Mayor Wu pushes back on ‘fearmongering’ in Boston’s rent control debate as landlord group sues city

A landlord advocacy group is suing the City of Boston, accusing the city of failing to produce emails related to Mayor Michelle Wu’s rent stabilization proposal. 

In its Suffolk Superior Court lawsuit, Cambridge-based MassLandlords, Inc. explained that it made a public records request in 2022 for copies of emails exchanged between the city and members of the mayor’s Rent Stabilization Advisory Committee in the year before they were appointed. 

The city responded with only one email and failed to say whether more existed, according to the complaint. 

“MassLandlords contends that it stretches credulity to accept that there were zero emails exchanged between the City of Boston and 23 advisory committee members in the year leading up to the RSAC announcement,” the group said in an accompanying release. “Some members are deeply involved with official city functions beyond the RSAC and would presumably, at least occasionally, correspond via email regarding those roles.”

Wu responded to the lawsuit during an appearance on WBUR’s “Radio Boston” Monday.

“I am sure that everything is going to get sorted out on the transparency side,” she said. “It is our commitment always to follow the public records law to the fullest extent that is possible and even to go beyond that where we can. I would say we fully stand behind the process and the expertise that went into this proposal.”

Wu also called out special interest groups who might be listening to or practicing fearmongering on rent stabilization, adding, “I just want to remind these groups and everyone that it’s important to just start from the same place of facts and what we’re actually proposing and talking about.”

What’s in the proposal?

The main feature of Wu’s proposal is a cap on rent increases, limiting the maximum allowable increase to the change in the Consumer Price Index plus 6%, or 10% at most — whichever is lower.

During her radio appearance, Wu said the city recognizes the economic burdens families face today — renters and landlords alike — and has taken care to include certain exemptions, including those for new construction and smaller, owner-occupied properties. 

If Wu’s plan passes through the City Council, it will still need approval from state legislators and Gov. Maura Healey before it can go into effect.

What MassLandlords said

MassLandlords contended in its news release that under Wu’s proposed system, “many landlords would be unable to procure adequate funding for maintaining upkeep in compliance with the state’s sanitary code, let alone updating for energy efficiency and other necessary improvements.”

In its lawsuit, the group also cited a 1985 article from The Scandinavian Journal of Economics on “availability discrimination” under rent control, noting, “When landlords are hemmed in at or below inflation, with eviction restrictions, they hold units vacant longer waiting for a perfect applicant with high income and perfect credit.”

“Massachusetts had rent control in various municipalities for various years, and experienced the phenomenon of ‘availability discrimination,’” the complaint continued. “In Cambridge, for example, the applicants who obtained rent-controlled housing were disproportionately well-off and disproportionately white.” 

Massachusetts narrowly voted in 1994 to ban rent control statewide. 

Wu emphasized that her proposal is different from other rent control policies that once existed in the Bay State.

“This is a proposal that is meant to be in concert and balanced with, complementary to a whole range of supports and resources and policy changes that we’re trying to make to increase housing supply, to boost home ownership, to speed up our processes so that everything is more efficient and clear and transparent and predictable,” she said.

Wu added that her administration won’t be backing down from its push for housing affordability. 

“This is the one issue that is threatening our economy and our families most,” she said.

Abby Patkin

Staff Writer

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.

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