After dropping its proposed rental ordinance last December, the Bemidji City Council turned to the public for their opinion on what direction the new ordinance should take.

Landlords and tenant advocates showed up to the rental ordinance listening session Monday to share their thoughts on what the council should prioritize: occupancy limits or tenant rights.

A main concern over the updated ordinance was the occupancy limits, as Bemidji currently does not have any for related tenants. Instead, the limit is set to four unrelated tenants in a unit, regardless of egress codes.

Due to the discrepancies with the current limits, local landlords offered another idea, occupancy by square footage.

“Cities throughout the country are addressing the housing shortage by increasing density,” said Andrew Erholtz, president of the Headwaters Landlord Association. “This is a small way to increase density by using the housing that we already have that is underutilized because of rental ordinance restrictions. Creating a pathway to make underutilized housing available will help landlords, tenants, and the city of Bemidji.”

But others who testified at the session thought occupancy limits were not as concerning as the housing issue itself.

“We have to invest in better living environments for everybody right now. It’s really an economic necessity as well as compassionate,” said Sandy Hennum, former executive director of Village of Hope. “Landlords have the absolute most important job in the entire world. Many landlords have a passion for helping people, that’s why they do what they do. But when people don’t do the right thing by neglect, ignorance, or deliberate abuse, that’s when many people, their livelihood and their whole entire lives are affected.”

The council will now take the comments into consideration and revisit the rental ordinance at later meetings.

By — Mary Balstad