The road to rent control in St. Petersburg took a turn Thursday afternoon as the St. Petersburg City Council voted 5-3 not to move forward with discussions on rent control.

Following a resolution passed last week to consider whether the city would put a rent stabilization referendum on the November ballot, the council has now rejected a resolution to move it forward this week.

“I voted against this because we have already discussed the dangers of rent control as far as legally, if we did move forward with that,” said St. Petersburg City Council Chair Gina Driscoll. “With all of the other initiatives that our city has been taking, that City Council has been working on, we have many legal methods of creating more housing affordability in our city, and that’s where I want us to focus.”

Driscoll said the measure council members voted on would have allowed for continued talks that could have led to rent control being on the ballot next year. She said there isn’t enough time to get a measure on the ballot this year. She also said state law would make it hard to create rent control without opening the city to lawsuits.

“It’s legal, but the state has made it such a thorny path that it’s really, you know, full of landmines, makes it very difficult,” Driscoll said.

Councilwoman Deborah Figgs-Sanders, who made the motion to pass the resolution last week, said that after speaking with legal and going over the information, she decided it was best to table it.

“I brought the resolution forward with full intent and do not regret any of it,” Figgs-Sanders said.

The vote came as a blow to affordable housing advocates at the meeting, several of whom took part in recent sleep-in protests in front of city hall to urge the council to take steps toward rent control.

“What’s good for them is profits,” William Kilgore said to council members after the vote, referring to landlords. “What’s good for us is housing. What’s good for us is stable housing. What’s good for us is not being homeless.”

As the meeting was winding down, protesters brought it to a halt — first shouting their frustrations at the council, then chanting, “We will not be silenced! Evictions are violence!” They continued to chant as security ushered the group out of city hall.

Kilgore, who’s with the St. Petersburg Tenants Union, said he’s angry about council’s actions.

“They had four hours of public testimony, constituents coming in tears much of the time, and here they won’t even move it forward to continue discussing it for maybe doing it for a special election,” Kilgore said.

“I’m really disappointed about this,” said Bryce Springfield, a St. Petersburg resident who took part in last week’s sleep-in. “This shouldn’t have been the council’s decision. It should have been the people’s decision.”

A handful of people who spoke after the vote told council affordable housing solutions are still needed. A few spoke in favor of the city creating socialized housing, possibly as part of the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site.

“My hope is that we’re going to move forward and continue our discussions that we’ve been having on other housing solutions that really have a clear path legally and that really and truly benefit our city,” said Driscoll.

Kilgore said those in favor of rent control aren’t giving up.

“We’ve had losses before,” he said. “We’ve had things we’ve tried to push through that get loopholes shot in them or get voted down. It’s no matter. We’re building. We’re building and we’re growing every single day.”

Spectrum News reporter Nicholas Popham contributed to this story.

Previously:

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — City council members are again set to take up the possibility of reigning in housing costs.

The council is set to hold a special meeting Thursday where it will consider declaring a housing emergency. The council also will discuss possibly putting rent control on the ballot.

However, the city attorney’s office warned the council members that they are not following the proper steps.

According to Bay News 9’s partner newspaper, the Tampa Bay Times, St. Pete Mayor Ken Welch agreed with the city attorney.

In a memo, Welch said the current process is putting the city at risk for costly litigation.

The city attorney’s office has said a rent-control measure requires the council to adopt an ordinance, which would require two public hearings. There is not enough time to do that before next Tuesday’s deadline to submit the language for a ballot to the Supervisor of Elections office.

Former city councilman Robert Blackmon, who also ran for mayor, says rent control is not right for the City of St. Pete, saying it's not even legal and could make things worse for people.

“If you’re the renter, you’ll see a much lower quality of housing if rent control passes,” Blackmon said. “Because again when you have insurance rates spiking, property taxes spiking, and a controlled finite price for rent there’s no other way for the landlord to make up the price of rent, there’s no way for the landlord to make up for the differential other than cutting quality.”

But there are people who continue to push for this measure.

In recent weeks, demonstrators have held sleep-ins to demand the city council make that emergency declaration and allow voters to decide on temporary rent control.