BOSTON — Hundreds of tenants from across Massachusetts descended on Beacon Hill Tuesday to show their support for rent stabilization legislation, which proponents see as a crucial tool to tackle the housing affordability crisis and prevent residents from being displaced from their communities.
Their early afternoon rally on the Grand Staircase came just ahead of a Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government hearing that features a Sen. Pat Jehlen bill (S. 1447) that would enable cities and towns to limit rent hikes to the rate of inflation and with a cap of 5 percent. It also bans no-fault evictions.
Jehlen, a Somerville Democrat who was joined by Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, asked ralliers to raise their hands if they think Massachusetts has a housing “emergency.”
“We need immediate solutions. This is it,” Jehlen said. “Building more housing is not fast enough. It costs too much. It’s not happening fast enough, and it won’t solve the problem.”
Jehlen’s proposal incorporates exemptions for owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units, public and subsidized housing, college dorms, newly constructed buildings, and facilities that provide residential elderly care. Seventeen lawmakers have signed onto the bill.
The Legislature and Gov. Maura Healey last session teamed up to pass a major new housing production law, and in the process left rent control proposals, which are opposed by the real estate lobby, on the sidelines.
The House companion bill from Reps. Dave Rogers and Samantha Montano (H. 2328) was initially sent to the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government, though it was redirected to the Housing Committee earlier this month and is awaiting a hearing.
Those lawmakers’ pushes last session were sent to study, part of a longstanding trend on Beacon Hill in which top Democrats have avoided rent control measures, including a Boston home rule petition. A 1994 ballot referendum banned rent control in Massachusetts.