Disastrous Minneapolis rent control proposal moving forward

Last Friday, the Minneapolis city council voted on two rent control proposals.

The first proposal gives the city council legal authority to enact a rent control policy. Minneapolis residents will have the final vote on the ballot this year.

The second proposal, which is a citizen-led initiative, changes the law to

allow city residents to gather signatures on petitions for rent control policies, which could then either be enacted by ordinance by the council or put before voters on their ballots.”

Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed this ordinance. However, it could still proceed if the city council gets the 9 votes necessary to override the veto.

Whether Minneapolis residents will approve the ballot measure and allow the city to enact rent control is yet to be seen. But rent control initiatives have gained a lot of traction in recent months, which is in itself, concerning.

Rent control is a disastrous policy that has no proven long-term benefits. If approved, it will likely only worsen the affordable housing crisis in Minneapolis. As American Experiment research has shown,

Rent control is a failed idea; research agrees. For one, it disincentivizes investing in the maintenance of existing housing units. It also discourages the production of new housing rentals. Consequently,  in the long rent control hurts low-income individuals by restricting the housing supply. In short, rent control does more harm than good.

Even Mayor Jacob Frey agrees that rent control merely

disadvantages future renters and does not help make housing affordable beyond those individual units.

Residents of Minneapolis should keep this in mind come election time in the fall.