St. Paul needs action on rent control rules

Last November, St. Paul voters opted to adopt some of the most restrictive rent control language in the nation. And while that was a questionable move, it is now up to Mayor Melvin Carter and the City Council to interpret and soften it to make the ordinance more reasonable.

And they must present that modified policy proposal to the public by the spring. Absent any idea of where the city is headed, harmful things are starting to happen to those on both sides of the issue.

The rent stabilization language passed by voters technically goes into effect May 1, but any changes cannot be put into place until November of this year.

In December, council members complained that they were not getting updates or information on the policy proposal from Carter's office. Then last week, developers and advocates expressed the same concern. Fully three months after the vote, even those who had been on opposite sides of the issue agreed that they need more details about what might be in a final policy.

Some developers have put projects on hold or failed to bid on new ones not knowing how new construction will be affected. And some St. Paul residents say their rents have increased dramatically because their landlords believe they have to raise them while they can before a policy is in place.

At a recent news conference and rally, members of Housing Equity Now St. Paul (HENS), the group of activists that petitioned and campaigned for rent control, said 60 St. Paul tenants have reported facing high rent hikes from landlords trying to raise rates before May. HENS organizer Margaret Kaplan said that because nothing is definite, the "silence is getting filled with a lot of fear and a lot of nonsense and a lot of misinformation about what this policy does and what it's going to look like … ."

Council members told an editorial writer that they're concerned about the administration's plan to have a task force of stakeholder/advisers help craft the plan with a timetable of meeting through the summer and producing a plan on which the council could vote by late August. That's not soon enough, they say. The urgency of the situation demands city action sooner rather than later.

Council President Amy Brendmoen said it has been challenging get the referendum up and ready to go, but that late summer is "far too late." She said those affected — landlords, renters and developers — need to make decisions sooner to take action in the spring. They need answers from the city to decide whether to move, change rents, start projects and make other decisions. And the council needs to get going on all the staffing, budgeting, rule-making, and waiver and appeals processes the change requires.

Council Member Jane Prince told an editorial writer that there are roughly 70,000 rental units in the city. She said the ill effects of uncertainty are unfolding and are harmful. Both Brendmoen and Prince had opposed the referendum, in part because it was written by advocates and didn't go through the research, vetting and public hearings that would have been held on a regular ordinance proposal.

Carter says his team is working to release their proposal for an ordinance in "the very near future." He told an editorial writer that he'd be willing to sign off on an ordinance that would exempt new construction right now if the council would present one.

On Friday, Carter announced the creation of the 41-member task force that includes developers, landlords, community members, renters and renter advocates who gathered the citizen signatures and wrote what appeared on the ballot. Carter had told an editorial writer that it will take time to develop a plan that all the stakeholders can live with.

To be clear, the Star Tribune Editorial Board opposed the referendum as being too restrictive and destined to hurt the very people it is designed to help — namely lower-income renters. And we think there are alternative, more effective ways to provide more affordable housing.

But the voters have spoken, and now it is up to the mayor and council to come up with a reasonable compromise. In our view, that compromise — much like what we've recommended in Minneapolis if it adopts an ordinance — should exempt new construction, have more flexible caps on rent increases, and allow for rent resets when a unit changes tenants.