WHILE CERTAIN FACTIONS of the Boston City Council appear to be coming around in support of Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposed middle-of-the road rent control home rule, stakeholders outside the chamber may not so easily come together.
On The Codcast, Greg Vasil, CEO of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, and freshman Boston Rep. Sam Montaño agree the city has a problem with rising rents, but disagreed on how to deal with it.
During more than 10 hours of recent hearings, administration officials, renters, developers, and city councilors alike agreed that many Boston renters are rent-burdened, paying more than 30 percent of their income toward rent. Wu’s proposal would cap rent increases at 10 percent annually. Vasil’s group says that approach is the wrong way to go and is spending $400,000 to fight it.
“The difficulty is doing business in Boston is really hard,” Vasil said. Developers, landlords, and lending institutions have “told us that if we’re in a rent control environment and if there are government price controls in the city on projects, they’d rather be elsewhere. And we’re concerned about that, because it’s not gonna solve our problem for the people of the city. That’s our biggest issue. I think we all are in agreement what the housing problem is. I think it’s just philosophy on how we get there is the biggest stumbling block.”
Montaño said exemptions built into Wu’s policy, including owner-occupied buildings with six units or less and a 15-year exemption for new construction, should offset that concern. “I think it’s not an accurate representation of what’s happening on the ground,” the Jamaica Plain representative said of Vasil’s assessment.
When it comes to Wu’s proposal, Vasil said, his group’s forceful response is not because a 10 percent cap is unfathomable on its face.
“When you take a look at the proposal, you would be hard pressed to say that it was not reasonable,” he said. “But what we’re seeing play out right before our eyes is what has played out nationally – proposals that are reasonable and then the push to make them unreasonable.“
During her campaign, Gov. Maura Healey said rent control is “up to communities to decide,” but there hasn’t been much appetite from State House legislative leaders to give local officials that flexibility.
Montaño and Rep. David Rogers of Cambridge introduced one of several rent stabilization bills on Beacon Hill this term. Some of those bills would set a specific annual rent cap, like Montaño’s proposed 5 percent, though another bill proposed by Rep. Mike Connolly of Cambridge would simply lift the statewide ban on rent control passed through voter referendum in 1994.
The local option bills, which would let cities and towns implement a rent control and tenant protection package, and the Wu proposal do not set baseline rents. “We’re not trying to tell anyone what their rent is,” Montaño said, just set reasonable limits on how much it can increase once a tenant is in place.
Boston city councilors are holding a working session Monday afternoon to begin proposing adjustments to Wu’s proposal.
Although Healey has indicated rent control is a local issue, economic “competitiveness” as a state has become the watchword of her administration. Vasil and Montaño differed on the impact rent control may have in the state.
Vasil sees a future where developers flee and housing stagnates. He would rather see tax breaks and incentives for landlords offering below-market rate rents. The local option is no comfort to him. “Local option rent control could turn into utter chaos from a statewide housing policy perspective,” Vasil said.
Montaño says the current system is already creating unacceptable inequities.
“We’re perpetuating poverty when we ask folks to move because we put up these huge rent increases,” she said. “So, if we limit the amount that a rent increase can go up, we are allowing folks to start to build wealth and that builds a stronger Commonwealth across the board, because we’re allowing folks and communities to say, ‘I have stability in this community.’”