Senate passes housing omnibus after heated debate over cap on rent increases for some tax-credit projects

Saint Paul — The Minnesota Senate on April 22 passed an omnibus housing and homelessness bill after a prolonged floor debate over a targeted limit on rent increases for some federally tax‑credited properties.

Senate File 2298, the Omnibus Housing and Homelessness Prevention Policy and Appropriations Bill, was carried on the floor by Senator Port. The chamber adopted an amendment offered by Senator Abler that supporters described as narrowly aimed at projects that received federal low‑income housing tax credits and that opponents called rent control. The amendment passed on a roll call, 38‑26. The bill’s final passage later passed 40‑24.

The amendment adopted as A22 would limit annual rent increases for properties awarded federal tax credits to a formula described on the floor as “the lower of area median income or the Consumer Price Index,” according to Senator Abler’s explanation on the floor. Abler said the change was intended to give “a thimbleful of relief” to seniors and other residents in regulated affordable housing who she said have seen rents rise faster than incomes.

Senator Port, the bill author, framed the overall package as a mix of homelessness prevention, workforce housing support for Greater Minnesota and programs to help first‑time buyers. “The cost of housing is higher than ever in Minnesota,” Port told the chamber when she introduced the bill, and she described investments in…