LYNN – Local tenants, homeowners, landlords and elected officials gathered at Zion Baptist Church yesterday for a legislative forum to discuss rising housing costs, highlighting the rent control bill S.1447/H.2328.
Carolyn Chou, executive director of Homes for Massachusetts, described the bill as “moderate rent stabilization” to “protect people from speculative rent gouging.
“Corporate investors are coming in and seeking the opportunity that Massachusetts presents, because we have so many great resources, and people want to live here. People are coming in, they’re buying buildings, they’re raising the price. They’re clearing them out, and they know that people can’t pay, so they can get wealthier people in,” she said.
The bill will limit annual rent increases, and will require landlords to have just cause for evictions in the state of Massachusetts.
“We want to give people predictability,” Chou said.
However, Sen. Brendan Crighton had concerns about “unintended consequences” of the bill.
“I do not want to pass policies (that), while well intended, could come back to actually be more expensive here in Massachusetts,” he said.
He elaborated “many progressives” have the concern that putting limits on rent prices could potentially interfere with more housing being built and landlords investing in their units.
State Rep. Jenny Armini expressed a similar sentiment.
“I am concerned about how we build more housing, and what it takes to build more housing. I’ve learned the importance of providing environments in which new housing can be built. I think that communities like Lynn are disadvantaged when it comes to building more housing, because developers are going to go to those communities that don’t have it,” she said.
“There might be a way for us to deal with price gouging with landlords in a different way. What are the consequences for price gouging, and how do we determine what price gouging is?” she added.
State Rep. Daniel Cahill raised concerns about “large corporations” “using loopholes to their advantage.” He gave examples such as landlords converting their apartments to condos to avoid rent control and evicting tenants from said condos, or using rent control as an excuse to not maintain their property.
“We want landlords of all sizes, homeowners and large, to make renovations,” he said.
State Rep. Sean Reid had a different perspective.
“We have an emergency situation here, and desperate times call for desperate measures. I don’t think there is any silver bullet solution or else we would have done it by now, but I think we need to have another tool while we try to pull ourselves out of this crisis and to have these types of options available,” he said.
The forum was organized by Lynn United for Change and Essex County Community Organization.
In his closing statement, Isaac Hodes, executive director of Lynn United for Change, emphasized his support for the bill, despite opposition from three out of four legislators.
“This is the only policy that will act quickly enough and broadly enough to deal with the catastrophe we’re confronting right now,” he said.
