Rent control in Massachusetts was a means of limiting the amount of rent charged on dwellings between 1970 and 1994.
History
Adoption
Massachusetts adopted rent control in the 1970s when the effort was spearheaded by a group of Harvard University graduate students. Those who lived in rent controlled apartments included
Ruth Abrams, a Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Kenneth Reeves, the mayor of Cambridge, Massachusetts at the time rent control was repealed in Massachusetts, was living in the same rent controlled apartment he lived in as a Harvard student in 1973. Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, lived in a rent controlled apartment in Cambridge when he was a student at Harvard, but left once the story was printed in the newspapers.
Repeal
Rent control was repealed in 1994 via ballot initiative. At the time, only Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline had rent control measures in place.
Many saw the repeal effort as difficult because it was often not just the poor and the elderly who benefited from rent control, but middle class and even wealthy renters. The opposition challenged the 73,769 petition signatures the pro-repeal side collected to put the measure on the ballot. In the end, the pro-repeal side had 34 more than was required.
Proponents of the repeal argued that it kept rents artificially low, made it hard to lease a property, and made it difficult to make repairs and improvements to the property. Opponents argued that it kept prices from rising too quickly in a tight market.
Within four years of repealing the law, Cambridge, where "the city's form of rent control was unusually strict," saw new housing and construction increase by 50%, and the tax revenue from construction permits tripled.
After the vote, the Massachusetts General Court passed a law protecting low-income tenants in rent control apartments from being evicted. Only 9.4% of tenants in rent control apartments qualified.
Cambridge decisions
Bologna
In 1984, Vincent Bologna, a Sicilian immigrant and United States Navy veteran, purchased a dilapidated, abandoned house in Cambridge. He renovated the building himself, hauling away 55 truckloads of trash and restoring the building, including remedying all 60 code violations.
He turned the building into a two family home, and moved his family into the 800-square-foot rear apartment. He rented the front apartment to Drs. Krenie and Marie Stowe, a psychiatrist and her daughter, a student at Harvard Law School. The Stowes sublet out rooms in their apartment.
The Cambridge Rent Control Board ruled that because the property had once been a rooming house, even though it was illegally operating as one in violation of the local zoning laws, that it was covered by rent control. Because of this, they ruled Bologna had been overcharging the Stowes, who made a combined income of $110,000 a year in 1986.
The Board ordered Bologna to convert the house back into a rooming house and to slash the rent he was charging the Stowes by $1,000 a month. The Stowes then sued Bologna for retroactive overcharges, plus triple damages and legal fees. Their lawyer encouraged them not to pay any rent, as Bologna did not have enough assets to pay more than $100,000 in fees and damages. The Bologna family faced foreclosure and bankruptcy as a result. They also lost another rental property that they owned because they could not keep up with the mounting legal bills while not receiving rent from the Stowes for five years.
The Cambridge Zoning Board then refused to allow Bolgona to convert the home back into a rooming house as it violated the zoning laws. Bologna and his family were ordered to live in a one bedroom apartment in a converted garage.
Petrillo
Peter and Helen Petrillo owned a three-family house in Cambridge. They lived in one unit, rented a second until to Helen's brother, and rented a third unit to another tenant. When their daughter's home burned down, the Petrillos moved into the basement to give their daughter, her husband, and their three children their unit.
The Rent Control Board ruled that it was now a four unit building and thus subject to rent control. They ordered the Petrillos to slash their tenant's rent and to pay them damages.