From left: Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone, state Rep. Mike Connolly and former Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson at the State House in 2017. Photo courtesy of State House News Service.

Pointing to a “housing crisis that has put all of greater Boston in jeopardy,” Somerville’s mayor on Monday night called for lawmakers to take swift action on housing legislation, including a bill that would create a local option for rent control in Massachusetts.

Mayor Joe Curtatone, elected to his ninth term in November with 58 percent of the vote, singled out Rep. Mike Connolly’s rent control bill (H.3924) in his inaugural address Monday. Connolly, a Democrat, represents parts of Cambridge and Somerville.

Curtatone said renters need stability and “immediate relief” amid high housing prices and that he believes municipalities “can develop rent control policies that still allow landlords to protect their investments and earn rental income while also protecting our residents from steep rent increases.”

“And if the state is going to drag its feet on this, we need to take rent control to a statewide ballot,” he said.

Curtatone is a member of the Metropolitan Mayors Coalition of Greater Boston, which in 2018 announced a goal to create 185,000 new housing units across the region by 2030.

“But unfortunately, we just marked another year in which Beacon Hill did nothing to address this crisis when it should be passing every housing-related bill that gets proposed,” Curtatone said. “We don’t have time for housing bills to be stuck in committee. We have a housing crisis now. We need action now.”