Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said Tuesday that she will support the pending ballot question to bring back rent control statewide if it is still on the ballot come Election Day.
“If this is still on the ballot by this fall, I am a ‘yes,’ voting for it,” Wu said during an appearance on GBH’s Boston Public Radio. “It’s not perfect, and it’s not what the City of Boston put forward as a balanced proposal for our city … but I’m not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good in this case, when there is so much urgency and pressure from housing costs on our residents.”
The measure would cap annual rent increases at 5% or the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower, for most rental properties in the state. Owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units would be exempt. So would apartments that are less than 10 years old, a concession aimed at incentivizing developers to continue building new rental properties.
Under the state’s ballot question process, voters will only get to weigh in on the rent control proposal if the state Legislature doesn’t pass related legislation by May 5. If not, proponents will then need to gather 12,429 more signatures to place the question on the ballot this fall. They already gathered 88,132 signatures to send the measure to the Legislature.
Wu, who unsuccessfully pushed a less-aggressive version of rent control at the State House that would have only applied to Boston, had previously signaled wariness over the pending statewide question because of its blanket application to disparate communities across Massachusetts.
Wu invoked that same concern Tuesday, while saying she hopes the looming question will pressure lawmakers into legislating a policy before it makes its way to the ballot.
“I hope there can be some compromise worked out because every city’s condition is actually quite different from each other, but we need to see some action, and so I will be voting for it if it’s there,” Wu said.
Wu’s remarks come as elected officials have begun staking out their sides on the issue, with some on Beacon Hill signaling that they are open to negotiating a nuanced approach to rent control.
Last month, the Boston City Council approved a resolution supporting the ballot question on a 9-3 vote.
Meanwhile, the state’s powerful real estate industry has campaigned against the idea, warning that it would slow housing production and lead to less maintenance in existing apartment buildings.
Wu did not answer a question about whether she is part of any ongoing efforts to quietly bring real estate leaders, lawmakers and advocates to meet in the middle, but pointed to housing costs that have consistently presented problems for some of Boston’s residents.
“Something’s got to give,” Wu said. “There’s always a better solution that comes out of legislating and being able to pass something with nuance than the kind of hammer of a ballot initiative, but we need to see something happen.”
Rent control was previously abolished in Massachusetts by ballot question in 1994 in an extremely close vote.
The mayor also expressed support for a mask ban for federal immigration authorities, but stopped short of pledging to pursue a city rule.
“We will look into it,” she said when pressed. “This is something that we have very clearly stated is important and cuts against public safety.”
In addition, Wu explained her vision for a newly signed executive order that bans federal officials from using city owned property for their operations without a valid court order, asserts that local police are obligated to protect residents, and says the city refuses to assist federal commandeering of local resources.
“If someone were to try to enter your home without a warrant, whether or not they are describing themselves as a federal immigration official, you should call 911, and in that case, our police officers are prepared to respond,” Wu said.
“So what if an ICE agent goes on property that you said they cannot go on?” asked host Jim Braude. “Does a Boston cop arrest that ICE agent?”
“This is not to provoke conflicts between multiple armed officers of different levels of government,” Wu responded. “Should the federal government choose, for example, to violate these orders, we are not asking or requiring or encouraging our officers to enter into any kind of conflict, but we will be there to document the violations of laws happening, to record with body-worn cameras, to use official police reports to release all of that information, to be there in numbers with whatever technology we have to document any violations for future legal accountability also when that reckoning does come.”
