More than a year ago, Sumeya Mohamed received a letter saying the city had granted her St. Paul landlord permission to raise her rent by up to 26% — far surpassing the 3% limit set by the city’s rent stabilization law.
Mohamed quickly appealed the city staff’s decision in July 2023. She won her appeal last month by a unanimous City Council vote.
The victory was somewhat hollow, though, because it came too late. Mohamed and her family had moved out of their East Side apartment earlier this summer to escape the possibility of a $400 monthly rent increase.
“We never had any intentions of leaving St. Paul, but the fact that this process took so long caused our family so much anxiety,” said 23-year-old Mohamed, who now lives in St. Anthony.
Representatives for Marquette Management, Mohamed’s former property manager at the Haven of Battle Creek, declined to comment.
The case between Mohamed and Marquette tested St. Paul’s first-in-the-Midwest rent control law in new ways, generating thousands of documents, demanding hours of staff time and ultimately producing more questions than answers.
The city ordinance was crafted by tenant advocates and approved by voters in 2021. From the get-go, the advocates said property owners should be allowed to raise rents by more than 3% if they can show it’s needed to offset growing costs. That hasn’t been difficult for many landlords in recent years as they faced skyrocketing insurance prices, property tax hikes and other effects of inflation.
Marquette cited increased operating expenses and capital improvements when seeking permission to impose rent increases ranging from 26% to 80% on every tenant in the 216-unit building.