A coalition of housing activists, unions and social justice organizations plan to collect signatures to place a rent control ballot measure before voters in next year’s state election.
Coalition members plan to file the measure, An Initiative Petition to Protect Tenants by Limiting Rent Increases, with Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office today. If passed by voters, the initiative would limit rent increases to the Consumer Price Index, which averages at 2.7%, with a cap at 5%.
“We know we are in a crisis in Massachusetts,” said Carolyn Chou, executive director of Homes for All Massachusetts. “We know the Legislature could act now. But we shouldn’t have to wait.”
Last week Chou and other activists rallied at the State House before testifying during a hearing on rent control legislation that would enable cities and towns to opt into rent control, which was banned by a real estate industry-backed ballot initiative in 1994. But past attempts to pass rent control legislation have died in the Legislature, including Mayor Michelle Wu’s 2023 initiative to cap rent increases in Boston at 10%.
The ballot petition coalition members are advancing now would apply to the entire state, exempting owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units and exempting new construction for a period of 10 years.
Chou said renters across Massachusetts are experiencing rent increases that are forcing people out of their communities.
“The crisis has expanded from towns like Southbridge and Ayer to Worcester and Fall River,” she said. “It’s time to move on this. We know this measure can stabilize communities.”
Denise Mattews-Turner, co-director of City Live/Vida Urbana, said much of the displacement in Boston and other cities is being driven by corporate investors who are purchasing apartment buildings and driving up rents.
“We’ve seen an increase in corporate investors in Dorchester, in East Boston, in Mattapan — especially in communities of color it’s affecting the rental market,” she said. “They are some of the primary drivers of displacement.”
A 2024 report by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council found that 21% of real estate purchases in the Greater Boston area between 2004 and 2018 were made by investors. A Flipside analysis of real estate sales in Springfield in June and July of 2024 found that 29% of purchases were made by investors.
“These are landlords with a very strict and cold profit model,” Mattews-Turner said. “That’s what we’re fighting against. We’re not fighting against the owner-occupant in a triple decker.”
Chou said the coalition exempted owner-occupied housing from the rent control measure because members see corporate investors as the main driver of rent increases.
“For us, it’s really about the corporate landlords who are buying up properties to make a profit,” she said. “Renters are in an unprecedented crisis in Massachusetts.”
In order for the petition to appear on next year’s ballot, the coalition will need to submit 74,574 signatures from registered voters to the secretary of state’s office by the first Wednesday in December. The measure is then sent to the Legislature. Legislative leadership can pass the measure, propose a substitute, or take no action. If the Legislature takes no action or fails to reach an agreement with the ballot measure’s backers, the coalition will need to submit an additional 12,429 more signatures two weeks before the first Wednesday in July to ensure the measure appears on the November ballot.
The signature collection requirements mean petitioners often spend millions of dollars for paid contractors to canvas registered voters. But the coalition backing this measure may be able to rely on the large base-building groups that have joined in the effort such as City Life/Vida Urbana, Springfield No One Leaves, Lynn United for Change, the New England Community Project. The petition also has the backing of the Mass Teachers Association, the largest union in the state, and several SEIU locals.
Many of the same coalition members helped pass the Fair Share Amendment, or Millionaires Tax as its commonly known, in 2022 and the ballot measure eliminating the MCAS exam as a graduation requirement in 2024.
The coalition will likely face stiff opposition from the real estate lobby, which has lobbied the Legislature and the Boston City Council to defeat rent control legislation in recent years. The Small Property Owners Association, whose members testified last week at the State House against rent control legislation, spent $72,000 on lobbying in 2022, the year the Wu administration sought to pass its rent control measure.
This story originally appeared on flipsidenews.net.
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