Seniors Protest Rent Increase | Anoka

Dominium tenants took to the corner of Northwest Blvd. to picket Dominium Headquarters in Plymouth during their 50th Anniversary.

Tenants from Dominium properties across the Twin Cities headed out to Plymouth to voice their dissatisfaction.

Picketer Jan Bragelman says Jim Abeler, a supporter of the organizers, wants to get this problem all the way up to the Oval Office.

Tenants from Dominium properties across the Twin Cities headed out to Plymouth to voice their dissatisfaction.

Dominium tenants took to the corner of Northwest Blvd. to picket Dominium Headquarters in Plymouth during their 50th Anniversary.

Tenants from Dominium properties across the Twin Cities headed out to Plymouth to voice their dissatisfaction.

Picketer Jan Bragelman says Jim Abeler, a supporter of the organizers, wants to get this problem all the way up to the Oval Office.

Tenants from Dominium properties across the Twin Cities headed out to Plymouth to voice their dissatisfaction.

Raises in rent are enough to get any tenant asking questions about their money, but for the residents of River North Senior Living Apartments in Coon Rapids, they discovered far more than a rent hike.

The rent increase, along with extra fees, upcharges and “double dipping” led tenants of Dominium properties across the Twin Cities to picket the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations at their headquarters in Plymouth. The party was either cancelled or moved the day of, as the Dominium offices were empty during the protest.

The tenants’ issues with Dominium, which bills itself as the fourth-largest affordable housing provider in the country, began with an 8.5% rent increase that would take effect in 2023. After being told upon moving in that average rent increases range from $12 to $16, rather than the more than $100 they are facing now, it led River North tenant Jan Bragelman to fight against the increase and wonder just where all that money was going.

“We’re all low income or fixed income fifty-five-plus seniors, some of whom don’t get enough Social Security to cover rent,” Bragelman said. “Where do they think that money is going to come from?”

With this 8.5% rent increase bringing the total monthly charge to $1,500, Bragelman estimates that 70-75% of her take-home income will go to paying rent. The rest will be left to cover food, gas or the many extra fees and fines that Dominium charges renters.

Bragelman recalled a story of a fellow tenant accidentally overlooking part of her dog’s droppings, leading North River apartments to collect a sample, send it to a lab for DNA testing, and charge $300 in pet waste violation charges.

Dominium also requires its renters to have their carpets professionally cleaned before moving out, as well as charging $400 for the paperwork to switch units, along with the carpet cleaning, Bragelman claims.

“What we’re doing is that we’re alleging that Dominium ‘double dips,’” she said. “They charge high rent for ‘maintenance’ and we pay for anything they can make us pay for.”

Although the renters seem to be putting a substantial amount of money into the properties, they have yet to see any improvements to broken amenities, Bragelman said.

In Dominium’s Champlin property, Legends, tenant Ronda Hassinger waited six months for a bathroom repair, as running water would leak into the storage facility below, she said. Hassinger and her pets had to breathe in mold while the repairs sat dormant, and she was not approved to temporarily move into another available apartment.

Broken garage doors are a concern in multiple properties. Other properties have faced a variety of break-ins and vandalisms as a result of their broken garage doors.

Bragelman states that these incidents seemed to residents to be isolated to certain properties, but after reaching out to other Dominium residents and doing a few searches on Google Reviews and Yelp, they have seen these are nationwide problems with the company, she said.

After reaching out to several other Minnesota properties, they found a pattern of high costs and low returns, Bragelman claims that many go against Minnesota’s Covenants of Landlords or Licensor laws regarding health and safety laws (504B.161).

“We were isolated as a building, we didn’t know about the others until we started to reach out about this rent issue,” Bragelman said. “I finally said, ‘I’m not taking this!’ We’ve never done anything like this (organizing) before.”

Dominium did not respond to three emails and four phone calls from ABC Newspapers.

The issues that tenants are bringing up involving rent and uses of funds legally fall under Minnesota law (rent increases capped at 3% but can be raised by applying for an exception). The Department of Housing and Urban Development “continues to encourage property owners to exercise compassion” as COVID-19 continues to affect employment and inflation, but Bragelman states that the time for compassion has passed.

“Organizing was originally our way of trying to make Dominium do the right thing on their own, but they haven’t,” Bragelman said.

The organizers have teamed up with local politicians such as Coon Rapids City Council Member Kari Rehrauer and District 36A Rep. Zack Stephenson to rethink low-income housing laws in Minnesota and make sure those benefiting from Section 42 dollars (tax credits given out to build affordable housing) are held accountable.

Stephenson has already put forth bills that will reduce or eliminate the tax on Social Security, as Minnesota is one of only a few states that includes such a tax. Other laws they wish to see is a restructuring of how Average Median Income is handled for low-income housing.

As it stands now, the AMI for River North Senior Living is not calculated on low incomes from Anoka County, but all incomes from 11 surrounding counties. This drives the monthly rates up and does not give a picture of the low incomes required to move in to River North.

“They’re not in this to provide affordable housing, they’re in this to make a profit off of their tax credit,” Rehrauer said. “Just because HUD allows you to go that high (with rent) doesn’t mean you have to.”

While the 8.5% rent increase shows no signs of change, Dominium has confirmed through correspondence with Stephenson that they will not go above a 3% increase in 2023.

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