Star Tribune
For some St. Paul tenants, rent control falls short
Sumeya Mohamed checked her mail in June and found a postcard from the city of St. Paul.
“I thought it was junk mail at first,” the 22-year-old said.
Instead, it was bad news: Mohamed’s landlord had applied for an exception from the city’s rent stabilization ordinance and gotten permission to raise rents up to 26%, more than $400 a month for her family’s three-bedroom unit.
St. Paul voters passed the Midwest’s first rent-control policy in 2021, to much fanfare from tenants. But in the year since the law took effect, hundreds are seeing their rents increase at rates beyond the 3% annual cap they supported.
Last fall, the City Council made sweeping changes to the law voters approved, so it no longer applies to the estimated one-third of St. Paul’s total 78,000 rental units that are new or affordable. In addition, the city has approved more than 200 requests for rent increases above 3%, according to data from the Department of Safety and Inspections (DSI) that includes requests for both individual units and entire buildings.
And, even if a landlord doesn’t get approval to raise rents higher than 3%, there’s little the city can do about it.
“Criminal citation is our only tool as far as an enforcement action right now,” DSI Director Angie Wiese said. “When you only have one tool, and that tool is a really giant hammer that you have to lift before you can use it, that’s hard.”
That’s been frustrating for tenants like Mohamed, who learned her landlord’s requested rent increase was approved less than a month after she and a handful of neighbors filed a lawsuit against the owners and managers of the Haven of Battle Creek. The suit alleges they are aiming to displace the property’s large Muslim Somali population through a mass renovation, which is simultaneously exposing tenants to hazards and being used to justify rent hikes.
Attorneys for the Haven of Battle Creek did not respond to a request for comment.
The nonprofit Housing Justice Center, which represents the tenants, filed a rent control complaint with the city months ago. Mohamed said she and others have met with city staff and elected officials about their concerns.
“It feels like a slap in the face,” she said of the decision to approve the rent increase, which she plans to appeal. “The first thing I said when I saw the mail was: What was the point of the rent stabilization ordinance? Why did we vote on this if it’s not going to be enforced?”
Rising costs
The average rent in St. Paul grew 4.4% between 2022 and 2023, according to first-quarter data from Marquette Advisors, which surveys roughly a quarter of the city’s rental units. The survey only includes market-rate buildings and does not track senior rentals. In the same period, Minneapolis rents rose 2.5% on average.
“When a rent increase happens, people in St. Paul are expecting 3% or less. That’s the talking point that’s come out,” said Eric Hauge, executive director of HOME Line, a nonprofit that provides free legal advice to Minnesota tenants. “And then we unfortunately have to go through, ‘Well, it’s not that simple.'”
Tenant advocates who crafted the original ordinance said from the start that landlords should be able to request an increase above 3% if they can prove it’s needed. But as the economy has continued to experience the ripple effects of the pandemic, including supply-chain bottlenecks and high inflation, Wiese said it’s rare for the city to deny a request.
“Utility costs are going up. Insurance costs are going up. Property taxes are going up,” said Joe Collins, CEO of Housing Hub, which manages 1,500 St. Paul rental properties. “People treat us like we’re billionaires, like we’re getting rich, but the rental game is tough.”
Since rent control took effect, Housing Hub has been raising rents 3% across the board and delaying some capital work. In a handful of cases where “the numbers aren’t working,” Collins said the company applied for an increase using the city’s self-certification process, a quicker option for landlords seeking to raise rents up to 8%.
“Even that’s quite a bit of admin work,” he said. Plus, it can draw outrage and appeals from tenants.
Appeal attempts
Rachael Waters and Bailey Miracle said they desperately wanted to move out of their duplex in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood after two years plagued by wasps, mice, hostile neighbors and an aggressive pit bull.
For financial reasons, the couple decided to stick it out one more year. Then they learned Housing Hub was planning to raise their monthly rent from $1,071 to $1,160.
Weeks after submitting an appeal and paying a $25 filing fee, the couple arrived at City Hall for a hearing. They told city staff that police and fire inspectors did little to respond to calls about some of the problems they experienced. The property already had one complaint under city review.
But staff reported that a preliminary financial analysis showed Housing Hub could have raised Waters’ and Miracle’s rent 25% — triple the amount requested.
Collins, who attended the two-hour hearing and disputed some of the tenants’ maintenance claims, offered to let the couple vacate the unit on their own time, without the 60-day notice typically required. Though the city’s decision on the rent hike is not yet final, Waters left the hearing room feeling jaded about local government — and the rent stabilization law.
“These people aren’t working for the citizens or the tenants of St. Paul, trying to make sure that their rent doesn’t go higher,” Waters said. “They’re literally collecting money from us to come in and fight the automatic approval that the landlords get.”
Limited enforcement
St. Paul has heard almost a dozen appeals from tenants so far, and many have expressed similar sentiments, demanding forensic analysis of landlords’ balance sheets.
But the city has limited resources and says it’s sometimes not worth diving deep into financial line items if a requested rent increase is justified by one or two big factors, like inflation or property taxes. It budgeted about $717,000 for rent stabilization in 2023, and Wiese said she does not plan to ask for an increase in 2024.
Though the city and tenant advocates said brazen violations of the law appear rare, Wiese said DSI “would need a pretty significant case” to take a landlord to criminal court. They first send educational letters to properties out of compliance, and could make calls or visits as a next step.
There is a desire “to have more tools in the toolbox,” Wiese added. For instance, city leaders sought the ability to impose administrative fines in 2021, but the proposal never passed.
Tenants also have the option to go to court to enforce their rights under the rent control ordinance, though city staff and tenant advocates said they are not aware of any St. Paul renters who have done so — perhaps out of fear of retaliation, advocates say.
“Right now, tenants are being hung out to dry,” said Daniel Suitor, a housing attorney for HOME Line. “They’re the ones that have to do it all, and they’re the ones with all the downsides.”
Debate continues
Still, advocates are optimistic about the future for St. Paul tenants.
“There are the folks who’ve had to fight for their rights under this ordinance,” said Margaret Kaplan, president of the Housing Justice Center. “But for the vast majority of people, they just have a set of rights now that they didn’t have before — and it’s working pretty well for them.”
Rebecca Gaida is one of those tenants. Before her lease ended earlier this year, Gaida received notice that her rent would increase 3% in accordance with city law.
“I’m in a union,” she said. “My contract is settled for the next three years, and I know that my wages will increase about 3% for the next three years. I love that it’s all predictable.”
The discussion of rent control is likely to continue as the November election approaches. All seven council seats are on the ballot.
“I think rent stabilization has really generated a huge amount of conversation about what people in St. Paul want out of our housing system, what we want our communities to look like,” said Meg Daly of the Minnesota Youth Collective, which organizes young voters. “I just think overall, it’s been such a powerful thing to watch.”
Star Tribune
Celebrity chef Justin Sutherland gets two years of probation for threatening girlfriend
According to the criminal complaint:
Police were twice called on June 28 to an apartment in the 800 block of Front Avenue. During the first call, a woman told officers that everything was fine despite previously reporting that Sutherland had choked her and tried kicking her out of the apartment.
During the second call about 90 minutes later, the woman told police that Sutherland had briefly squeezed her neck with both hands, said “I want you dead,” pointed a gun at her and hit her in the chest with it, and at one point said he would shoot her if she came back after running off. Officers then arrested Sutherland.
Staff writers Paul Walsh and Alex Chhith contributed to this story.
Operators of the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center (JDC) have agreed to consolidate housing units, create a new programming schedule and retrain correctional officers in an effort to satisfy state regulators, who rebuked the downtown facility last month for violating resident rights.
Changes come in the wake of a scathing inspection report that accused the center of placing minors in seclusion without good reason to compensate for ongoing staff shortages. An annual audit by the Department of Corrections found that teens were frequently locked in their rooms for long stretches, due to a lack of personnel rather than bad behavior.
In response, county officials vowed to bolster staffing and retrain all officers tasked with performing wellness checks. Last week, the facility closed its “orientation mod,” typically reserved for new admissions, and combined male age groups to reduce the number of living units and provide heightened supervision.
The moves, including a new schedule, are expected to help prevent the undue cancellation of recreation, parent visits and other privileges to children in their custody.
“[Previous] staffing levels did not allow for all units to run programming simultaneously while having sufficient staff available to respond to incidents and emergencies in the building,” JDC Superintendent Dana Swayze wrote in a seven-page letter to state inspectors. “Programming is only cancelled on an as-needed basis based on the JDC’s ability to safely accommodate [it].”
In a Dec. 4 email to the County Board, Mary Ellen Heng, acting director of Hennepin’s Department of Community Corrections and Rehabilitation, assured elected officials that they had begun taking corrective actions but asserted that some of the report’s findings lacked context.
Heng pointed to a violation where teens were allegedly confined without cause, even when multiple correctional officers were sitting in a nearby office. She explained that, during the dates of the inspection earlier this fall, several officers observed in the office were still in training — and therefore not permitted to interact with the youths alone.
She also contended that while programming has been modified by staffing limitations, “this additional room time is not reflective of punishment, disciplinary techniques, or restrictive procedures.”
Tired of surging gun violence across St. Paul, community leaders and police are asking residents to help create a safer city.
The call for community support came Thursday night when officials from the St. Paul NAACP, St. Paul Police Department, Black Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and the African American Leadership Council gathered at Arlington Hills Lutheran Church to talk about ways to decrease gun violence in the city.
St. Paul has recorded 30 homicides so far this year according to a Star Tribune database, two fewer than last year. But four of this year’s homicides happened in the same week, frustrating law enforcement and alarming residents.
St. Paul NAACP President Richard Pittman Sr. said that solutions to gun violence are “right here, in the room.” But without the community’s help, Pittman said their efforts could fall short.
“Over the last several weeks and months, we have experienced an uptick in violent crimes in our communities. [That’s] turned on a light bulb that it’s time [to] not have the police feeling like all the pressure is on them,” Pittman said. “Nobody wants to the responsibility of having to shoot someone down in the street. Nobody wants the responsibility of hurting somebody’s family. We all want the best outcome.”
Attendee Carrie Johnson worried generational trauma is derailing youth’s behavior, adding that she’s seen boys in middle school punch girls in the face. Migdalia Baez said mothers living along Rice Street feel they have nowhere to turn for help in redirecting their children. Some worry that their child would be incarcerated if they ask for help.
Larry McPherson, a violence interrupter for 21 Days of Peace St. Paul, said some issues stem from youth with no guidance. McPherson and others patrol hot spots for crime across the city, including near the Midway neighborhood’s Kimball Court apartments where fentanyl drove a spike in robberies and drug violations.
“We’ve got a lot of mental health [struggles]. We’ve got a lot of doggone drug addiction that’s going on in our neighborhoods. We all got the best interests at hand for all people in our community, but we’re just not working fast enough,” McPherson said. “Until we get feet on the ground, people coming out of their own community and standing up for this real cause to take back the community, we’re going to have the same outcome.”
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