(As of 4.21.21 there is pending litigation on this program.)
In 2017, the City of Saint Paul developed a Fair Housing Work Group to outline potential pathways for the city to advance fair housing. The Fair Housing Work Group identified goals to create the infrastructure needed to support policy and strategy work around changing the fair housing landscape in Saint Paul. In 2018, the city council reaffirmed their commitment to housing through resolution; identifying and prioritizing fair housing initiatives. In 2019, Mayor Melvin Carter launched the Office of Financial Empowerment (OFE), including the creation of a Fair Housing Coordinator position to hold this body of work.
The Office of Financial Empowerment’s approach to fair housing is rooted in racial equity and economic justice while focusing on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), the piece of the act that calls us to take meaningful action to undo the deeply rooted impacts of racism, discrimination, restrictive covenants and people of color being blocked from building wealth through homeownership. Saint Paul is a majority renter city with people of color and residents from low wealth backgrounds being disproportionately representative of our renter demographic. This work recognizes the deep correlations between race, poverty and housing stability.
In 2019, OFE led and participated in a series of stakeholder engagement sessions to identify, prioritize and develop policy solutions to the housing needs. In concert with community, the City of Saint Paul passed a historic fair housing policy agenda in the summer of 2020. The S.A.F.E. Housing Tenant Protections are a set of five stable, accessible, fair, and equitable policies geared at increasing housing access, decreasing housing displacement and affirmatively furthering fair housing. The agenda includes:
Tenant Rights and Responsibilities Information: The Tenant Rights and Responsibilities Information policy ensures tenants and landlords know their rights, responsibilities, and what resources are available to them. The City will make a packet and poster available in multiple languages online with this information.
Security Deposit Limit: The Security Deposit Limitation policy ensures equitable access to housing by ensuring tenants will not be required to pay more than a single month’s rent as a security deposit. It also includes a prepaid rent limitation that ensures tenants will not be required to pre-pay more than one month’s rent at move-in.
Tenant Screening Guidelines: The Tenant Screening Guidelines policy ensures fair access to housing by creating uniform screening criteria guidelines for applicants related to the use of rental, criminal and credit history.
Just Cause Notice: The Just Cause Notice policy increases housing stability by ensuring landlords provide just cause for nonrenewal of lease or termination of tenancy at the time notice is given. The policy includes just causes related to tenancy issues like nonpayment of rent or breach of lease, as well as changes to the use of the property like an owner or family member choosing to occupy the unit.
Advance Notice of Sale: The Advance Notice of Sale policy supports the preservation of affordable housing and addresses displacement pressures faced by tenants. It ensures that a notice of a proposed sale be provided to the City and tenant before an affordable property is placed on the market as well as after the transfer of ownership occurs, coupled with a tenant protection period after the sale.
S.A.F.E. Housing Saint Paul takes effect on March 1, 2021
Key learnings:
The best policy is developed when we have broad stakeholder engagement. Creating a shared understanding of the goals, values and intent helps to foster meaningful input and supports a coordinated approach spanning multiple sectors positioned at the intersections of unsheltered, reentry, supportive service, education, and economic development work. A strong fair housing policy framework that protects tenants’ rights, removes barriers to accessing and maintaining housing, and deepens the relationship with housing providers as an asset to our community is essential to building an inclusive city that will eliminate structural inequities in city processes and policies.
Other details:
The City of Saint Paul formed a Tenant Protections Implementation Committee (TPIC). The TPIC will function as an ad hoc committee convened to support outreach, education and engagement related to the implementation of S.A.F.E. Housing Saint Paul ahead of the March 1, 2021 effective date.
For more information contact Kirstin Burch, Fair Housing Coordinator, Kirstin.Burch@ci.saintpaul.mn.us.
S.A.F.E. Housing web site: https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/mayors-office/safe-housing