St. Paul’s rent control policy could be further watered down in response to development downturn 

Ward City Council member Saura Jost voted in favor of the St Paul rent stabilization referendum when it was on the ballot in She even canvased for it I felt that I shared the same values of folks that were really pushing for it I felt that we needed to find methods to keep renters in their homes Jost announced this week Now the first-term council member is the lead author of an ordinance that would permanently exempt any properties built after from the measure This amendment comes amid a dramatic downturn in housing production since rent control was implemented in the city though Jost declared this decrease isn t exclusively because of rent control Construction costs continue to rise Interest rates are really challenging right now As a council the only thing that we can do anything about is the rent stabilization ordinance Jost mentioned On Wednesday the council will vote on the proposed ordinance to exempt new advancement from the original ballot measure s cap on rent increases effectively weakening the measure The new exemption was originally proposed by Mayor Melvin Cater last year The council ordinance is co-authored by three council members Jost Anika Bowie and council President Rebecca Noecker Here s what led city leaders like Jost to change curriculum Advancement plummets Four years after the rent stabilization referendum passed the numbers are in and they aren t looking good for St Paul enhancement In January MinnPost columnist Bill Lindeke crunched the numbers from the U S Department of Housing and Urban Advancement database analyzing housing production for every Midwestern city over a population of St Paul ranked on the list for largest decline with an drop-off from its previous three-year average Jost acknowledged the figure in an interview with MinnPost We re at the point where housing is just such a priority and we re just so far behind and we just really need to do something about this as soon as we can to try to get our city back on track Jost revealed It s worth noting that Minneapolis was at the top of the list for housing enhancement dropoff with an decrease from its former three-year average In the same year the St Paul rent stabilization referendum passed Minneapolis voters approved a charter referendum allowing the City Council to explore rent control but that s yet to occur A January Federal Reserve description noted that was the first time in years overall housing supply goals in the Twin Cities overall had not been met Looking to protect renters Work to improve conditions for renters is still underway Jost noted It s just a matter of finding guidelines that effectively results in this outcome she stated The vote on the measure to amend rent stabilization is being taken in tandem with action on a new tenant protections ordinance a situation Jost and other council members have emphasized leading up to the Wednesday meeting We re trying to apply the right initiative tool to the right challenge we re trying to solve So we ve got tenant protections to help with renter stability keeping folks in their homes and finding housing Jost disclosed Rent stabilization will still be able to also do that but we re recognizing the issues that it s created in housing supply Refocusing on tenant protections is historically vital in St Paul The rent stabilization referendum came hot off the heels of a federal judge overturning St Paul s first attempt at new rules to protect renters The ordinance passed in but ultimately was blocked by a federal judge after landlords filed a lawsuit The new attempt at tenant protections was also part of what inspired interim Ward council member Matt Privratsky to seek his temporary role despite not planning to run for the seat in the upcoming special referendum to fill the seat previously held by former council President Mitra Jalali Privratsky who served as Jalali s aid from to played a major role in the council s first attempt to write tenant protections into the city s legislative code before it was blocked I care a lot about making sure this new version of the tenant protection ordinance can stick Privratsky revealed in an interview with MinnPost during his first week in office And similarly rent stabilization I think people underappreciate how much it came out of the fact that tenant protections got repealed and washed away and that created a lot of pressure where folks in the neighborhood who were fighting for renters and tenants and housing justice really had to pivot to pushing something like rent stabilization function use strict window addEventListener message function a if void a statistics datawrapper-height var e document querySelectorAll iframe for var t in a evidence datawrapper-height for var r r