The three small apartment buildings along the 900 block of Ashland Avenue date to the early 1900s, and tenants and housing advocates say living conditions there show it, even from the outside.

They’ve pointed to deteriorating foundations, water leaks, wobbly decks and open electrical covers. They’ve complained of broken locks, low water pressure, heavy mold, insects, mice and double-hung windows that cannot be locked and slide open from the top on their own.

”I signed a lease to live here, and there’s rights that come with that lease, and those rights are not being met,” said Lillian Johnson, who has lived at the property for about a year.

So residents of the 12 units were taken aback when they received notice that their rents — which range from $875 for a two-bedroom basement unit to $1,600 for a three-bedroom apartment — would soon go up by more than 28%, despite the protections offered by the city’s rent control ordinance.Then came news that the center duplex would see an additional rent increase due to electrical rewiring and other capital improvements, bringing the total rent hike for those two apartments to about 50%.

In 2021, city residents voted to cap annual residential rent increases at 3%, but the rules allow landlords to self-certify higher rents after accounting for construction, property taxes and other expenses.

‘A fair return on investment’

Scott Day, son of property owner Judith Day, said his mom bought the buildings in 1998 after living in them herself for three years and marrying the maintenance man. She became fast friends with many of her tenants over the decades, but is now 87-years-old, suffers dementia and uses a wheelchair.

He said Thursday he was learning of alleged code violations for the first time, and that expenses were adding up.

“I will do everything in my power to resolve whatever problems my tenants have,” said Scott Day, during a rent increase appeal hearing at City Hall.

“My mom had never gone through this process before,” he added, noting he’s planning to install a $23,000 boiler to one of the buildings. “It just came down to the necessity of numbers. One right we do have as landlords is a fair return on investment, and we haven’t been getting that.”

Rent control appeal hearing

The tenants fighting their rent increases were represented by the St. Paul-based Housing Justice Center before the city’s legislative hearing officer on Thursday afternoon in individual hearings, held one by one, unit by unit. Their attorneys said city officials have made clear through past decisions that a ruling impacting one apartment does not necessarily apply to every unit in a building, and each case must be taken up separately.

The tenants, through their attorneys, have pointed to language in the city’s rent stabilization ordinance that protect lease-holders from large rent hikes if a building has serious habitability issues.

In addition to cracked walls and visible holes in the ceiling, tenant Chloe Cable testified Thursday that a smoke detector near her bedroom had expired, and she discovered through testing that six of the eight electrical outlets in her apartment were not grounded, even though they have three prongs.

The tenants hired John Trostle, a housing inspections consultant, to conduct walk-throughs and document concerns.

“There’s deferred maintenance,” said Trostle, pointing to water seepage, “pretty serious” laundry room and bathroom mold, and foundation issues during the public appeal hearing.

”There’s a wooden balcony. It’s very shaky. If you had several people on there at once … this thing could collapse,” he said. “The buildings were suffering from pretty severe settling issues.”

The two duplex units — one occupied by families with children — were not vacated during the recent electrical rewiring work, despite potential hazards associated with lead paint and asbestos, said Jim Poradek, an attorney with the Housing Justice Center.

“Unless it’s proven otherwise, paint of a certain age is presumed to have lead,” Poradek said. “That’s federal law. It’s a well-known hazard that’s taken seriously by the industry.”

City staff certified 28% rent increase

Scott Day has maintained that physical improvements, property tax increases and other operating expenses — as well as an increase in the number of tenants — necessitated rent hikes much greater than 3%, as allowed under the city’s rent control ordinance.

City staff examined his rent rolls and other financial documents and informed tenants through letters issued in April and May that the rent increases would be granted.

The three attorneys from the Housing Justice Center — Poradek, Emily Curran and Abbie Hanson — noted that exceptions to the city’s rent control ordinance are only supposed to kick in if a property has been kept up to “minimal maintenance and habitability standards” and that “a landlord promises to follow federal, state and local health and safety code.”

The attorneys were able to provide legislative hearing officer Marcia Moermond videos of recent basement flooding, as well as a list of possible city fire and property maintenance code violations.

“Those were and are being violated,” Hanson said. “There’s water infiltration. There’s mold. There’s locks that don’t work. There’s fridges without consistent temperature regulation. … The list goes on. … Many of the things at these properties are not in reasonable repair.”

Later in the hearing, Scott Day told Moermond he respected the right of tenants to have due process, but as a landlord, his mother also has rights.

“Communication is key,” said Scott Day. “I can’t see through walls. … I don’t want my tenants feeling unsafe. We’re not monsters. Just tell me what the problem is. They went directly to the city first.”

No previous complaints

City staff have noted they had not previously received any formal complaints of fire code violations and there were no open inspections cases involving the properties.

“These aren’t yet investigated. They haven’t been given to the department” of Safety and Inspections, Moermond told the attorneys on Thursday.

Moermond asked Trostle if he considered the properties uninhabitable, and he responded he would not go that far, though the wobbly deck alone could be “catastrophic.”

The St. Paul City Council will have final say over the appeals, based in part on Moermond’s recommendation. She said she expected any additional written materials to be shared with her office by early August, paving the way for a hearing before the council on Sept. 10.

Appeals can take a while

In a phone interview this week, Poradek and Hanson noted the city has a previous track record of rescheduling rent control appeals and sitting on them for months. They pointed to a similar case, where Sumeya Mohamed, the occupant of a Winthrop Street apartment building on the city’s East Side, fought a 26% rent increase.

The legislative hearing officer took that case under advisement in August 2023, not delivering a recommendation to the city council until the summer of 2024.

In August 2024, the city council unanimously sided with Mohamed. By then, she and her family had already moved out.