St. Paul voters to consider rental repair protections in ballot measure

A proposal in St. Paul would let renters make certain fixes without waiting for their landlord to take action.

Safe Homes Saint Paul collected thousands of signatures to place a question on the ballot.

It asks whether residents support an ordinance to let tenants make repairs after a written notice to their landlord and deduct the amount to pay for it. The cost can’t exceed $500 or half a month’s rent.

“We have rental horror stories,” said Cole Hanson, coordinator with Safe Homes Saint Paul. “And the same story, which is, ‘I reached out to my landlord about this thing, a broken fixture or a broken faucet, and they don’t get back to me, or they don’t give me a timeline of when to expect a fix. And a fix may come, but it could be weeks or months.’”

St. Paul is a majority renter city, which means a variety of households would be affected by the propose...