Nicholas Zobel, a recovering drug addict, had a hard time finding a place to live after graduating from his sober house at the end of 2022. His treatment program offered him a list of second-chance landlords. He called every number. One landlord called him back, offering a small single-family house in north Minneapolis.
The house, located at 5049 Vincent Av. N., was in bad shape, with a recent city inspection documenting windows that didn’t lock, missing electrical fixtures with exposed wires, no faceplates on the outlets and water-damaged walls. Lacking other options, Zobel signed a lease.
But months after moving in, he discovered an even bigger problem: the rental was unlicensed, meaning it couldn’t legally be leased for money. Zobel, feeling scammed, decided to take the property owner to housing court to get his rent back.
“All I know is I’ve been taken advantage of and I’m trying to get over this as soon as possible,” he said. “In my opinion, my unfortunate situation is a result of a bigger community problem. So many other people have been in this situation before me. How many actually have taken the time and investment to challenge these landlords?”
It turns out a complicated ownership dispute is tangling up the licensing process for 5049 Vincent Ave. N., which hasn’t had a rental license for nearly a year.
Tenant advocates say Zobel’s story isn’t unheard of among renters who don’t have a wealth of options. Recent ordinances prohibiting discrimination against tenants based on long-past criminal records or whether they would be using public assistance to pay the rent, aim to help solve the problem but remain difficult to enforce.
“We hear stories, unfortunately, fairly often about folks who are struggling to find safe — let alone affordable — housing when they have less-than-pristine background checks,” said Rachael Sterling, a housing attorney with the renters’ advocacy group HOME Line. “There are landlords out there who have substandard housing, who just refuse to make repairs because they know that their tenants are stuck.”
A problem house
Neighbors said they saw virtually no upkeep on the house at 5049 Vincent Av. N., and a high turnover of tenants with limited options.