Rep. Mike Connolly (center) holds certification papers from Attorney General Andrea Campbell for his proposed ballot question to lift the statewide rent control ban during a press conference with Sen. Jamie Eldridge (front right) and other proponents outside the State House Wednesday, April 7, 2023. Photo by Alison Kuznitz | State House News Service

Facing a Nov. 22 deadline and tens of thousands of signatures short, rent control advocates have suspended their campaign to get a measure legalizing local rent control regimes on the 2024 statewide ballot.

“While this isn’t the outcome we hoped for with our petition, I am more confident than ever that if given the opportunity to do so, Massachusetts voters will elect to lift the ban on rent control,” Cambridge state Rep. Mike Connolly wrote in a message to supporters posted on the campaign’s website Saturday.

The decision means rent control supporters only have one avenue left after Gov. Maura Healey declined to include the idea in her recent housing policy package: the state legislature, whose leaders have been notably cool to the idea.

The state’s main real estate lobby groups have lined up in strong opposition to rent control measures, even a milder version Boston’s mayor has marketed as “guardrails” to ward off the steepest rent hikes blamed for driving displacement and gentrification.

“Rent control will not address our housing crisis. NAIOP looks forward to continuing our work with the Healey-Driscoll Administration and the Legislature to advance production-based solutions that will actually ensure housing access for every resident in our Commonwealth,” NAIOP-MA CEO Tamara Small said in an email.

The Greater Boston Real Estate Board said it was “pleased” Connolly had suspended his campaign’s efforts.

“As we have said all along, rent control is not the answer to the housing crisis. It is time for everyone to come together on a pro-growth strategy that cuts red tape and makes it easier to build housing for all income levels,” he said.

Ballot questions face numerous hurdles in Massachusetts. First, the question’s language must be approved by the state attorney general’s office to make sure it complies with the state constitution. Next, 74,574 registered voters must sign a petition by late November to get the question placed before the state legislature, which then gets to vote on whether to put the measure on the ballot, put an edited or replacement question on the ballot or take no action.

Proponents can still try to override the legislature’s actions and put their original measure on the ballot by gathering 12,429 new signatures by late June.

In his message, Connolly said he and his allies had only gathered 10,175 signatures across around a bit more than a quarter of the state – comparable to what’s needed for a gubernatorial candidate to run.

While Connolly and other rent control supporters frequently point to polls that – depending on how they’re worded – appear to show public support for repealing Massachusetts’ statewide ban on rent control and allowing individual towns and cities to adopt their own regimes, Connolly’s ballot measure was actually the target of opposition from a number of advocacy groups and tenants’ rights groups. And one of rent control’s most prominent backers, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, stayed silent on Connolly’s campaign after expressing initial “concerns” about it.

The Homes for All Coalition, a network of prominent tenants’ rights groups, community groups and some labor unions that’s been one of the most organized voices in favor of rent control’s return, vocally opposed this ballot measure, which Connolly filed by surprise earlier this year. In his letter, Connolly lamented the coalition’s stance and cast it as the chief cause of his signature campaign’s failure.

The coalition’s members maintained that any ballot question measure was likely to fail at the ballot box in 2024.

“It’s not that difficult to understand. The landlord industry has committed pouring tens of millions of dollars into a disinformation campaign. Having the capacity to fight the disinformation is not about organization building it’s about having a realistic and WINNABLE strategy,” City Life / Vida Urbana Executive Director Mike Leyba wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Saturday in an apparent reference to Connolly’s letter.

Boston’s own rent control home rule petition and several bills covering similar territory are scheduled to get a hearing before state legislators Tuesday.

“This battle is going to still be alive and real in the legislature. Now is not the time to rest on our laurels just because a ballot initiative got derailed,” Small Property Owners Association Vice President Shahsavari said in an interview. “We should be thinking of other constructive ideas to create more housing and help tenants find ways to achieve home ownership. There has to be a balance.”