St. Paul’s Rent Control Relaxed In Response to Development Downturn

Ward 3 City Council member Saura Jost voted in favor of the St. Paul rent stabilization referendum when it was on the ballot in 2021. She even canvased for it.

“I felt that I shared the same values of folks that were really pushing for it. I felt that we needed to find ways to keep renters in their homes,” Jost said this week.

Now the first-term council member is the lead author of an ordinance that would permanently exempt any properties built after 2004 from the measure. This amendment comes amid a dramatic downturn in housing production since rent control was implemented in the city, though Jost said this decrease isn’t exclusively because of rent control.

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