Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey vetoed an ordinance on Wednesday, March 11, that would have given tenants more time to catch up on rent payments before their landlord files an eviction case against them.
The ordinance, which was passed by the City Council last week, would have temporarily extended the pre-eviction filing notice period from 30 to 60 days. Council members passed the ordinance on a 7-5 vote. Those who support the ordinance say that it would help immigrants who have been sheltering at home during Operation Metro Surge and others whose jobs have been impacted by the federal operation and are struggling to pay rent.
Frey announced Wednesday that he is proposing to allocate an additional $1 million in rental assistance for those affected, but said he could not support the ordinance. He said after seeing the aftereffects of the eviction moratorium from the COVID-19 pandemic, he couldn’t support evictions being paused again.
”Emergency rental assistance enables people to pay the rent, it keeps them in their home, it prevents them from incurring a ton of debt, putting them in a hole that they would not be able to pull themselves out from,” Frey told Sahan Journal. “And we’ve seen that these more broad-based eviction moratoriums, freezes, pauses, don’t work.”
At a news conference Monday, council members and housing advocates urged Frey to not veto the ordinance, arguing that without the measure, more residents would be pushed into homelessness.
Council Member Jamal Osman said at the news conference that while he commends Frey for standing up against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and telling federal agents to leave the city, he thinks the mayor also needs to take specific steps to help immigrants.
“This is the actual work we expect him to sign, and it will be fairly disappointing to me and many immigrants if he vetoed this,” Osman said.
Earlier this year, the City Council had asked Gov. Tim Walz to issue a statewide eviction moratorium, as he did during the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile Minneapolis council members say they have been doing what they can to prevent more evictions, including allocating $1 million in rental assistance.
A recent city of Minneapolis report found that $15 million is needed in rental assistance just in the month of January.
“Mayor Frey’s veto was with full knowledge that current resources for rental assistance are significantly insufficient to address the need,” Several council members, including Robin Wonsley who authored the ordinance, said in a joint statement Wednesday.
Eric Hauge, co-executive director of HOMELine, which provides free legal help to renters, said that eviction proceedings in Hennepin County take place at housing court in the Hennepin County Government Center, where several ICE arrests have taken place. He said some immigrants may be too fearful to come in and fight their evictions.
“This is not a safe place while the federal government continues to monitor and infiltrate our shared public spaces,” he said.
He added that having an eviction on someone’s record can affect their future housing stability.
Several housing providers and nonprofits released statements expressing concern about pausing evictions.
“We know that more time only creates more debt for our residents — the only solution to the crisis we are in is direct and rapid-response emergency rental assistance,” Jamie Verbrugge, president and CEO of Catholic Charities Twin Cities, said in a statement.
Frey said emergency rental assistance is a more direct way to help impacted tenants and that he hopes people can access it quickly. The Wilson Foundation has also agreed to match the $1 million Frey wants to allocate. The City Council still needs to approve Frey’s proposal.
If the eviction ordinance had passed, Minneapolis would have been the first city in the state to increase the notice period to 60 days. But others in Minnesota are also advocating for changes.
In St. Paul, council members are also proposing extending the pre-eviction notice period to 60 days. A public hearing was scheduled on the proposed ordinance Wednesday afternoon.
DFL legislators have also introduced bills this session that aim to help renters impacted by Operation Metro Surge, including those that would allocate millions of dollars in rental assistance and bills that would create more eviction protections for tenants. But in a divided Legislature, the bills have faced pushback from Republicans. This week, legislators who represent Minneapolis urged Frey in a letter to not veto the ordinance.
Council members could vote to override Frey’s veto, but they would need nine votes to do so.
