With the goal of reversing a slowdown in housing production, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter’s budget proposal calls for eliminating the rent control limits approved by city voters in 2021, but only for properties constructed after 2004. The mayor said Tuesday as much as 95% of the city’s rental housing stock would still be covered by the 3% rent cap.

Hwa Jeong Kim (Courtesy photo)

Most members of the city council say they’ll need more time to delve into the particulars before determining how they’ll vote on a possible ordinance amendment — though Council Member HwaJeong Kim was not one of them.

Kim on Tuesday was the only council member to call herself a “hard no” on the proposed rent control changes.

“We shouldn’t be weakening our rent stabilization ordinances,” she said. “We should be strengthening it and returning it back to what the voters passed.”

“The voters in St. Paul were clear with what they wanted with rent stabilization and hearing that the mayor wants to weaken the ordinance is very disheartening,” added Kim, the council’s vice president, following the mayor’s 2025 budget forecast at the downtown Ordway Center. “My hope and goal is that the council delivers on a budget that’s not only better, but represents the wants and needs of the constituency.”

Changes to rent control

Carter, who unveiled his $855 million budget proposal on Tuesday alongside a proposed 7.9% tax levy increase, said he’d like to see the council vote on the proposed rent control changes by the end of the year, at the same time they adopt an annual budget that paves the way for a “portfolio” of housing measures.

Those measures would include $1 million in homelessness initiatives through Catholic Charities and Heading Home Ramsey, new tenant protections and an expanded “Inheritance Fund” homebuyer program that includes the West Side Flats.

Mitra Jalali. (Courtesy of the candidate)

Council President Mitra Jalali said the budget proposal, overall, “reflects many priorities we’ve championed and collaborated with the administration on,” as well as some areas “for further questions that we will deliberate together in the coming months. … Our council is committed to upholding rent stabilization.”

Any changes to rent control, Jalali said, would require “a careful review of all evidence in its implementation to date.”

Calling housing “a very critical need (that) requires a comprehensive approach,” Council Member Anika Bowie said “we need some time to talk to our constituents, and also talk with our colleagues, around just what is a strong, safer housing policy that’s going to protect tenants but also open up opportunities for people to produce housing.”

Anika Bowie (Courtesy photo)

“One of the things that stuck out was removing the barriers (into housing posed by) criminal backgrounds,” Bowie added. “I’m really interested in bringing forth a policy that is going to be restorative and gives people a second chance to live in St. Paul.”

Nelsie Yang. (Courtesy of the City of St. Paul)

Council Member Nelsie Yang said she needed time to include more renters in the conversation around rent control.

“It’s my first time hearing about it, so what’s really important to me is hearing from our community members, especially people who are most impacted by the policies that we pass, or the policies that we don’t pass,” Yang said.

Council Member Rebecca Noecker, who chairs the city’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority, said while it was no “secret that rent stabilization has had problems,” she wanted to see more hard data that specifically links a slowdown in residential real estate development to the city’s rent control policy.

Rebecca Noecker
Cheniqua Johnson. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Council Member Cheniqua Johnson has previously criticized a 20-year rolling exemption to rent control for new construction, which was approved by the previous city council. “I wasn’t supportive of that change,” she said, though she said she would take her time to read through the mayor’s budget proposal and “hear the fine details.”

Johnson said she had hoped for “a more conservative” tax levy increase than 7.9%.

Council Member Saura Jost she looked forward to diving into the budget details.

“I think it’s been a challenging year and a lot of tough decisions needed to be made,” Jost said, “but I think there were a few bright spots regarding climate action and our Inheritance Fund. Those are really exciting. I’m looking forward to working on those.”

Saura Jost (Courtesy photo)

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