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The Bemidji Tenants Union is looking to help renters negotiate rent prices and have basic maintenance in the buildings where they reside. Fifty-eight percent of the city’s residents are designated as renters.
Bemidji Tenants Union co-founder Reed Olson said over the past two years about 150 families have lost their housing due to a multitude of factors, including some apartment buildings being closed by the city.
“There’s a need for resources and just support and a way to advocate to our City Council and other local government and state government agencies and entities for what's best for us, the renters in Bemidji,” he said. “We need to build a lot more housing in Bemidji. I hope that this can be a vehicle that can help promote the continued construction of new housing.”
Olson said unlike traditional unions, this one does not necessitate dues to be a member. It’s open to all.
“Bemidji has a very successful and influential landlord association called the Headwaters Landlord Association,” he said. “They pull a lot of weight. They influence the City Council. They influence the rental codes and ordinances that we have here in Bemidji, and there’s no counterweight to that organization.”
If successful, Olson said the Bemidji Tenants Union could offer that balance.
“We are there to hopefully lobby for better living conditions, more safety, making sure that we have proper egress windows, making sure that units have fire detection systems, things like that,” he said. “So, similar to a union but not the same.”
And the Bemidji Tenants Union wants to offer anonymity to renters who file complaints against landlords so they’re free from retribution which could include eviction. It’s something union co-founder Brady Crosby said is a real worry for renters.
“That is one of the main things that we want to tackle is we hope that by people telling us their stories, we can relay that to the City Council, we can relay that to the people in city government who deal with enforcing rental laws,” he said. “That’s going to be a big part of it, and it is a pretty big problem in the city.”
Crosby, who is a renter, said it’s possible that helping form the tenant group could also lead to problems with his landlord, too. But he’s not worried.
“It is what it is. If they want to retaliate, I think, honestly, that’ll just embolden our renters’ union,” he said. “If I have to be the example of what these landlords are doing to this city, then I'm happy to be, it's fine.”
Olson said the Bemidji Tenants Union will function similarly to the ones in St. Paul and Duluth. Currently it’s operating independently but will transition into a nonprofit in the future.
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