Officials at Cambridge City Hall will be tallying votes next week for the latest effort to reinstate rent control in the city.

Come next Tuesday, property owners and tenants in Cambridge will know if they are closer to having rent control reinstated in the city.

An initiative petition to bring back rent control is on the ballot next week in Cambridge, despite opposition from a homeowners’ coalition organized by the Small Property Owners Association, which waged a fierce battle to eliminate rent control statewide Renine years ago.

In order to pass, the ballot question needs the support of one-third of all registered voters in the city. If it wins the necessary votes, the rent control measure must then go to the state Legislature and Gov. Mitt Romney in the form of a home rule petition for approval.

Some property owners argue that the measure isn’t likely to get the necessary support to pass. They say the demographics of the city have changed considerably throughout the last decade and property owners don’t want to return to a system that they say doesn’t work. SPOA members maintain that rent control makes it difficult for landlords to maintain and improve their properties. They also say it discourages developers from building new housing, which they say only drives rents and prices higher.

“The problem is, there’s too many people who still remember rent control, and they do not want to go back to the past,” said SPOA President Lenore Monello Schloming, who is leading a campaign against the return of rent control under the Cambridge Homeowners Coalition.

The coalition has established a campaign headquarters and mobilized volunteers to call voters. It also has mailed letters to owners of single-family homes, two- and three-family homes and condominiums and urged them to send donations to fight the return of rent control.

Denise Jillson, a Cambridge homeowner who opposes rent control, said many residents are not supportive because they are aware of the “destructive nature of rent control,” and have witnessed the improvement and development of new housing since the abolition of rent control.

“We’re feeling pretty confident that the voters are going to do the right thing,” said Jillson. “Twenty to 25 years of artificially suppressing the housing market was so destructive that it’s almost inconceivable that we could be in this position.”

‘Grassroots’ Movement

Supporters, on the other hand, have been trying to reach out to homeowners and owners of smaller properties as well as tenants. Activists are optimistic about the effort, pointing to the fact that they gathered the signatures of more than 6,000 registered voters to put the question on the ballot. Real estate industry leaders who challenged some of the signatures to prevent the question from appearing on the ballot were unsuccessful.

Out of 1,450 signatures that were challenged, only 17 signatures were thrown out, or decertified, according to Karen Hoerst, campaign manager for the Committee for Cambridge Rent Control.

“Our goal is to let the people decide,” she said. “We see this election as an opportunity for the people to really voice their opinion about how they feel about rent control.”

Hoerst said the rent control campaign was initiated by “tenants and activists and affordable housing advocates who saw the need to do something else to address the affordable housing crisis.”

“This movement is very people-based, and very grassroots-based, and based on what people in Cambridge have been saying for a long time,” she said.

Ellen Shachter, a Cambridge homeowner and attorney who specializes in housing law, said rent control is needed because too many long-term tenants have been displaced by rising housing costs.

“I’ve seen an extraordinary breakdown in communities in the city,” said Shachter, who works for Cambridge and Somerville Legal Services. Despite all of the city’s efforts to address affordable housing and the millions it has spent on the issue, “Cambridge is still one of the most unaffordable cities in the country,” she said.

Shachter acknowledged that it could be challenging to get the needed votes because there is a very large number of inactive voters in the city. “But I am confident that people in the city of Cambridge believe that there needs to be some kind of rent control mechanism to protect its citizens,” she said.

The city’s leaders have refused to formally discuss the rent control measure. Earlier this month, the City Council adjourned its regular weekly meeting to avoid discussing an order to have the council go on record supporting affordable housing but opposing the return of rent control. Six city councilors have indicated they oppose it, and at least one has said she is in favor of rent control.

Property owners like Schloming believe this is a terrible time to institute rent control. Apartment vacancies in the city are up, and some landlords have been forced to reduce rents, pay real estate agency fees or offer other concessions to fill units.

“Walking around Cambridge, I’ve never seen for-rent signs before. In the summer, they were all over the place,” said Schloming.

Cambridge voters will be voting on the issue several weeks after the Legislature upheld a tax exemption bill that will offer tax cuts for more than 11,000 homeowners in the city. Under the bill, which was vetoed by Romney but overridden by the Legislature, the property taxes on owner-occupied homes will drop an average of $200 a year.

The tax cut will likely force Cambridge to increase tax rates on other properties – particularly those valued at above $1 million or those that are non-owner occupied. As a result, renters in larger buildings might be faced with higher rents.

Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.