After filing a home rule petition two and a half years ago asking the Legislature to let Somerville enact its own form of rent stabilization, mayor Jake Wilson said the city now hopes to achieve some of that through statewide compromise legislation.
“Too many renters live with the fear that one rent increase, one lease renewal or one building sale could force them out of their home,” Wilson said in a Thursday press release.
Somerville and Cambridge state representative Mike Connolly nearly got rent control on the 2024 state ballot, but it was pushed back by progressive groups who said it wasn’t the right time. Somerville officials also endorsed rent control legislation proposed last summer by other members of the local delegation, senator Pat Jehlen and representative David Rogers.
So far, nothing has worked to bring back controls such as Somerville, Cambridge and Brookline used until 1994, when a statewide vote shut it down for everyone. When a new rent control question was proposed for the November ballot, the real estate group Naiop Massachusetts presented a counterproposal to avoid a statewide rule: giving back some local controls for rent increases capped at 5 percent plus inflation annually, up to 10 percent.
“Now I believe our best chance of achieving the key goals of our home rule petition and providing renters with necessary relief is this compromise proposal,” Wilson said.
Wilson joins governor Maura Healey and Boston mayor Michelle Wu in saying he is “strongly” in support of the compromise legislation, “so that we can finally see some results.” He continued:
“The proposal would finally give communities like Somerville the ability to adopt local rent stabilization that they so desperately need … the compromise also allows landlords to set market rates when units are vacant. These adjustments could break the stalemate and move this urgent issue forward with immediacy. I am grateful to all who came together in good faith to draft this compromise. In this time of great political polarization, dialogue is key.”
Wilson urged the Legislature to pass the compromise legislation.
Not everyone is willing to rely on the compromise, which remains “very fluid,” Connolly said on Friday.
While Connolly said on Friday that he supports its protections for tenants and fairness for property owners – and some have noted its similarity to the contours of the ballot question he tried to advance three years ago – Connolly also testified to a joint committee on housing in the fall that the Legislature has a responsibility to pass good laws “as soon as we can, and not wait till November,” he said Friday.
“We shouldn’t wait the next 11 months for this to get to the ballot,” Connolly told The Boston Globe in February.
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