Building our way out of the housing crisis will take too long to help those suffering now. But rent control will halt the real long-term fix – building more homes – in its tracks.
Boston mayoral challenger Josh Kraft would create a city registry of rent-controlled apartments to bypass brokers under a voluntary proposal to rein in rent increases.
Challenger Joshua Kraft took aim at incumbent Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s record on housing production and affordability as he launched his campaign for mayor Tuesday morning.
Vice President Kamala Harris is zeroing in on high food and housing prices as her campaign previews an economic policy speech Friday in North Carolina.
President Joe Biden is ready to propose a 5 percent cap on annual rent increases for tenants of major landlords as he tries to show he’s doing something about the high cost of housing.
When it comes to tackling the housing crisis, Massachusetts voters want an all-of-the-above approach. That’s one message to take away from a recent poll.
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.
