The nation's harshest rent control law has become less so after the city council of St. Paul, Minnesota, approved a slew of moderating reforms to a voter-passed ordinance that had initially capped rent increases at 3 percent—no ifs, ands, or buts.
The severity of St. Paul's rent cap saw new building permit applications plunge and developers freeze in-progress housing projects, totaling thousands of units, as their financing partners skipped town. Landlords hiked rents in anticipation of the coming 3 percent cap or started adding separate fees for utilities and trash pickup.
