Media

Rent control not the fix for housing crisis

Recently, a dozen mayors across the commonwealth publicly took a stance against a proposed ballot question that, if enacted, would impose a one-size-fits-all rent control mandate across each of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts.

I agree that housing costs are an urgent issue that need to be addressed through collaboration between the public and private sectors. It’s not lost on me that rents are too high. I wanted to expand further upon why this statewide mandate would be bad for Worcester.

The rent control policy seeking to appear on the ballot in 2026 is the most restrictive statewide policy in the country. It is a top-down mandate that would apply the same policy to 351 unique cities and towns across Massachusetts, each with their own individual needs. And it would be catastrophic to local municipal budgets.

Applying the same rules across the state takes away local control and will have disastrous consequences. While Worcester is the second-largest city in New England, we have distinct demographics from Boston, as well as our neighbors in Grafton and Shrewsbury, to name some.

We’re all in agreement that Massachusetts, including Worcester, is facing a housing crisis. That’s why the city laid out its own housing production plan for 2026 to 2030, identifying the need for nearly 12,000 new rental units and 850 new owner-occupied units through 2034.

With the current pace of construction, Worcester’s residential market is expected to maintain a sub-5% vacancy rate, which promotes competition for housing and ongoing rent growth. We found that there aren’t enough market-rate homes available, nor are there enough homes for extremely low-income households. These issues with supply have exacerbated our housing costs, alongside rising fixed costs including utilities and insurance.

Rent control has been shown to disincentivize investment and new construction starts desperately needed to address our housing crisis. St. Paul, Minnesota, saw a 79% decrease in new apartment construction permits after adopting rent control in 2022. Montgomery County, Maryland, saw new multifamily permits decrease from 2,093 to only 54 between 2024 and 2025 after adopting rent control.

Here in Massachusetts, under the 1970 rent control measure in Cambridge, Massachusetts, construction was nonexistent. Upon its repeal in 1994, improvements and new construction increased 20%.

Research has shown that the best way to address housing costs is through the creation of new homes. In New Rochelle, New York, housing costs have gone down – from 2020 to 2023 median rent declined by 2%. This decline coincided with the construction of 4,500 new units completed over the past decade.