MICAH St. Paul Legislative Breakfast & News
The St. Paul Chapter had an excellent Legislative Breakfast on the morning of February 12. With over 80 people attending, and over 12 elected officials, we had a thorough and engaging discussion of MICAH’s upcoming policy agenda. At the State level, Representative Alice Hausman is again seeing through some of the most important and far-reaching policy proposals as the chair of the Housing Committee. Our Lead Safe Homes bill got wide support from electeds and our assembled faith leaders.
Ramsey County Commissioner and Board Chair, Toni Carter, also spoke about the work that the County has done in stepping up to serve the homeless impacted by COVID. City Councilperson Nelsie Yang called out the racist structures that we have to deal with to achieve housing justice, and the plight of people in homeless camps who are being evicted despite an eviction moratorium.
At the end of the meeting, we called on Senator Rich Draheim of the Senate Housing Committee to hear our Lead Safe bill, and Mayor Melvin Carter to stop evicting homeless camps.
March 1st was the day that the SAFE Tenant Protections went into force, a victory for renters and people of color.
The five policies of SAFE protect renters:
from the sudden distress of building sales with a 90-day notice of sale.
from unjust screening with a list of allowed and disallowed screening options.
from double and triple damage deposits.
by requiring rental property managers to provide a just cause, in writing, if they are not renewed at the end of their lease terms.
by informing renters of their rights.
This just cause protection, the most advanced in the state, will increase housing stability and prevent many abuses. Landlords in a meeting said they needed to not renew “renters that we know are dealing drugs,” or “someone who could be violent (and was black and female)” which are all unproven, racially biased reasons.
The Rent Stabilization campaign promoted by Housing Equity Now St. Paul (HENS) went live with its website on March 1. Renters Belong in St. Paul! is the proclamation on the website, www.housingequitystp.org, and this kicks off the campaign to put rent stabilization on the ballot in St. Paul in November. The campaign will need 10,000 signatures by June 15 of St. Paul voters to get on the ballot, and then win a majority in November 2021.
The St. Paul Chapter continues to meet monthly on the third Thursday of the month at 5PM. The next few meetings are March 18, April 15, and May 20. Contact for Zoom meeting link: slade@micah.org
If you would like to learn more about our Legislative Breakfast from Feb. 12th, 2021 we have: video of the online event (1hr, 31mn) and the slideshow presentation (pdf)