RENT CONTROL JITTERS
What will Beacon Hill think?
The elephants in the room were the donkeys of the State House.
Even though it’s controlled by fellow Democrats, Beacon Hill’s specter loomed over the first Boston City Council hearing about rent control as the local pols fretted from various angles what might be too far left for state approval and what changes the Legislature might make.
“I don’t want to see us get all, you know, in a tizzy and divided and have a big free for all if there’s not a likelihood of success,” City Councilor Michael Flaherty said, saying that the council and administration need to figure out what can even get state approval.
He and City Council President Ed Flynn both said it would help if the city could know if there’s a mark that would have the blessing of the Legislature, which would need to approve this if passed.
But other councilors disagreed. City Councilor Julia Mejia said. “We need to be unapologetic about what this moment looks like, and not just go in with what we believe the state house will approve.”
Both Mejia and Flynn did ask questions with similar points, seeking information about how much the State House could change any proposal that the city sends up to them. The answer, according to city administration officials, is that Beacon Hill could amend anything, but that it would need to come back to the council if it’s substantially altered.
Before the council currently is Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposal for rent control, a policy she touted during her run for mayor. Voters statewide banned the practice by referendum in 1995.
Wu’s proposal is seeking to cap year-over-year rent increases at 6% plus consumer price index increases, to a max of 10%.
New construction would be exempt from the caps for the first 15 years, and protections wouldn’t carry over between tenants. Exemptions also include buildings with six or fewer units where one of the occupants is the owner. The city would improve a rental registry and tighten just-cause eviction rules.
The expected breakdown among the council was evident: several councilors to Wu’s political right appeared suspicious of any rent-control measure at all, saying it would cut down on important housing production, while what appeared to be a larger cohort was suspicious of the 15-year exemption and said the cap was too high.
“For me, the CPI plus 6 percent is untenable,” City Councilor Kendra Lara, one of that latter bloc, said.
The other element in the mix is that the Greater Boston Real Estate Board is ramping up a $400,000 campaign against rent control, complete with digital ads, mailers and phonebanking.
Wu’s housing staffers pushed back on some of the criticisms from the right, saying that this was a balanced approach that would look to thread a tough needle.
“People who are suggesting that growth will stop are misleading,” Housing Chief Sheila Dillon told the councilors.
But she and Deputy Director Tim Davis also parried queries from the left, particularly around the cap number.
“We think that by having this higher allowance for rent increases, that we’re avoiding the worst of what we’ve seen in some others,” Davis said, acknowledging that tight rent control has led to construction slowdowns at times.
He added, “We think this is a very good petition that would be most welcome at the State House.”
Beacon Hill is now completely controlled by Democrats, but generally ones more toward the political center than Boston’s council and mayor. Gov. Maura Healey, House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka have not yet shown their hands on a rent-control issue, but they’re all relative moderates, and they call the shots in the highly corridors of power in the State House.
City Council President Flynn, one of the members who appears leery of the concept of rent control in general, showed up with what is essentially a counterproposal to instead give a $6,000 tax exemption for property owners willing to charge $500 a month below market-rate rents.
Dillon said she’d bring the proposal back to the administration to see what they thought. She said the same about multiple more leftward councilors’ dislike of the 15year exemption.