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.
“Rent control will stifle the production of new housing,” Baker told reporters after a tour of the new DraftKings headquarters in Boston. “That’s exactly the wrong direction we should go.”
Instead, Baker said state leaders should focus on how to encourage construction of new housing. One of the governor’s biggest pushes this session is a bill that would lower the threshold needed to make municipal zoning changes from a two-thirds majority of the relevant board to a simple majority.
“We don’t have a lot of inventory, and what we have ends up being really expensive, so that pushes people farther and farther away from where they go to school or work to find a place to live,” Baker said. “We need to build more housing, not less.”
Voters narrowly banned local rent controls through a 1994 ballot question, but state Reps. Nika Elugardo and Mike Connolly are pushing legislation to again allow it alongside other practices.
Connolly said Tuesday lawmakers need to take a “comprehensive” approach and that Baker’s own legislation to allow for easier housing construction could be helped by working together.
“I certainly welcome what the governor has brought forward,” Connolly said. “My message is: let’s have a comprehensive plan that includes additional pieces. If the governor were to come on board and support things like tenant protections, it would increase support for his bill.”
The Elugardo-Connolly bill, filed as a placeholder in January until the final language is submitted in the next few days, would grant cities and towns the authority to implement a range of new restrictions on landlords. Beyond rent control, the proposal would allow for rent stabilization, condo closure protections and a provision to put up-front costs – often first month’s rent, last month’s rent and a security deposit – onto a payment plan.
“We are facing an ongoing emergency in the shortage of affordable housing,” Connolly said. “This is really a response to many constituents who, both homeowners and tenants, who look at the current rental market and realize we’re facing an emergency of displacement, of homelessness, of rising costs.”
Elugardo also stressed local control as a key emphasis of the bill’s tenant protections. She said she hopes the governor will acknowledge the value of letting communities decide which components to enact.
“This session is really about building a narrative around choice, so Gov. Baker, if you don’t think it’s a good idea, let the cities and towns agree with you – they don’t have to take up this option,” she said. “And cities and towns that know this is a good option, let them make that choice.”
House Speaker Robert DeLeo would not say Tuesday whether he would support or oppose one of the proposals, but he indicated he would like to see debate unfold.
“Where we are relative to rent control, I think it’s important that I myself as speaker allow that to go through the process, allow it to go through the hearing process, make sure I listen to and hear all of my colleagues from around the state as to their position,” DeLeo said during an appearance before the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce. “It failed at the ballot some years ago, I think it is important relative to not only that but many of the issues that we’re talking about that, again, that we go through that process.”
