By Cam Gordon
The Minneapolis city council voted in June to end the effort to get a rent stabilization proposal on the ballot this year.
In narrow 5-4 vote, the council rejected sending an ordinance amendment forward into its committee process in order to meet the timeline to get it on the ballot in November. The vote was taken on June 28 and several council members, candidates and activists agree that the timing was poor.
Two relevant votes were taken at the meeting when three council members were absent. This included the authors of the proposed ordinance, Ward 10’s Aisha Chughtai and Ward 6’s Jamal Osman, as well as Ward 5 Council Member Jeremiah Ellison. The 28th was also this year’s date for the celebration of Eid al-Adha, a traditional Muslim holy day.
“As the three Muslim members of the Minneapolis City Council, we were observing Eid with our families and community when we learned of this news,” said the three council members in a joint statement after the meeting. “It is a common practice for council leadership to reschedule meetings that conflict with major holidays.”
Voting Procedure
The votes themselves were close. The first vote passed with six affirmative votes, which is less than a majority of the council, which is seven, but was a majority of the nine members in attendances. That vote defeated the motion to send the proposal through the committee process. The second vote was to “return it to author” and, according to the city clerk Casey Carl, is a motion to “postpones the item indefinitely.” That motion that Carl said “killed” that “item” was made by Linea Palmisano, and passed with only five votes with Ward 12 Council Member Andrew Johnson abstaining and Council Members Elliot Payne, Robin Wonsley, Jason Chavez, and Andrea Jenkins voting against return to author.
“I’m shocked right now. There’s three Muslim council members celebrating Eid with their families” said Chavez. “And this is notice of introduction being referred to committee and its not even the policy to be voted on.”
“We ought to be ashamed of ourselves as a body for not being able to govern and follow democratic norms,” said Payne.
Opposition To Framework 5 Model
Some council members, including Johnson and Ward 11’s Emily Koski, stressed that their opposition was tied to the fact that the proposal was aligned with a specific, often called “strong,” rent stabilization framework recommended by a work group appointed by the council and mayor last year.
“I do not support, and have never supported, a rent stabilization ordinance modeled after the framework 5 model proposed by the housing/rent stabilization work group with a 3% fixed rent increase cap, no adjustment for CPI [Consumer Price Index], vacancy control, no rent banking, no exemptions,” said Koski when asked about it after the meeting ended. “And, I never intended to, nor gave any indication that I intended to, support moving forward a rent stabilization ordinance modeled after the framework 5 model.”
The work group voted to recommend the so-called “framework 5” policies in December of 2022, and, in June of this year, the council approved a motion to draft a rent stabilization ordinance in line with those policies.
Several work group members who voted in support of framework 5, wrote an open letter to the council following the city council meeting on June 28. Kadra Abdi from the Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers, Jennifer Arnold of Inquilinxs Unidxs por Justicia, Maura Brown from The Alliance, Mary Kaczorek of Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, renter Rico Morales, landlord Yolanda Roth, Daniel Suitor of HOME Line, AsaleSol Young of Urban Homeworks, and José A. Zayas Cabán from Rente wrote, “This vote was Islamophobic, anti-democratic, and empty political gamesmanship. To leverage the faith of three council members against a policy disfavored by the mayor and some council members is an act of anti-Muslim bias.”
‘Take it to the ballot box’
Candidates for city council have also shared concerns.
“My understanding is that the exact date of Eid was determined 10 days prior to the June 28 holiday by a sighting of the moon according to Islamic law,” said Ward 12 candidate Luther Ranheim. “Why was that item not delayed to the following meeting, knowing that the three council members would be absent? Why did not one single council member, particularly the ones who said they were shocked and appalled that the vote took place, make a motion to table this item? Personally, I find it very difficult to believe that this meeting could not have been rescheduled or that this item could not have been moved to a future meeting.”
“I understand that there is often confusion on the date of Eid, and confusion this year led to a critical vote on rent stabilization authored by two Muslim members to be taken without them,” said the DFL endorsed candidate for Ward 12, Aurin Chowdhury. “The clerks did make a good-faith effort to accommodate the holiday, but unfortunately, that was not the outcome. The truly undemocratic part of the situation that we should all be concerned about, is that it could have been corrected in this meeting.”
“The negative outcome,” added Chowdhury, “is that constituents across the spectrum don’t feel that this move represented their values. Whether they support rent stabilization, are unsure, or oppose it – this was not the way to handle it. We need to grow trust in local government, not undermine it.”
The Home to Stay coalition also released a statement following the meeting. “We’re incredibly disappointed that this year’s path towards rent stabilization ended with today’s vote, especially with the way the vote happened,” they wrote.
While some focused on the disappointment with the delay, others, including Hone to Stay, are also looking to the future.
“Today was incredibly frustrating,” they wrote, “but our coalition won’t stop fighting until we win a policy that keeps Minneapolis families in our homes and our city truly becomes a place where all of our families can thrive.”
“Our sights are now set for 2024,” wrote Minneapolis United for Rent Control, another coalition supporting rent control. “To win, we need a movement of renters and supportive homeowners organized building by building and block by block. The Minneapolis City Council members who support strong rent control must use their positions to build a movement to overcome opposition from Mayor Frey and the conservative majority on the City Council.”
Chowdhury, who said she wants to “bridge the divide at city hall,” sees the delay as an opportunity for potential compromise.
“I have been clear on my position on rent stabilization. I support it as a common-sense renter’s protection to stop predatory rent hikes – that in some form as of 2019 over 182 municipalities have adopted. Predatory rent hikes do happen today in our city, and people are being displaced,” said Chowdhury. “I see that we have an opportunity in waiting because it gives us more time to weigh the different outcomes of different variations of rent stabilization and engage with stakeholders like impacted renters, small landlords, and the construction and trade unions whose members rely on housing development for jobs. Minneapolis residents and workers deserve for there to be an iterative discussion on the provisions of a rent stabilization policy.”
Others, including Koski, appear to see the end of the rent stabilization effort as a chance to focus on other strategies to address housing needs.
“Our city staff, our experts here at city hall, were abundantly clear on this matter: a rent stabilization policy would not effectively address the problem of renter cost-burden, because it does not target relief to those who are experiencing renter cost-burden,” she said. She is concerned that a rent stabilization ordinance could hurt efforts to build new housing. “We need to focus on supporting, and furthering our investment in, known effective strategies to relieve renter cost-burden, and a rent stabilization policy isn’t one of them,” she said.
The city council elections in November could change who is on the council and could make a difference.
“Take it to the ballot box,” said Ward 2 Council member Robin Wonsley at the June meeting. “Democracy has failed here.”
The work group members say that they “will not allow the events of June 28 to be forgotten as the debate over rent stabilization continues,” and “will continue to work to obtain the policy that the people of Minneapolis need and deserve.”
Mjquay
What concerns me about rent stabilization, after living in Manhattan for 20 years, is that from my personal experience, it leads to slum lords. In St Paul, when the 3% rent control was voted in 4 of the major builders were forced to withdraw plans to build because it killed financing. Within a couple of weeks, the mayor of St Paul announced a proposed budget with a 15% hike in taxes. That would give landlords a 12% gap in income. The budget was not approved.
If the city council wants to approve rent stabilization at 3%, would they require taxes to be limited to no more than a 3% hike? They don't seem to understand basic economics. Are the people who support stabilization homeowners or renters? Are they simply voting for their own interests, or for the good of the city? Right now Minneapolis has about a 6% vacancy rate, and growing. Are we overbuilding big apartment buildings that will have to charge more to balance their budgets by growing vacancy rates?
Thursday, August 10, 2023 Report this