Rent Control Supporters Respond to Launch of Multi-Million-Dollar Real Estate Industry Opposition Campaign
BOSTON — Supporters of the proposed ballot initiative that would limit annual rent increases to no more than 5% today responded to the launch of a real estate industry opposition campaign against the initiative.
“The commercial real estate industry has already poured nearly half a million dollars into their campaign to mislead voters about rent control, and that's just the start,” said Noemi “Mimi” Ramos, Executive Director of New England Community Project and chair of the Keep Massachusetts Home ballot committee. “Corporate real estate executives have pledged to spend as much $30 million this year on a barrage of ads designed to protect the massive profits they're making off the backs of Massachusetts families. People across Massachusetts are struggling with sky-high rents, but out-of-touch multi-millionaire real estate investors are willing to spend millions to protect their ability to raise rents without any limits.”
“Right now in Massachusetts, rents can legally double overnight — displacing workers and seniors from their communities, forcing people to work multiple jobs just to pay the rent, and making it impossible for young families to save money to achieve the dream of owning a home. The rising costs of housing is the biggest threat to Massachusetts families, and we need basic protections against excessive rent hikes,” said Carolyn Chou, a Dorchester renter and Executive Director of Homes for All Massachusetts. “Designed with input from residents and experts across Massachusetts, this modern rent stabilization ballot initiative will protect tenants from big corporate investors who unreasonably increase rents, while allowing local landlords to earn a reasonable profit and enabling new construction to address housing shortages. It's the immediate relief we need to protect people as we work to fully address our state’s housing crisis.”
According to filings with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance, the anti-rent control ‘Housing for Massachusetts’ ballot committee raised $431,600 in cash last year, entirely from just four commercial real estate corporations and real estate industry lobbying groups. Last month, real estate executives pledged to spend as much as $30 million this year on an “ad blitz” against the proposal.
In contrast, the campaign for rent control is backed by a massive statewide movement of renters, homeowners, and neighbors. Last year, supporters of the ‘Keep Massachusetts Home’ campaign collected more than 124,000 signatures from voters across the state to qualify the measure for the November 2026 statewide ballot, far more than the required 74,574.
“I was recently almost evicted because of big rent increases; the first one was $300, the second one was $800, and the third one was $500 — all within four years,” said Patty Ford, a lifelong resident of Lynn who collected signatures as a volunteer with Lynn United for Change. “I got involved with this campaign because I don’t want anyone else to ever go through that. It’s very, very, hard — especially for older people like me.”
During a year when eleven ballot initiatives submitted enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, largely by writing checks for hundreds of thousands of dollars to hire paid professional signature gathering firms, this represented the state’s largest grassroots ballot signature gathering campaign in the state this election cycle. The Keep Massachusetts Home campaign was the only successful signature-gathering campaign that did not hire a paid professional signature gathering firm to collect the signatures needed to qualify for the ballot.
Hundreds of volunteers collected signatures for the ballot initiative from voters in 332 of the state’s 351 cities and towns — everywhere from large cities like Springfield and Lynn to smaller communities like Hawley (population 353) and Alford (population 486).
“All across Western Mass, we're seeing people being forced out of their homes by rising rents. More and more, we're witnessing corporate real estate investors buying up homes and doubling the rent overnight,” said Rose Webster-Smith, Director of Springfield No One Leaves. “That's why hundreds of renters and homeowners from all four counties spent thousands of hours this fall gathering signatures to put rent control on the ballot. From our cities to our rural communities, we need modern rent stabilization to keep Western Mass home.”
If legislators do not act on the measure by this spring, advocates must then collect 12,429 more signatures in May and June to place it on the November 2026 statewide ballot.
The ballot initiative, An Initiative Petition to Protect Tenants by Limiting Rent Increases, would limit annual rent increases in Massachusetts to the cost of living, with a cap at 5%. For an apartment that costs $2,000 per month, that means an annual increase in monthly rent of no more than $100/month.
The limit on rent increases would continue to apply when new renters move in, meaning rent could not be drastically increased between tenants. The ballot initiative would support small landlords, not big corporations, by exempting owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units. And it would encourage housing production and economic growth by applying rent limits to new construction only after a building’s first 10 years.