Tenants say state's housing production not fast enough, call for rent hike limits
Photo | Courtesy of Chris Lisinski, State House News Service
Renters and tenant advocates rally outside the Massachusetts House of Representatives on Tuesday calling for action to overturn the statewide ban on rent control.
Hundreds of tenants from across Massachusetts descended on Beacon Hill Tuesday to show their support for perennial rent stabilization legislation, which proponents see as a crucial and more immediate tool to tackle the housing affordability crisis, even as the Healey administration focuses its effort on boosting housing production.
Advocates' early afternoon rally on the Grand Staircase came just ahead of a Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government hearing that featured lengthy testimony on a Sen. Pat Jehlen bill (S 1447) to enable cities and towns to limit rent increases to the rate of inflation and with a cap of 5%. It also bans no-fault evictions.
Homes for All Massachusetts, which represents "housing justice" groups statewide, said tenants came from a slew of so-called Gateway Cities, including Springfield, Worcester, Lynn, Brockton, Somerville, New Bedford, Fall River and Taunton.
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 for five years, 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.
Healey's capital investment plan for fiscal years 2026-2030 calls for housing investments totaling $2.34 billion. The administration says CIP funding in fiscal 2026 will drive down housing costs by helping to create more than 6,000 new units.
But to end the housing crisis, Massachusetts needs to produce 222,000 new homes by 2035, according to the statewide housing plan released in February.
Mindy Perry, a small landlord in Boston who testified on a panel with the Small Property Owners Association, offered the opposite argument of Jehlen during the hearing Tuesday afternoon.
"Rent control is not going to solve the problem of housing, of rent price. It's going to do the exact opposite," Perry told lawmakers. "It's going to devastate the housing supply and drive the rent price even higher. The only way to solve this is (to) increase the housing supply."
Tony Lopes, who also spoke on the SPOA panel, argued Jehlen's bill "reaches for the wrong tool." Lopes invoked rent control lessons from San Francisco and New York City, which he claimed led to the loss of rental units and discouraged investment and maintenance.
"This bill may be well-intentioned, but the outcome will have fewer available units, deteriorating housing conditions, and owners walking away from reinvestment in all the housing stock that needs care," Lopes said. "And it penalizes the small property owners who make up 60% or more of (the) commonwealth's rental market, including the immigrant and minority property owners who are seeking just to get ahead. We need to consider real solutions, zoning reform, more state-level housing production, and accountability for the rising cost of insurance."
Committee member Rep. Mike Connolly bristled at the property owners' testimony, and defended rent stabilization as a "moderate policy." The Cambridge Democrat noted the Legislature passed the state's first rent control measure in 1920, a policy also in place during World War II.
"We had it in the 1950s, we had it from 1970 to 1994, and so as a matter of fact, the longest period we've ever gone without rent stabilization is the current period. And I think we would all agree, the housing emergency is worse than it's ever been to our knowledge," Connolly said. "I looked at New York City since the time they started implementing rent control, and we know there's a partial form of rent control in New York City. They've added over 1 million housing units, so you can't tell me that we can't balance the need to protect tenants with the need for growth."
The House companion rent stabilization bill from Reps. Dave Rogers and Samantha Montaño (H 2328) was initially also 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.
Rent control legislation was sent to study last session, part of a longstanding trend in which top Democrats have eschewed such measures, including a Boston home rule petition. A 1994 ballot referendum banned rent control in Massachusetts.
Renters recently gained some relief after the fiscal 2026 budget banned renter-paid broker's fees, seen as a burdensome, additional moving cost for many tenants.
"I think the fact that we got broker's fees through is a changing of the tide, and I'm hopeful that we can continue to advance something during this time," Montaño, a Jamaica Plain Democrat, told the News Service. "But I'm very, very stressed about housing, especially in my community."
Montaño said her office has fielded a "significant" volume of unemployment cases recently.
"I think we're starting to see incredibly dire repercussions from the federal administration," Montaño said.
Carolyn Chou, executive director of Homes for All Massachusetts, framed the rent stabilization bills as a "no-cost solution" that will support residents who are bracing for the personal impact of federal funding cuts. Hundreds of thousands of Bay Staters are expected to lose access to food assistance benefits and health insurance coverage, unless state government steps in with additional resources for safety net programs.
"This is not going to increase the state budget -- it's regulating market-rate rents," Chou told the News Service. "Housing is fundamental for people to be able to live, and survive, and thrive here in the state. As other benefits are being cut, we need to make sure that people's rents are not ballooning at the same time."
At the rally, which was moved indoors due to the heat, Boston City Councilor Ben Weber held a sign demanding "Rent Control Now" on the Grand Staircase. Some 5,000 Boston Public Schools students experience homelessness each year and that situation is only worsening, Weber said, as he pushed for policies to reduce evictions.
"If elected officials aren't doing something to prevent it, we're not doing our jobs," Weber told the News Service.
Some 441,000 low-income households across the state lack access to an affordable rental home, according to research released in April from Housing Navigator Massachusetts, Inc. and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. That translates into the existing affordable housing stock serving just 32% of low-income households.
"Imagine if cities had the legal power to do what already we know work: Stabilize rent, stop displacement," Ballantyne, the mayor of Somerville, said at the rally. "Inside this building, lawmakers are deciding whether we can take that step, whether we can pass rent control and finally give cities and towns the tools to protect their people. But out here, we're making it clear: The people are ready, the cities are ready, the time is now."
At the hearing, Revere City Councilor Juan Pablo Jaramillo said he believes housing development is a tool to lower rents -- but with a caveat.
"That's not something that we're benefitting from in the working-class community of Revere," said Jaramillo, who's also deputy legislative director at SEIU Local 509. "It's time to pass S 1447 and level the playing field for working-class people. This bill is about doing away with the power dynamic that is encouraged by the law that discourages and inhibits working people from choosing if rent control is right for their own community."
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