With the City Council's vote last week, St. Paul rejoined a list of dozens of major cities — including Minneapolis — that have passed sweeping tenant laws meant to protect the renters at highest risk of eviction or homelessness.
- The Minnesota Legislature also enacted its own statewide tenant protection package in 2023, though it doesn't go as far as Minneapolis or St. Paul.
The big picture: The tenant protections are the other half of a package deal Mayor Melvin Carter first pitched last year — a victory for renters that would offset the partial rollback of the city's rent control ordinance.
What's inside: The new ordinance will prevent St. Paul landlords from rejecting a prospective tenant because of:
- Criminal convictions in their past. Landlords can only consider more recent offenses, with lookback periods of three years for less-serious crimes and ten years for most serious felony convictions.
- Their credit score by itself, though landlords can consider a credit report if it shows failure to pay rent or utility bills.
- Their eviction history or insufficient rental history.
The intrigue: St. Paul will join Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center in requiring landlords to give written notice at least 30 days before filing for a tenant's eviction.
- These cities' ordinances expand on a new state law meant to slow down Minnesota's eviction process, which until recently moved faster than almost any other state in the nation.
Plus: St. Paul's new rules will require a landlord to consider a tenant who doesn't meet their rental application's minimum income threshold, but who can demonstrate a history of successful rent payments.
- Landlords also won't be allowed to collect security deposits greater than one month's rent — though pet deposits don't count, and applicants with histories of criminal or credit problems can be asked to put down more.
Catch up quick: St. Paul has been here before. A previous council passed many of the same tenant protections in 2020, only to walk them back in 2021 after a preliminary but ominous setback in federal court.
- St. Paul's revived version doesn't include some rules the judge had flagged, like limits on evictions.
Zoom out: Minneapolis later wound up winning a similar case in state court, and now has a renter protection ordinance that looks a lot like St. Paul's.
What they're saying: "We need to be able to ensure current and potential Saint Paul renters do not experience discrimination or retaliation from landlords for trying to protect their rights," Council Member Cheniqua Johnson, the ordinance's lead author, wrote in a statement.
The other side: Groups representing landlords and housing developers expressed alarm at the proposed rules.
- "Minnesota has some of the strictest tenant protections of any other state in the country. Any additional requirements only make it more difficult for housing providers," the Twin Cities Housing Alliance, a group representing developers and builders, wrote in a letter to the council.
- Minnesota Multi Housing's Cecil Smith told a council hearing last month the credit check limits were "unworkable."
Friction point: Housing advocates cheered the revival of tenant protections, but bemoaned that they came with a weakening of rent control.
- "It's exciting to see the Council … not forget renters completely, and pretty disappointing to see that paired with what feels like caving to developers and rich business interests," Elianne Farhat of TakeAction Minnesota, an organization that supported both policies, told Axios.
What's next: The ordinance will take effect in a year.