State Voters May Decide If Boston Gets Rent Control

Mayor Michelle Wu’s effort to enact rent control in Boston has been blocked by a majority in the state legislature who oppose lifting a 1994 state law giving the state the power to ban rent control in all municipalities.

State Rep. Mike Connolly, who represents Cambridge—declaring that he’s acting in his personal capacity as a renter—has filed a ballot measure petition to lift the rent control ban, the Boston Globe reported.

“We all recognize that this ongoing housing emergency is worse than it’s ever been in history, and seems to only be getting worse,” Connolly told the newspaper. “The issue is so severe, and the need for action is so extraordinary that we can’t leave any stones unturned in terms of options.”

Connolly’s petition was signed by 15 residents of Cambridge, Somerville and Boston “to preserve the option of a 2024 ballot question relative to lifting the ban on rent control and enabling local tenant protections,” Connolly said in an X message.

Under Massachusetts state law, Connolly’s petition first must be approved by Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office. Connolly and his friends then must gather 90,000 valid signatures to put the question on the 2024 ballot, with the first 75K signatures due this November.

Landlords groups have opposed the lifting of the state rent control ban, including the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, which is backing a campaign under the slogan Rent Control Hurts Housing, the Globe reported.

In March, Wu’s rent control proposal was approved by the Boston City Council by an 11-2 vote. Wu’s formal proposal, sent to the council in what is known in Boston as a “home-rule petition,” calls for setting the annual allowable rent increase at either 10% or at the Consumer Price Index for the Boston metro plus 6%, whichever is lower.

In a lower-inflation year where the region’s CPI increased only 2%, Wu’s measure would cap rent increases at 8%. But if the inflation rate is what it is approaching now rents could not grow more than a total of 10% under the proposal.

In a letter to the City Council, Wu said that advertised rents across Boston jumped by 14% in 2022, with some neighborhoods in the city seeing rent hikes exceeding 20%.

“This home rule petition will enable the city of Boston to implement rent stabilization to better protect families from displacement caused by exorbitant increases in rent,” Wu said, in the letter.

“The measure would place needed limits on rapid rent increases to existing tenancies and ensure more stability for Boston residents by providing a level of certainty regarding how much their rent could increase each year. Tenants in Boston are often victim to steep rent increases, making it impossible for them to stay in their homes,” the mayor said.

Wu’s rent stabilization measure offers several exemptions to the proposed cap in rent increases. No limit would apply when a new tenant moves in and the landlord sets the initial rental rate; the cap will only kick in for subsequent increases.

Any property with six or fewer units—one of which is the building owner’s primary residents—would not be subject to rent control. Wu’s proposal also exempts the newest housing construction: units won’t face a cap on rent increases if their permanent occupancy certificates are less than 15 years old and they were built from the ground up, added to an existing building or converted from another use to residential.

Units where tenants pay a set percentage of their income to rent, including public housing and those supported by vouchers, also would be exempt from the rent control.

Also exempted from the rent caps are hotels and motels, housing in religious facilities, extended care, residential care and nonprofit hospitals, college and university dormitories, and dwellings where tenants share bathroom or kitchen accommodations with the owner.