Rent Stabilization Works: The Case for Allowing Massachusetts Localities to Re-Regulate Rents

Thank you to the Massachusetts State Legislature for allowing us to speak on the merits of allowing localities to enact rent stabilization. Our names are Samuel Stein and Oksana Mironova, and we are senior policy analysts at the Community Service Society of New York (CSS), a leading nonprofit organization that promotes economic opportunity. CSS has supported rent regulation since its inception in New York over one hundred years ago and continues to fight for the strongest protections possible for tenants.

A well-functioning rent regulation system provides four benefits to tenants and communities.

1: Affordability

Rent stabilization’s most direct benefit is keeping rent inflation in check. On the neighborhood level, it acts as a counterbalance to gentrification and as a bulwark against displacement and homelessness, helping residents stay in their apartments.

2: Stability

Rent stabilization provides tenants with security of tenure – the assurance that they can continue to live in their home without fear of arbitrary eviction or unconscionable rent hikes.

3: Organizing

Rent stabilization provides tenants with the protections necessary for individual or collective action. If tenants know they can continue to live in their home as long as they can pay the rent, and if they know that rent won’t go up that much from year to year, then they can organize in confidence for better living conditions, hazard abatements, accessibility improvements, and more.

4: Investment

Contemporary rent regulation systems contain mechanisms to help landlords pay for building improvements, beyond the standard level of maintenance and repair. Meanwhile, cities with rent stabilization have continued to see their housing stock expand over time. New York’s construction rate fluctuates far more due to world events, monetary policy and zoning changes than to the status of our rent laws. Despite frequent claims, rent stabilization has not been shown to lead to disinvestment in either individual buildings or in urban housing markets.

We strongly encourage the Massachusetts legislature to pass S.1299/H.2103 and allow cities and towns to enact rent regulations. Rent stabilization is the simplest way to extend affordability, protect tenants, support organizing, and encourage investment. It is the cornerstone of any other investments in housing affordability, making housing subsidies work better by controlling rent inflation. While there is plenty more Massachusetts can do to address the housing and homelessness crisis, none of it will be effective in the long term if it is not paired with rent regulations.

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