Minneapolis City Council Member Jacob Frey has proposed an ordinance that would require owners of apartment buildings to provide a voter registration form to any new tenant who moves in. The proposal is a bad idea, for two reasons — one practical, one philosophical.
The practical reason: We need more affordable rental housing in Minneapolis, but putting additional requirements on apartment owners makes it less appealing for them to build and operate apartments here.
It may sound hard to believe that we lack sufficient rental units when every month there's a new construction crane flying overhead, but those cranes are primarily downtown, not in the north and south where our neighbors need cheaper housing now.
The numbers tell the tale. In the first quarter of 2015, the average apartment vacancy rate across the metro area was a low 2.7 percent, but in every sector of Minneapolis except downtown, it was even lower: 1.8 percent in the east, 2 percent in the south, 2.2 percent in the north. Additionally, the average rent in Minneapolis is 11 percent higher than the average rent in the broader metro area. (All data are from Minneapolis Department of Community Planning and Economic Development: http://tinyurl.com/pmq3elz — pages 26-27.)
Every budget cycle, the City Council debates how many taxpayer dollars to put toward affordable housing, but the only sustainable way to ensure there's enough housing at all price points is to make it as easy as possible for private-sector investors to build and operate affordable apartments. Adding yet another requirement for property managers would chase away those investors by fueling the widespread perception that doing business in Minneapolis is worth the hassle only for those investors building high-priced housing.
In addition to the practical reason that the proposed ordinance is a bad idea, there's a philosophical reason: So far in his first term in office, Frey — a friendly, hardworking person, to be sure — has demonstrated a troubling tendency to use the force of law to require action that he deems good.
His first proposal along these lines — now a law in Minneapolis — required nightclubs to provide free earplugs to patrons. The premise of that law is that adults are incapable of taking care of their own eardrums.
Now comes his proposal for an ordinance requiring property managers to distribute voter-registration forms, premised on the idea that tenants are incapable of managing their own affairs.
