rent control

Advocates flocked to the State House, July 29, amid a renewed push to eliminate the statewide ban that prohibits cities and towns in Massachusetts from creating local rent control measures.

Activists from Greater Boston-area cities and towns marched on the State House Tuesday, May 20 as part of a national demonstration against the Trump administration’s planned cuts to federal housing programs.

On Monday, legislators, housing justice groups, landlords, tenants and other supporters gathered at the Massachusetts State House for a briefing organized by Homes for All Massachusetts on proposed legislation for rent stabilization in Massachusetts.

The Boston City Council on March 8 passed Mayor Michelle Wu’s rent stabilization proposal 11-2, with District 3 Councilor Frank  Baker and at-large Councilor Erin Murphy voting “no.”

Advocates lobbying Boston City Council members for stricter rent control measures than those initially proposed by Mayor Michelle Wu have found a sympathetic ear but have gained few promises so far.

Boston City Councilors are drawing lines in the sand over a raft of measures put forward by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu in a home rule petition on rent stabilization.

Efforts to reimplement rent control in Boston took an official step forward Monday when Mayor Michelle Wu sent her proposed home rule petition to the Boston City Council.

Hundreds of activists, organized under the banners of Homes for All Massachusetts and Right to the City Boston, gathered in front of the Massachusetts State House last Saturday to rally in support of legislative bills introduced in the state House and Senate last week that would lift the state’s decades-old ban on local rent control measures.

Mayor Michelle Wu’s rent stabilization proposal is the latest in a series of efforts in Boston spanning nearly three decades to reinstate some form of rent stabilization following a 1994 statewide referendum that disallowed rent control.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is promoting her agenda for action at the state level as a new legislative session begins on Beacon Hill.

A day after preliminary details of Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s long-awaited local rent control policy emerged, elected officials who may soon vote on the issue began contending with what it will ultimately look like.

While the mayor has laid the groundwork toward rent control and some other big-ticket reform items she ran on — like fare-free transit, overhaul of the Boston Planning and Development Agency, and revamped police contracts to tamp down overtime — none of those changes have yet come to pass.