St. Paul renters are speaking out over possible exemptions to the city's rent control laws that they say would go against the will of the voters.
On Wednesday, the St. Paul City Council will hold a public hearing on new exemptions that have been added to the city's rent control measure. But, a group of St. Paul renters is taking issue with several of the latest additions.
The top concern is an exemption for affordable housing units, allowing developers to increase rents above the 3% cap for Section 42 housing.
Advocates like Janae Bates say that's hurting the exact renters that this policy was created to protect.
Bates said the exemption "is the equivalent of saying 'We are going to offer everyone food unless you are actually hungry.'"
Stephanie Ericcson Hunter, 68, lives in an affordable housing unit owned by Dominium and says she's already getting charged above the 3% cap because of a qualifier in the law, which allows landlords to "self-certify" necessary increases between 3-8% without a formal review hearing.
"My rent just went up 7.9%, and where that puts me is, I can't afford to live here, and I can't afford to move," Ericsson Hunter said.
Now, the exemption could cause those increases to jump even higher. Dominium has raised rent by 12.5% in other parts of the metro area, citing inflation, property taxes, and uncollected rent.
But people like Ericsson Hunter are just asking for city officials to "listen" to them.
"To have our mayor and council people go in and do this exception by fine print is really horrible," Ericsson Hunter said.
Advocates are also pushing back on an exemption for the construction of new buildings. Currently, the measure exempts those buildings for 15 years, but a newly proposed amendment would extend that to 20 years.
Arlene Datu says that goes directly against the rent control worker group that Mayor Melvin Carter put together to help implement the measure that voters later approved.
"The consensus decision was that the new construction exemption be 15 years," Datu said. "Now, to see that the city council is proposing that the extension go to 20 years really flies in the face of what Mayor Carter wanted and what the task force labored many hours to agree upon."
The same goes for the affordable housing exemption, which was not recommended by the working group that included landlords and tenants alike.
Advocates are encouraging St. Paul renters to come to the public hearing, which will be held in city council chambers at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
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