Minneapolis rent control measure won’t be on the ballot 

Fallout over city council’s vote on rent stabilization on Muslim holiday  

On June 28, hopes for movement on rent control in Minneapolis were dashed for the rest of the year when the Minneapolis City Council voted 6-4 against a motion to introduce an ordinance to get rent stabilization on the ballot this fall.

Three city council members who supported the measure, Aisha Chughtai, Jamal Osman and Jeremiah Ellison, were absent on the day of the vote, which was on Eid al-Adha, one of the most important Muslim holidays.

Council Member Jason Chavez said he was “shocked” that the vote was not delayed. “This is just wrong, and it’s frustrating, and it makes me angry,” Chavez said. 

“Three Muslim council members can’t be here voting in favor of a policy they support. Two of the members authoring this rent stabilization policy didn’t vote because they’re spending time with their families celebrating Eid. That’s just wrong.”

City Clerk Casey Carl clarified that the calendar that placed this vote on Eid was adopted in Jan. 2022, a year before it was known what day Eid would fall on. Carl said he was informed of the scheduling conflict on June 26, but that it was too late to change, as state law requires three days to change the date of a council meeting. 

Council Member Andrea Jenkins, who voted in support of the measure, expressed frustration with the criticism she and the council have received over the vote taking place. Jenkins says that she would have brought up a vote to delay the motion if a delay had been requested, but that no council member had requested a delay.

“I’m really disappointed that my colleagues didn’t show up to support this measure,” Jenkins said. “I honestly thought they were going to, because apparently, this is a big issue for people, right? Everybody’s acting like they’re shocked and surprised and hurt and calling me names. How ridiculous is it to say this is somehow Islamophobic. I don’t even get it.

“There was no trickery,” Jenkins said. “There was no ill intent. There was no maliciousness in this.” 

Jenkins said she had hoped to get something on the ballot regarding rent control for Minneapolis voters this year. She said that while the council will continue to try to draft rent stabilization legislation, because there is not enough time to get anything on the ballot she will focus on universal basic income, home appliance efficiency, and construction and subsidization of public housing as ways to assist renters with housing affordability.

According to ApartmentList.com, Minneapolis rent growth in 2023 is pacing below last year. Six months into the year, rents in Minneapolis have risen 2.1 percent. This is a slower rate of growth compared to this point last year. From January to June 2022, rents increased 4.5 percent.

Council Member Ellison said the vote “felt like the biggest breach of trust” that he had experienced over his entire time on the city council. He released a joint statement with Chughtai and Osman condemning the vote.

“Regardless of where you fall on the issue, the way this vote was taken today violates the spirit of inclusion Minneapolis prides itself on,” the statement reads. “Muslims have been serving on the Minneapolis City Council for a decade now, and thousands of Muslims live in our city. Our holy days and celebrations are not unknown or mysterious.”

The Muslim council members’ joint statement suggested several ways they believe the city council should have proceeded in their absence.

“[Council leadership] could have scheduled the meeting to a later date. They could have delayed this item to the next full council meeting, giving us enough time to still meet the ballot deadline if that would’ve been the council’s will. Or, most importantly, given that this was only an introduction and not a finished policy, the Council could have simply advanced the policy to committee the way we do all other ordinance introductions,” the statement said.

Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), condemned the vote taking place on Eid, saying the vote being postponed would have been “easy, low-hanging fruit” that would support inclusivity on the city council.

“I felt like it was an opportunity to welcome inclusivity, and instead we didn’t see that,” Hussein said. “We saw politics being played on a religious holiday, which is not something we hoped for the City of Minneapolis to be engaging in.”

Hussein also criticized Council President Andrea Jenkins for saying that efforts were made to accommodate the Muslim council members, saying she “did not do the right thing. Regardless of the political tension over the issue, it raised another issue, which shows us that the lip service around inclusivity does not translate into action. And we saw that in this particular issue,” Hussein said. 

“It should have been a no-brainer. President Jenkins should have immediately recognized that today was a holiday and then recognized the fact that they had to table that. Their failure to do that does not fare well with the idea the city council respects and understands and promotes the religious diversity of the Muslim council members.”

Hussein said CAIR offers inclusivity training for organizations to learn how to better interact with and accommodate Muslim members and stakeholders and said he would like to offer the training to the Minneapolis City Council. Jenkins said she was open to having a conversation with CAIR about the training.

Council Members Chughtai and Osman did not respond to our request for comment for this story.