The St. Paul City Council voted 7-0 on Wednesday to approve a series of residential tenant protections considered to be among the most aggressive in the country.
“It’s traveled a very long journey, and I believe it couldn’t have come at a more important time,” said Council Member Mitra Jalali, a lead author of the ordinance, who noted the pandemic left many renters especially vulnerable.
Among its provisions, the wide-ranging ordinance requires landlords in the renter-majority city to justify in writing why they have chosen not to renew a tenant’s lease.
The S.A.F.E. Housing in St. Paul initiative also limits move-in costs to first month’s rent and an equivalent security deposit, and requires 90 days notice to tenants before an affordable home — be it a single-family structure or multi-family building — is sold to a market-rate developer.
“This housing agenda will ensure stability for all St. Paul renters, especially for black, brown, Asian, Latino, indigenous … renters across our city,” Jalali said.
Jalali said the tenant protections were the result of housing discussions that began in 2017, under the administration of then-Mayor Chris Coleman, and continued under Mayor Melvin Carter hand-in-hand with a raft of neighborhood housing advocates.
The housing initiative even played a role in the creation of a new city office. Kirstin Burch, the city’s Fair Housing Coordinator, joined Carter’s new Office of Financial Empowerment in 2019.
Carter on Wednesday issued the following written statement: “The council’s unanimous vote today on our Tenant Protections Ordinance sends a strong message that stable, accessible, fair and equitable housing is a core value in our community.”
‘JUST CAUSE’ PROVISIONS AND MORE
Landlords and realtor’s associations had previously called on the council to put the effort on hold for further study, but housing advocates pointed out that the package had been unveiled in March, with a final vote delayed for months due to the pandemic.
Given the economic downturn’s impact on landlords, Council Member Jane Prince expressed concern in recent weeks about the timing of the package.
“I regret we were not able to get landlords, tenants and advocates in a room to hammer out equitable solutions together,” Prince said on Wednesday.
While not unprecedented, the “just cause” requirement limiting reasons why landlords can decline to renew tenant leases has only been adopted by a handful of other cities nationally and the state of New Jersey. The Minneapolis City Council did not include “just cause” in the tenant protection package it approved last fall.
Additional provisions limit the types of credit reporting and criminal history that can be used as a basis to deny a prospective tenant an apartment. The maximum look-back period for felonies, for instance, would be seven to 10 years.
Under the ordinance, landlords cannot take petty misdemeanors and crimes that did not result in convictions into account at all.
NOT SET IN STONE
Some landlords had predicted the ordinance would backfire and inspire small local landlords to sell their affordable properties to national and international companies, reducing the amount of accessible or affordable housing in the city.
Council Member Chris Tolbert called for the council to monitor the ordinance’s impact on the housing market moving forward.
“There are things in here I do have disagreement with, but as a whole I will be supporting this,” said Tolbert, before the vote. “I don’t think any ordinance should be in stone. … There are things I will be watching very closely.”
Among five major provisions:
INFORMATION PACKET
Tenants must be provided an information packet that spells out the obligations of tenants and landlords, including plain language on state statutes and tenant resources.
SECURITY DEPOSITS
Move-in costs will be limited to first month’s rent and a security deposit equivalent to no more than one month’s rent. Landlords can request a higher security deposit as collateral from a renter who would otherwise not qualify for an apartment.
CREDIT HISTORY
Credit scores and insufficient rental and credit history can no longer be used as evidence for denial, though a landlord may still pull copies of credit reports.
EVICTIONS AND CRIMINAL HISTORY
A landlord may look back within a renter’s history no more than three years for evidence of evictions.
When examining criminal histories, the maximum look-back period for misdemeanors is three years, and for felonies is seven to 10 years.
Petty misdemeanors, crimes that are no longer illegal in Minnesota or arrests or charges that did not result in convictions cannot be used as a basis to deny housing.
JUST CAUSE: LEASE NON-RENEWALS EXPLAINED IN WRITING
A “just cause” provision requires landlords to specify in writing why they have chosen not to renew a tenant’s lease.
The provision lays out 10 allowable causes for non-renewal, including failure to pay rent, late payment of rent, exceeding occupancy limits, occupancy conditioned on employment, demolition, a government order to vacate or a building rehab.
ADVANCE NOTICE OF SALE
Landlords will be required to give tenants of affordable units advance notice 90 days before a property sale. Within the first 90 days after a sale, a rent hike or another activity that might displace tenants would require landlords to pay rental or relocation assistance. The provision applies to all affordable rentals, from single-family homes to multi-family apartment buildings.