Minneapolis Election Results May Slow Rent Control

Thirty-eight votes.

That was the margin the Minneapolis City Council President Andrea Jenkins won re-election by.

That’s important because in the most recent election progressive city council candidates, who largely favor rent control, won 7 seats.

Most of those progressives favor the city enacting a strict rent control policy including a hard cap of 3% annual increases. Mayor Frey has promised to veto any rent control measure the council puts before him.

To override a mayor’s veto, 9 of the council’s 13 members must vote to do so.

In other words, the most restrictive rent control policy possible, which would have to achieve a veto override to appear on the ballot, doesn’t seem to have a path forward until at least the next council election in 2025.

Of course, that doesn’t mean something less restrictive couldn’t be proposed.

At least one of the newly elected progressive candidates, Katie Cashman, who won in the Seventh Ward, believes the path to more affordable housing should be solved by increasing supply rather than capping rent.

Jenkins is entitled to a publicly-funded recount. That could change the outcome of the election.

For now, however, the threat of rent control has diminished slightly thanks to the 38 people whose votes made a difference in Ward 8.