Minneapolis renters voice their frustration over online pay requirements

A Minneapolis City Council member is looking at a change that would prohibit landlords from requiring rental payments be made online only.

The move comes after tenants of buildings managed by QT Properties protested a recently enforced rule that renters say requires them to make rent payments online, which can be a barrier for low-income residents without computers or Internet access.

"This is a very concerning issue," said Council Member Elizabeth Glidden, who is working with a group of Lyndale neighborhood renters mobilizing to highlight their issues. "I know there are a lot of people who are unbanked in our city, and I know there are a lot … who do not own a computer."

Glidden said she is still researching the problem but hopes to have a proposal for council members to consider in coming weeks.

The change would come as city officials have taken new steps to hold problematic landlords accountable, such as new tiered rental license fees that increase for landlords with a history of police calls and inspection violations. The city also has a tracking system to better monitor the city's more than 23,000 rental properties.

"For so long, it's been [home] owners that have been heard," said Natasha Villanueva, a member of the neighborhood's association. "I hope people will start treating renters with the same respect because it's their home, too, even if they're renting it."

Glidden said city staffers are increasingly being called in to intervene in tenants' disputes with landlords.

Another heated debate is playing out in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, where Riverside Plaza occupants, many of whom are of Somali descent, say broken elevators and poor security are making the complex unsafe.

In the past week, renters held a rally to express their frustration with living conditions, parking availability and last-minute rental rule changes by QT Properties.

"We're tired of being disrespected," resident Eli Franco Itzep, 32, said through an interpreter at a rally alongside more than two dozen tenants.

Carrying signs that read, "We just want respect," and chanting in Spanish and English, "We shall not be moved!" the demonstrators of all ages stood on the QT Properties' Uptown office's lawn. The protesters were pleading for a face-to-face conversation with a company representative, though their efforts were unsuccessful.

Franco Itzep's frustration with QT Properties has been growing since the management company took over his building last year. Hours before the recent rally, he returned to his Pleasant Avenue apartment complex to find both of his cars towed from a place he said the property owners guaranteed him parking. Franco Itzep waved a copy of his leasing and parking agreement to prove his case, calling it "the tipping point."

Midcontract changes are the root of most of the tenants' frustration. Earlier this year, two residents challenged QT Properties in a housing court after the company changed its parking guidelines before their old contract expired. The judge ruled in the tenants' favor.

"We can't continue to be silent," Franco Itzep said.