“Rent control doesn’t reduce housing supply. There is simply no data whatsoever to support this claim.”
That’s what one proponent told Massachusetts legislators last week.
But remember, Massachusetts has been here before. Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge had rent control from 1970 until it was banned by voters in 1994.
And the numbers from Cambridge’s own census data tell a very different story.
- During the height of rent control in Cambridge, between 1980 and 1990, renter-occupied housing units fell by 2,501 in just ten years.
- Roughly six years after voters repealed rent control, the 2000 census shows renter-occupied units had rebounded by 1,409.
Same city. Same demand for housing. The big difference in those decades was policy.
This is not theoretical. When we cap returns and lock in rigid rules, we push homes out of the rental market and deter investment in new ones. When we remove those barriers, supply starts to come back.
That’s why our team at Housing for Massachusetts is working so hard to educate voters, community, leaders, and elected officials across the Commonwealth. Yes, we need to find solutions to the availability and cost of housing, but the data shows again and again that rent control is not the answer.
