House Lockout in Saint Paul, MN

Start with who controls the door

Saint Paul's older housing changes from block to block, and the city's 2011 historic context study shows the range.

• West Side: simple front-gable houses stand on the river flats, with larger Queen Anne and Italianate houses along the bluff. A house has its own doors, so ask who else holds a spare and whether a side or rear door is yours to open.
• Dayton's Bluff: rowhouses, double houses and 1880s apartments sit among the homes of wealthy businessmen. Neighboring doors can look alike, so name your unit or side.
• Large buildings: buildings of 50 or more units hold 18.6 percent of Saint Paul homes, against 6.9 percent nationally (2024 American Community Survey). You may face two locked doors, the entry and your own, and management can say which run on the building's keys.

Just over half of Saint Paul's occupied homes are rented (50.2 percent), so a landlord or manager who holds a spare key is often the first person to try.

Waiting outside in winter

For 1981-2010, the Minnesota DNR's normal is 24 days per winter when the Twin Cities drop to zero or below. On a day like that, do not wait on the step; go to a neighbor's home, a nearby business or a warm car. If someone who cannot open the door alone is inside, or anyone outside is getting dangerously cold, call 911.

Showing that you live there

A photo ID showing the address is the simplest proof of residence. A lease or deed also helps; if they are inside, say so in your request.

In a house lockout request, include:

• the address, and whether the door is a house, one side of a double house, a rowhouse or an apartment
• whether the locked door is the building entry, your unit or both
• the lock, if you know it: a knob lock, a deadbolt or an older mortise lock
• whether you own or rent, and whether the keys are inside or lost

If the keys are lost rather than shut inside, lock rekeying is worth raising once you are back in. The housing types above are covered in more detail on the Saint Paul page.