With the clock ticking for potential legislative action to extend housing relief measures, sponsors of a new bill aimed at preserving a mandatory pause on housing removals highlighted support and strategies on Thursday.
A Beacon Hill committee has endorsed two bills that would clear the way for rent control to return to Massachusetts more than two and a half decades after voters narrowly banned the practice statewide.
Beacon Hill on Monday delivered its near-term answer to activists who want to reinstitute rent control: not yet.
Sharing personal stories of financial strain and housing uncertainty, Massachusetts tenants argued Tuesday that a controversial proposal to revive local rent control options could help them avoid displacement.
While housing activists and progressive state legislators rallied for rent control legislation on the steps of the State House Tuesday, a co-chair of the state legislator’s Housing Committee said anti-development municipalities were blocking legislation that would help build more housing.
Cambridge state Rep. Mike Connolly has offered a preview of what House progressives may push for if and when the House finally puts a housing production bill on the floor for debate.
As frightening as the prospect of a rent control proposal on Beacon Hill may be to some the issue is a red herring that threatens to distract everyone from efforts to get Gov. Charlie Baker’s Act to Promote Housing Choice passed as soon as possible.
Overnight, a new push by a pair of progressive state lawmakers to bring back rent control would pull the rug out from under the apartment boom, one that has seen a bevy of new rental high-rises take shape in Boston and Cambridge.
More than two decades after voters banned local rent control, Gov. Charlie Baker signaled Tuesday he would not support a nascent push from several lawmakers to allow cities and towns to implement tenant protections, such as a limit on rent increases.
A pair of progressive legislators are planning a push on Beacon Hill to legalize local rent control laws.
