Rent control hasn’t worked anywhere, and that won’t change with Minneapolis

It is quite concerning that this has to be said so many times, but there is nowhere in the world where rent control has produced positive results. Rent control has always, in some form or another, negatively impacted the housing supply. St. Paul is real-time evidence of this very phenomenon.

But what is perhaps more concerning is the fact that despite what has happened in St. Paul after the passage of the City’s strict rent control policy — like falling housing permits — the Minneapolis Rent Stabilization Work Group is hell-bent on pushing the same policy in Minneapolis.

Not to say that less strict rent control would work better for Minneapolis. As American Experiment research has shown,

 …numerous other cities have had rent control policies much less stringent than St. Paul’s, and even those laws were abandoned due to the negative outcomes.

St. Paul should be a lesson

But it has only been a year since St. Paul voted for rent control and only half a year since the policy became effective. However, St. Paul has already made changes to its policy to make it more accommodating. That should be a lesson enough for the members of the Minneapolis City Council not to follow in the same footsteps.

Nevertheless, evidence from the US and all around the globe is clear that rent control — whether strict or not — doesn’t effectively address housing affordability. That is not going to change with Minneapolis.