Minneapolis City Council Receives Tenant Protection Study

Last fall the Minneapolis City Council asked city staffers to research national and local metropolitan policies around tenant protection including pre-eviction notification, anti-displacement policies and reconsideration of applications.

On Tuesday, the staff submitted their findings to the council.

Some of the policies covered by the report should be familiar. Like Tenant Opportunity to Purchase (TOPA). Should it ever become policy, it would require housing providers to offer their tenants the right of first refusal on the sale of the property, the chance to meet any offers the owner may get from a third party, and the right to assign their rights to buy the property to a third party.

Also studied was the possible expansion of the city’s ReLo program. As it currently stands, the program requires relocation assistance be paid when a rental license is denied, cancelled or revoked. City staff members researched three other cities where housing providers are required to pay relocation assistance to tenants any time rent goes up 10 percent or more.

Staffers also researched ways to keep corporate owners of single-family homes used as rentals. According to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, these properties tend to be concentrated in areas populated by Black and Indigenous residents.

If you’re a Minneapolis housing provider, there is no reason to panic. The city council will review staff’s findings and decide to whether to move forward with something from there. While I haven’t yet read the report, it’s important to remember when the council asked staff to study rent control last year, their research and subsequent rent control report found it was a bad policy.

We’ve heard little to nothing from the council around rent control since.