By Fenway Forward
July 1, 2026
This week, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court removed the rent control ballot initiative from this year’s ballot based on a technicality regarding exemptions for religious facilities. While this decision is disappointing, it does not erase the fact that more than 157,000 Massachusetts residents signed petitions calling for rent control, sending a clear message that skyrocketing rent increases are untenable amidst the current housing crisis.
Furthermore, over the past several months, rent control proponents have had positive and generative conversations with real estate development partners who are open to a reasonable and nuanced legislative compromise. Housing developers, both nonprofit and for-profit, benefit from stability in the housing market as we look to make investments in our communities. The compromise rent stabilization proposal would deliver the predictability that developers and investors need to build more housing now, while protecting tenants.
By limiting excessive year-over-year rent increases, adding reasonable safeguards against eviction, and allowing fair returns and market resets under appropriate circumstances, the compromise will help prevent displacement while maintaining the economic viability of housing production. We do not have to—and should not have to—wait two years for the next ballot opportunity. State legislators can pass the rent stabilization compromise bill now. While Fenway Forward remains committed to the principles of the ballot initiative, uncertainty regarding the future of rent control is unnecessarily destabilizing for both renters and developers. Predictability benefits everyone. This year’s legislative session ends July 31. We have time.
Fenway Forward calls on lawmakers, housing developers, housing advocates, and all those who were open to compromise before the state court’s decision to stay committed to these conversations and help keep people rooted in their communities.
Expanding housing production and shielding residents from unsustainable rent increases are not mutually exclusive goals, and there is still time to achieve meaningful progress in this legislative session.
Contact your legislators today and urge them to support the compromise.
