Off-campus housing on Grand Avenue advertises availability. (The Crest/Eli Andersen) 
Cretin Court Apartments across the street from the Anderson Parking Facility. (The Crest/Eli Andersen) 
Off-campus housing on Grand Avenue. The City Council is considering two related ordinances: one to amend the rent stabilization code and another to add tenant protections. (The Crest/Eli Andersen)
The St. Paul City Council voted on its rent control policy on May 7, which limits annual rent increases to 3%.
The rent limitation was passed in a 4-3 vote, exempting buildings constructed after Dec. 31, 2004 from rent control, aiming to encourage new housing development.
This altered policy has sparked concern from St. Paul renters and housing providers alike.
“I think this could put some student renters in a bad spot,” said Lindsay Pidde, a St. Paul renter. “Some rent rates around here are actually kind of insane numbers already.”
Pidde’s rent increased 25% this year for her Merriam Park house.
The Minnesota Multi Housing Association also has problems with the policy and wants it repealed, as it brings in issues for investment markets, said MMHA President and CEO Cecil Smith.
“Our position is that the St. Paul City Council should repeal the ordinance, not modify it, but repeal it,” Smith said. “The effort that’s underway to try and attract new development may increase the very low level of development taking place in St. Paul, but the fact that rent control exists in St. Paul is a red line for the capital markets across the country and even globally.”
Smith said he has also seen issues with the rent control policy since its 2021 implementation concerning the MMHA’s members’ ability to build or maintain property in St. Paul.
“Housing permits dropped 80% in St. Paul, and in Minneapolis, they went up,” Smith said. “It was a very dramatic effect, and I can say that there were thousands of units that did not get built because the Highland Bridge site is meant to have thousands of more units sitting on it right now, and they’re not.”
Smith said he does not believe that the housing market itself has an issue at this time, but that there is an income issue at hand.
“The housing market has to work for all participants, and we know that for some people, it doesn’t work, but it’s not because of the housing market,” Smith said. “It’s because people have an income challenge, and until we’re prepared to look at the challenges that some households face with their incomes, we’re not ultimately going to get to a solution.”
Increased communication and understanding among housing providers and renters during these challenging times could benefit both parties, Smith and Pidde said.
“I think until people truly understand how challenging it is to operate housing, where we have so little control, and until we address the income challenge that folks at the lowest incomes face, and being able to afford housing that is expensive to operate, we’re not addressing the problem,” Smith said.
Pidde echoed the sentiment, calling for increased communication from property managers.
“If housing providers do increase the rent, I just hope there’d be a conversation with the renters first,” Pidde said. “It can just be kind of blindsiding and creates a lack of trust in our relationship, which, yeah, it’s professional, it’s transactional, but we’re also people, and we’re not made of money.”
Cecilia Wallace can be contacted at wall1238@stthomas.edu.
