Boston City Council Passes Rent Control Measure

A mayor-backed plan to rein in spiking rents in Boston cleared a major hurdle when the City Council passed a rent-control measure last week, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The plan, which has numerous exemptions, ties rent increases to inflation, with a cap at 10 percent, according to the outlet. The plan doesn’t cover small landlords and buildings that are less than 15 years old, which together comprise about 45 percent of Boston’s rental units, WBUR said, citing city data.

The plan, which the council passed 11-2, also includes a for-cause eviction measure, the Journal reported.

The whole plan, proposed by Mayor Michelle Wu, must receive approval from the Massachusetts State House, because the state’s residents banned rent control via a referendum in 1994, WBUR said.

Wu, who took office in 2021, made rent stabilization a priority; Boston has historically had high rents, which have gone up about 25 percent in the past two years, the Journal reported citing data from Zillow Group.

This is a monumental act for the city of Boston,” Councilor Ricardo Arroyo said, according to WBUR. “I commend the mayor for moving forward with rent stabilization to address what has been a long standing issue of price gouging and rent gouging and displacement.”

Opponents, like Councilor Fred Baker, said the measure targets a sector that has created “generational wealth,” in Boston, WBUR said. Others said the measure will create a chilling effect on developers wanting to build housing in the city, the Journal said.

Rent control advocates, however, decried the measure because the cap was still too high and because the exemptions covered too many properties, the Journal reported.

Not every rent control effort advanced in New England.

The Housing Committee in the Connecticut legislature last week declined to vote on a bill that would have capped rent increases in the state. The committee instead approved a bill to create task forces to study the impact of rent control

— Ted Glanzer