Mayor Melvin Carter proposed a rolling rent control exemption for newer housing during his annual state of the city address Tuesday, disappointing some leaders and comforting others.
Carter said he is drafting a policy that would provide a rolling exemption for new housing that is less than 15 years old. Thousands of units are currently on pause and it is critical to signal that St. Paul welcomes new housing to aid the city's supply problem, he said.
"Every single city that we can find with a rent stabilization policy in place provides an exemption to incentivize construction of new housing units, and so should we," Carter said.
Advocates behind the rent control proposal approved by voters in November championed its designation as a policy with the strongest renter protections in the nation.
Tram Hoang, the former Housing Equity Now campaign manager and current director of policy and research at the Housing Justice Center, was disheartened by the mayor's decision to bring an ordinance to the City Council without engaging with the thousands of residents who voted for the stabilization policy.
"The proposed exemption has the potential to be very harmful, but more importantly, solves a problem that doesn't exist," Hoang said.
The ordinance would apply to both residents building duplexes and large developers building apartment buildings, said Carter. It would also establish a Jan. 1, 2023, effective date, making a legal challenge unlikely as it would be past the first year of the ordinance, he said.
"There are some who, I know, can't wait to suggest that this is a favor for big developers or something along those lines," Carter said. "The basic supply and demand curve says that if our passion is protecting against big rent price increases and ensuring that people can live affordably and with dignity and sustainability in our community, that's just not possible in a city with an extreme and worsening shortage."
