Rent control will be in effect in South Portland for at least the next seven years after the City Council’s 4-3 vote Tuesday to enact a rent stabilization ordinance.
A 10% cap on rent increases, enforced since June via an eviction moratorium, will now become semi-permanent. Taking effect May 27, in order to line up with the moratorium’s expiration date, the ordinance will expire on May 27, 2030, when a future council will decide whether to do away with it, extend it or recraft it.
City staff will not enforce the new law, leaving it up to tenants to use it as a legal defense if a landlord imposes a prohibited rent increase.
The ordinance applies to landlords who own 15 or more residential units and allows them to reset rents once a unit becomes vacant. It exempts new housing developments and existing units where the rent is controlled by the state or federal government.
The exemption of new development was considered vital by those wary of enacting rent control in the city, including Councilors Richard Matthews, Linda Cohen and Misha Pride, who voted against the ordinance Tuesday.
“I don’t think that this is going to solve the problem, particularly in a situation where people are having more problems besides just having their rent increased,” Cohen said. “This may help the Redbank renters and the renters out in District 5 this year, but next year (their rent) will go up 10%, and the next year 10%.” District 5 includes the area around Redbank and the Maine Mall area.
Rent control discussions in the city were sparked last year when the owner of Redbank Village Apartments imposed rent increases, in some cases as much as $598 per month, on its tenants.
“That used to be starter homes,” resident Russ Lunt said at Tuesday’s meeting, and now, young adults “can’t even touch a house.”
Pride said he sympathized with Redbank renters, having been one himself in the past, but was firm in his position.
“This ordinance is almost to a point where I can vote for it, but we have a housing supply problem,” he said. “(It) will have a chilling effect on development.”
Councilor Deqa Dhalac, who voted for the ordinance along with Mayor Kate Lewis and Councilors Natalie West and Jocelyn Leighton, said the residents of South Portland need rent control.
“I work with folks who were making a choice whether to pay for food or for rent – because of that, I am supportive of this,” Dhalac said. “We are here, at the end of the day, to protect our citizens.”
Matthews said unintended consequences of rent control will “outweigh the short-term solution.”
Lewis said she is comfortable with the ordinance because of its exemptions, sunset clause and other provisions, including allowing landlords to reset rent when a unit becomes vacant.
“I feel very confident that we have thought through those and made adjustments,” she said.
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