Is it time to put aside the old schtick about the “People’s Republic” of Cambridge? The city has been an outlier among its inner-core peers in not pursuing rent control last year. The reasons for that are rooted in history.
When she toured Roxbury Community College with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Wednesday, part of a trip to promote the Biden administration’s clean energy polices, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said she pressed the secretary on the impact high interest rates were having on housing construction.
Research shows rent control hurts the value of all property in a city, and the way state school aid is distributed means other communities will lose some of their education funding if rent control returns.
In its attempt to address the dire housing crisis, the Federal Housing Finance Agency is considering a policy that would surely make it worse and reduce the use of federal housing dollars.
Advocates took to Beacon Hill on Tuesday to try to convince lawmakers to advance a policy to limit rent hikes, while real estate industry leaders decried the idea as counterproductive, but there seems to be little appetite on Beacon Hill to revisit the idea.
The decision means rent control supporters only have one avenue left: the state legislature, whose leaders have been notably cool to the idea.
Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne is seeking to limit rent hikes in the city with the submission of legislation capping increases on an annual basis.
Housing advocates know a supply shortage is behind our runaway rents. But their two closest groups of allies sit on either side of the issue, and each see the debate in existential terms.
Real estate groups say they will appeal Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s certification of a rent control ballot question.
Massachusetts residents could have a chance to repeal the state’s 30-year ban on municipal-level rent control measures, following Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s decision to allow a referendum on the topic onto the state’s 2024 ballot.
A burgeoning campaign seeking to revive rent control in some communities already faces stiff, well-funded opposition on policy grounds, and now it will need to withstand a constitutional challenge as well.
Previous efforts to reverse the ban or revive the policies in a handful of specific communities have failed to gain momentum with legislative leaders.
The legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing is in no rush to consider Boston’s plan, which aims to tackle a housing affordability crisis that is afflicting cities and towns throughout the state.
Late last month, members of the Boston City Council chose once again to vilify the people who are working to build and maintain housing for the many Boston residents who need it.
Boston’s rent control proposal isn’t just about imposing a rental cap. It’s a government takeover of the private housing industry – something sure to drive investment far away from Massachusetts.
With a new legislative session has come new leadership to the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing: Sen. Lydia Edwards. She’s just starting her first full term, but she’s already established herself as a housing policy leader among her colleagues on Beacon Hill.
Asked for her thoughts on some of the most talked about Beacon Hill happenings in a TV interview that aired Sunday, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll had a consistent message: let’s wait and see.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu scored big victories on two of her signature campaign pledges Wednesday. But both proposals must now run the gauntlet on Beacon Hill before they can become law.
With the Boston City Council expected to vote on Mayor Michelle Wu’s rent control proposal at its meeting today, a leading progressive city councilor in Somerville announced he’s introduced his own rent control proposal.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu pushed back Monday as resistance to her rent control plan picks up, arguing that what she has proposed is different from rent control policies of years past and describing some of the opposition as “fearmongering.”
