Panel hears sharp debate over lifting statewide ban on rent stabilization

The Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government heard more than 175 live and virtual witnesses Tuesday at a marathon hearing on a cluster of housing bills, including S.1447, which would lift the Commonwealth’s ban on municipal rent stabilization and allow cities and towns to adopt local rules limiting rent increases and requiring just cause for eviction. Senator Adam Gomez, who represents Springfield and Chicopee, told the committee the bill would “lift the current statewide ban on rent stabilization and allow cities and towns at their discretion to enact common sense local policies to cap egregious rent increases and prevent no fault evictions.”

Housing advocates, tenant organizers and labor unions told the committee that steep rent increases are already forcing residents from their homes.…