BROOKLINE, Mass. — Town officials in Brookline are one step closer to possibly being able to enact rent stabilization for the first time since 1994, when rent control was banned statewide.
Some argue it makes sense since 52% of Brookline residents are renters. For Augusts Judd and Meredith Perettine who’ve been renting in Brookline for the past three years, this comes as welcomed news.
“I don’t see why it would be a bad thing to not have my rent go up crazy,” Judd said.
“We’d love to live here until we’re priced out. I think for young people it’s really difficult to stay in a beautiful area like this as rent prices continue to increase,” Perettine added.
The decision to move forward with a home rule petition came during a Fall 2023 Brookline town meeting. The final vote count was 112 yes, 107 no, and 13 abstentions.
Alec Lebovitz, a town advisory committee member helped draft the petition.
“As a community, and partially because our community has such a long history with previous rent control, we view this as another tool in our toolbox to combating to housing affordability crisis,” Lebovitz said.
The proposal is suggesting capping annual rent increases at the rate of inflation, plus 3%.
“In a typical year where say long-run inflation is 2%, that means in Brookline, you’d be capped at increasing your rent for your tenants by 5%,” Lebovitz explained.
However, there are exceptions. Newly constructed units would be exempt from the cap for 15 years, as to not discourage new builds in Brookline. Additionally, owner occupant landlords (or smaller mom and pop landlords) would be completely exempt.
Though some in the real estate industry are skeptical. Brenda van der Merwe has been a real estate agent in the area for 21 years and believes this move could make the housing crisis more complicated.
“We’ve seen huge increases in infrastructure costs for keeping the buildings up. The problem is, when you institute artificial controls that aren’t tied to these things, we have a decrease in quality in the housing,” van der Merwe said. “Rent control does not help most of the landlords keep up with costs so the unintended consequences can be pretty severe.”
If the home rule petition passes the senate, Brookline could become one of the first Massachusetts towns to implement rent regulation in more than 30 years. That would be alongside Somerville which has also submitted a similar home rule petition.
For Brookline, Senate Majority Leader Cindy Creem is presenting the bill.
“Brookline Town Meeting members brought forward this home rule petition, and I support the Town’s request to have this local option for rent stabilization,” Sen. Creem wrote in a statement.
“We’ve laid out a framework for what authorities we would get under the home rule petition but actually, what we would put in place, that would be determined by a future town meeting,” Lebovitz explained.
The home rule petition is set to be voted on in the Senate on April 8.
If approved, Brookline could be setting the stage for Boston where there’s support for a proposed ballot question that would enact statewide rent control.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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