2022-01-11 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Housing
2022-01-11 00:00:00 - Joint Committee on Housing
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
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committee on housing scheduled this day, Tuesday january 11th 2000 and 22. I'd like to remind those participating in this meeting to please mute your microphone at this time. We're already getting a little bit of statics and people could remember to do that. That would be great. Welcome to all who have joined us today. My name is247 john Keenan the senate chair of the committee and I'm joined by my colleague and251 house co chair Representative Jim Arciero and with us today uh the following Senate members, Senator Patricia Jalen has joined us and we expect others to join us as the hearing goes on. At this point I recognized Arciero thank you. Chair Keenan Your uh represented consult Ayers
Representative the booth Representative Hendricks represented the coast Vice Chair Representative john Rogers representative Connolly and Representative Diggs
All right. I want to thank all members of the House and Senate for joining us today. Today is the committee's last scheduled hearing of this session and we'll hear testimony on bills relative to landlords and tenants as well as late filed bills. We obviously are conducting this hearing remotely along with communities and staff participants in today's hearing, including those legislative members of the public who pre registered to testify has joined us, all others listening to the hearing who are not members of the committee who are not signed up to testify. May view a livestream version of this hearing on the legislature's website M A Legislature dot gov and archive video of today's hearing will be made available on this site within a few days For those watching on the livestream. Any individual organization may submit written testimony and supplemental information on any of the bills on the docket. They may submit that to the committee and the committee staff via email in terms of testimony today. The order of testimony will be uh consistent with what we've done in the past. Legislators will be taken out of turn Housing Committee members who registered to testify will be called first followed by other legislators who registered. Well then hear testimony from those who preregistered by five p.m. On January seven. That was the deadline. Just a couple of ground rules for a few ground rules for testifying Ayers for those of you who are here to testify when I recognize you to speak, Please mute your audio and state your name. If you are affiliated with an organization, your position on the bills of concern and then please begin your remarks. Individual testifies will have up to three minutes to speak except in the case of panels of more than three people in those cases. If a panel has more than three people, the maximum time will be 10 minutes per panel.390 That will391 be imposed for the entire panel due to the volume of testifies. We have nearly 160 people who have registered to testify. We request that the time limit is adhered too so we can hear from everyone today. We're going to strictly enforce the time limit and I asked people if they hear something Before they testify that is similar to what they would say. They can reference those prior remarks and certainly they will be given the same weight and we would appreciate that when you look at the 160 testified deal, we are anticipating nearly eight hours of testimony so we want to move this along as quickly as possible for this reason. We again, we're going to enforce the time limits and asked that everyone will be respectful of this request. The committee staff will keep time and alarm will go off when the three minutes are up when an individual or a panel has concluded their testimony. Please remember to your microphone in the case of panel testimony. Questions from the committee will be asked at the end of all testifies on the panel. Once individuals or panels are done testifying, please exit the zoom call and watch from Livestream on the legislature's website. If testifies cannot wait on this call until they had called upon, we encourage them to submit written testimony so460 the committee can consider their petitions. We may we anticipate that that may be the case today. Given the large number of people who have signed up to testify. So if you we cannot stay in the car, please feel free to to send that information to us by email in terms of questions from the committee during testimony, members who wish to ask any questions should asked to be recognized by using the chat function. Just type I have a question when finished. The member who has asked questions should let me know that they have no further questions and then promptly removed the microphone. The chat will only be used for members of the committee to ask a question. Staff will also used to498 chat to notify those on the call who are on deck to speak. Please do not use the chat for any other function. So with that being said, we will move on now to accepting testimony and we512 will begin with Senator Patricia Jalen who I I know is here, it looks like she's sitting in a nice warm spot. Good morning Senator Welcome.
[SEN JEHLEN:] [SB889] [SB886] [SB880] [HB4208] Oh good morning, Chair Keenan and Chair Arciero I'm Pat Jehlen and I'm senator for Somerville, Medford, parts of Cambridge and Winchester and I'm here in favour of Senate539 889 Senate 886 with their companion house bills, both pairs of bills would allow local rent stabilization ordinances. People in Massachusetts have less local control over the decisions that affect their lives that in most states in other states, communities don't need permission to respond to local needs. Um but our communities needs are very, very different. Many communities would never consider limiting rent increases. They don't need to, but in Somerville we often see extraordinary rent increases of 500 to 78 $900 a month, 30% increases.
Often these sudden increases are equivalent to addiction tenants simply can't afford to pay the new rent and they leave often long term residents with kids in school have to leave the city. According to one source. From 2011 to 2019, rents in Somerville went up almost 30% went faster than in place faster than inflation. The opportunity for unlimited rent increases drives higher sales prices. So Senate 889 sets parameters for any community that wants to stabilize rent. In particular, owner occupied one, two or three unit buildings could not be included.
Senate 889 exempts new buildings, which some will question, but that responds to one of the arguments against it and in fact, would drive investment toward construction of new units, rent stabilization doesn't just affect tenants. It can make it possible for potential homeowners to compete with large developers in the market right now, in Somerville and in many cities across the state, potential homeowners are650 outbid by large corporate investors who can pay high prices because there is no limit on rents, they can pay cash without conditions. And despite thousands of new units being built. Our city has fewer homeowners than it did five years ago, opponents of rent668 control say it will drive investors out of the city and that will give families a fighting chance to become homeowners.
The reason my family is a homeowner in Somerville is because of rent control in 1970, the Landlord for 60-16 Streets sent notices of huge rent increase. But Somerville the same year adopted rent control. He couldn't raise the rent that much and decided to sell. So my husband and I were able to buy our first home. We were far from the only families who bought at that time from investors who sold their property due to rent control. I want to709 work with the committee on these bills to include the best provisions and move them forward to prevent further rent burden and displacement. Not every community needs it and not every community that needs it will adopt it, but we should give those that needed the opportunity to make those decisions locally.
I'd also like to be recorded in favour of House 4208, a Somerville home rule for tenant opportunity to purchase,735 which would also slow development and increase home ownership. Also Senate 880 866 Homes for all. Thank you so much for your attention and I hope to work with you all. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you. Senator Jalen any questions from the committee seeing none. Thank you for testimony. Next, we'll move on to a panel homes for all rafael Perez Isaac Simon puts Lewis Lawrence and to win.
Mhm chair Keenan chair Arciero members of the committee greatly appreciate the time. Um, as well as the staff working on the tech issues, we know there are always challenges. Okay. Um and I just want to know one change due to covid issues. Um Rafael Perez is not able to be here, but um, Glenda Argueta is gonna um to testify as a tenant in his place and she is like that as well.
[ISAAC SIMON HODES (HOMES FOR ALL):] [HB1378] [SB886] [HB1440] [SB889] Um so on behalf of homes for all Massachusetts, I'm here to testify in support of rent control and specifically bills H1378 and S886 and also H1440 S889 both of those bills give the flexibility to our cities and towns, uh, to implement local rent control as a coalition with members on the ground across the state. We know that housing unaffordability and displacement is an absolute emergency in both large cities and in smaller towns in all parts of our836 commonwealth rent control is one critical tool in responding and we urgently need you in the State house to please restore the ability of local communities to design rent control policies that will work in our local conditions.
I got a call last Friday from a tenant named Sonia that I think sums up a lot of what's at stake here, Both what this is and it's862 not about Sonia lives not too far from me here in Lynn and she called Extremely upset. She lived has lived in her building for 13 years together with her daughter and now her two granddaughters and she recently got a notification that the new owner of the building Intends to raise her rent from $1,300 a month to $3000 a month. And the ultimatum was she was welcome to stay if she could afford 3000 a month, but if not she had 30 days to move out and then she did get a notice to leave and her questions were, what am I going to do? What's going to happen906 to my family? And in terms of policy we need to have a better answer to that question. Um To me that symbolizes a lot of the trade off we're looking at here.
This is not about a small rent increase to cover an increase in water and sewer bills by a you know, owner occupant landlord just barely making a profit. This is about speculation about an outrageous, you know, maximum profit that someone wants to make a windfall On the one hand, on the other side, we have all the damage we know this does to families, to people at an individual level, and to our community on the individual level. There's so much research now, clearly documenting the impacts on physical health and mental health, on long term financial well being. Um of families who face forced eviction and displacement like this. Um I wonder about Sonia's granddaughters, will they be moved966 from school to school. Um And what kind of impact will that have on their education.
Um We know from research like uh MacArthur Genius Matthew Desmond and others that displacement like that um isn't a result of poverty but actually causes poverty inter generally inter generally generationally um impacting families. So that's what we're facing in terms of991 the community impact. We know um that displacement like this, it causes lasting and998 irreversible damage to many of our working class communities and communities of color that have unique characteristics that have a unique mix of people um that have um social supports um in in social capital that just can't be replaced when you lose longtime residents like that. Um That's the damage we're talking about preventing1021 through local policies of rent control. This is not about stopping all housing production in any way.
We can look at other states1030 and municipalities for examples that, you know, development can continue along with rent control. Um This is not about putting, you know, small landlords out of business. We know that there are landlords right now who are able to do fine without those kind of massive and disruptive rent increases. Um but have reasonable and gradual adjustments of rent. This is really about protecting families and in communities. We know that rent control doesn't solve everything. We also need investments in high quality social housing and co ops we need more development um in the medium and long term. Uh and we know that in the very immediate future we need things like that. COVID-19 housing equity bill to prevent COVID-19 evictions and displacement.
But in the short term there's really no other intervention like rent control, there's no replacement. Um There's nothing else that can stop the bleeding and the damage going on in our communities right now with minimal if any cost to the public. Um So for all those reasons we ask you to please um for the sake of democracy as well. Small d democracy um give our cities and towns um and local people the right to um have their vote matter. We talk a lot about, you know, protecting voting rights which are under attack1111 across the country um and targeted particularly at people of color. We need to protect voting rights, but we also need to protect the right of those votes to matter of those votes to1120 make a difference. And that means empowering um local1124 municipalities and local voters um to decide whether rent control makes sense for them in their community and if so what type of rent control.
Um so we really hope you'll act quickly on this. Um and please don't look away from from the cost. Um We know that, you know, we're we're facing these displacement costs right now and we really need um to have the ability to use this tool to prevent them.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
I'll stop there. And um ask Glenda um to go ahead and I believe Andres Del Castillo is interpreting if I if I can just please take a moment, There's only about uh there's under three under four minutes left for this panel just so that people are cognizant of that. So I just want to remind people as they are introducing the panel that that introduction and those comments count against the 10 minutes again we're facing about 260 people testifying So we're down to about four minutes left on the panel. So I asked the panel members to be cognizant of that. Thank you.
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[(INTERPRETER):] Good morning I'm Glenda Argueta, I'm a resident of Lynn Massachusetts and I'm here because I support rent control. In the 18 years I've lived here. I've never received a rent increase as high as I've received now
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[(INTERPRETER):] I live in this building For 12 years um and the rent increase that the Landlord wanted last year was of $550.
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[(INTERPRETER):] This is has a really big effect on our family because $550 in increase is a lot for our family and it affects our family greatly.
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[(INTERPRETER):] We want to stay in this building because this is where we've built our home, we know our neighbors together with our neighbors, we clean the building and the property, we maintain the driveway, we share the parking and we all know each other. Um in our neighborhood
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[(INTERPRETER):] The landlord's notice um was of a $550 rent increase and we weren't going to be able to pay that rent increase even if my husband took on another job
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[(INTERPRETER):] So we are continuing to pay the rent that we had agreed to and not the increase. And so the landlord is moving forward with trying to evict us
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[(INTERPRETER):] Emotionally it's affected the adults as much as it's affected the kids. Um the kids will ask questions like where are we1389 going to go where are we going to live what are we gonna do where1393 are we going to go to school. Um And so it's a very difficult process
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[(INTERPRETER):] It's very difficult to hear and very sad to hear our Children speak like that. Um and very frustrating to not be able to do anything about that.
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[(INTERPRETER):] Thank you very much for your time. God bless you. Um And we I hope you make the right choices in supporting rent control. Have a good day.
Thank you. And I believe Eloise Laurence has a quick word. Thank you.
[ELOISE LAWRENCE (HAVARD LAW SCHOOL):] Thank you very very quickly. It looks like I have about a minute. My name is Eloise Lawrence, I am an assistant clinical professor at Harvard Law1461 School and um Deputy faculty director of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. My day1465 job is basically to represent tenants who are getting um evicted from their homes. People1470 have talked about the displacement pressures. So I won't review that here. I just want to remind people about the news that we've read this week and the tragedies in Philadelphia the tragedy in New York. These things are connected. The reality is that they were deeply overcrowded in Philadelphia? Why? Because they couldn't pay the rent in other places. Why were people using space heaters now? I don't know1493 the details. I'm not a fire chief, but I do think I see it all the time that people are heating their homes because they don't have the money they are paying the landlord, so they're cheating uh there there robbing Peter to pay Paul and they are using space heaters instead of the normal heat because they can't afford it.
The bottom line is it is way too expensive out there and as a result the tragedies are going to continue because of the reality of this system which is broken and we need to allow local communities to protect their tenants and their residents. This bill, these bills are about localities protecting their citizens. So I would strongly request and urge that the state legislature allow communities to protect themselves and their residents. Thank you.
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Thank you. Is there another speaker on the panel Isaac speakers? Thank you. Okay.
[NGUYEN:] Hi. Yes. Um thank you so much for taking the time to listen. Um I'm Thu Nguyen and I'm a city councilor at Large um in Western Massachusetts and I'm also a renter and I would say state these things briefly, as I know we're running out of time. Um I am in support of1573 lifting the ban on rent control and I just want us, I just want to remind folks how cold it is outside today and that, you know, I thought yesterday about the people who will die today because of how cold it is. And I think about when the schools were closing yesterday, how some1590 young folks actually need to go to school to stay warm and that sometimes we think of a home as a place that we could rest and1600 be warm and be safe and that's not all1603 the that's not always the case. Some people don't have homes Some people don't have shelters and some home aren't warm and comfortable or safe because there's food insecurity.
Some people are actually starving to pay rent. Some people actually don't turn on the heat one degree higher because they can't afford to and some people, no matter how much they work, how many hours, how many people in their families work, they still can't afford rent. And so I agree with everyone who spoke before me. I really want to just emphasize the daily concrete things that people go through to pay rent. And so I hope as you leave as people who are able to have housing security and to sit here and make decisions on other people's bodies and their livelihood that you think about what people go through for their own livelihood and for their own survival. And so I just hope you take that in consideration and I know our panel kind of went over. So thank you so much for taking the time.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Great thank you counselor any questions members of the panel seeing none. Thank you to those who testified. And just to to note we did give extra time because of the translation issue and we will do that throughout the course of the hearing. So again, thank you for your testimony. Next, we'll move on to Representative Dave Rogers.
[REP ROGERS:] [HB1440] Yes, Chair Keenan and Chair1702 Arciero Arciero and through you to the members of the committee, thank you for this opportunity. I appreciate it. And I'm here today to testify in support of the bill I filed H1440 and also in supportive of a number of other proposals before you to do with rent stabilization, also called rent control and um being chairs of the Housing Committee, you well know and so I won't spend much time1735 on the affordable housing crisis gripping the greater Boston area.
Um it's emblematic of our times and income inequality, we've seen almost a bifurcation of of societal wealth where, you know, a booming economy, like our regional economy with biotech and high tech and so many1756 companies spinning out of Harvard and MIT I mean, you do have a lot of high earners and that's led to this boom in housing wealth,1766 but it's left so many people behind and it's truly at crisis levels if that's not hyperbole, that's not an exaggeration. Um so, um you know, I guess one thing I want to highlight for you and imagine you and members of the committee may already know this is just a brief historical context, which is that there were efforts to limit rent control um years ago when it was only in three of the 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth.
So when there was a ballot initiative to eliminate rent control Over a quarter century ago of the 351 cities and towns in our state, only three had rent control. That's it. Now granted. There were larger places like Boston and Cambridge. But still it was, it was a small number of cities and towns and a small relative percentage of the population in the state. And so the real estate interests and there's a great book on this written by a Massachusetts state representative. If you ever get a chance to read it, those on the call experiencing politics was written by John McDonough.1840 He was a state rep here in Massachusetts and he walks through the history of how they tried to eliminate rent control in Cambridge. And it failed because at the local level local interest didn't want it to end.
So the real estate industry came up with a plan and their plan was to put it on a statewide ballot. Now keep in mind, only three towns had it. So the other 348 cities and towns really didn't have a stake in the game, but they got to vote on it on the statewide ballot initiative and that's when rent control was eliminated and it was razor thin, Go back and look at the numbers, I think it was 51 49 or 52 48 was tight. And so there wasn't an overwhelming mandate to do, it was razor-thin and uh now here we are with this affordable housing crisis over a quarter-century later and I believe it's time to look closely again at taking this step. And so the one thing I would also highlight, oh I see in the chat 51 49 there you have it. So um, I want to emphasize one thing, if we pass these rent control bills, rent control is established nowhere in the commonwealth.
These are local option bills. So that is a very controversial issue for some and I'd like to tamp down that controversy a little bit by stressing these are just local option bills. We're not imposing rent control anywhere if these bills pass, we're giving local communities the chance to do it. And so I think it's timely it's sensible. We have a crisis and it's the right thing to do. And so you're going to hear from so many folks. I don't want to go on at any greater length because I know you have a long list of folks who are going to be testifying today, but I really again appreciate this opportunity very much and we've done a lot in the legislature on affordable housing, but we need to do more. And so thank you so1966 much for listening.
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Thank thank you Representative, we have a panel now with me me Ramos mod heard. Angela chang, Gladys vaguer and Conrad's Cizik, I hope I1978 got that last name right again. Thank you representative for1980 your testimony.
Thank you
Mimi Ramos not heard. Angela channing Gladys vega or Conrad's physic.
[?? (NEU4J):] Yes, good morning, thank you so much to the entire committee and to all of the residents on the call as well as our elected officials that are present today. Um I'm actually going to be speaking on behalf of Modhard. We were not able to help her with her microphone so I'm just gonna read her testimony out loud. So my name is Modhard, I'm a local resident in Boston, specifically in the Dorchester community. I have been a proud resident of the city for over 50 years of my life, I am a member of New England United for Justice and our organization is proud to be here to stand in support of rent control with our homes for all Massachusetts coalition partners. Our organization represents over 750 members who live in Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park and some parts of the Roxbury community.
Our members represent tenants of all types, specifically renters, small landlords and homeowners. A majority of the members that we represent are low-income, working-class, black and brown residents here in the Boston community and most live in the hardest-hit part of our neighborhoods. Housing stability2077 is the number one priority for our membership and the work that any U4J takes on in the neighborhoods. I'm a small landlord in Dorchester and I am here representing the importance of stabilising rents because this means stabilizing the housing needs of all of our neighborhoods as I rent my home to other residents. I know this income is important to me and I depend on it as a small landlord, but I also want to be sure that I'm not charging rents that families cannot afford because if I win my tenants win, if my tenants win then I win, I'm in support of rent control because this is about stabilizing the future for generations to come until renters are able to financially afford, taking the steps in owning their home like I do.
I believe that housing is a human right and many of us know2130 that over the past two years our homes have become our workplaces,2133 our schools and a safety net against the spread of the pandemic. We need to protect housing and our rights to housing. And I am proud to provide this testimony today. And I'll end by just saying as the Director for New England United for Justice, that this is an issue that we hear constantly every day. We are protecting families right now so that2156 they can receive the information, their rights as well as resources for housing. But we know that that's a short-term fix to a2164 long-term problem. And I really hope that we take it under our responsibility that we see it as a duty to not only pass rent control, but also to provide cities and towns their voice and their power to making decisions on what is best for their community. I'll keep it there. I really appreciate your time. And again we are here in support of rent control across the board. Thank you.
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Thank you.
[VEGA (LA COOPERATIVA):] Hi everyone. My name is Gladys Vega, executive director of La Cooperativa. I am also here in support of rent control. As you know, Chelsea was drastically impacted by the pandemic. And I tell you if our residents and families would have had apartments that they could afford and they can be living individually in their own apartments and not subleasing we wouldn't have lost so many lives and we would have been better better off. We were able to identify that with public housing in public housing. People have their own apartments and the pandemic didn't hit us hard, but in price in the private sector, it was drastically in Chelsea impacted by it because people were living in overcrowded conditions. I beg you to please support rent control.
As soon as we've been able to help families pay their their bills and get up to date with the rents, the landlords immediately are increasing $500 of monthly rents. It's completely unacceptable and we need help and I beg you to make sure that we do better for our residents for our residents in the Commonwealth in making sure that the lessons of this pandemic don't ever hunt us back. So please let's do everything in our power to make sure that we pass rent control and that we make it affordable for every community to also have the luxury of saying what they wish to do for their residents.
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[ANGELA ?? (CONCERNED CITIZEN):] [HB1378] [HB1440] Hi, my2302 name is Angela. I have been a Quincy resident for 15 years. I am an organizer with Asian American resource workshop and I am here in favour of H1378 and H1440 uh that are in support of lifting the rent control. As a renter in Quincy, the rent increase causes a significant financial burden to my neighborhood2326 and many of my neighborhood are battling the pandemic and the increased infection rate means that they desperately need a stable um housing at the right now and I have seen a tenant getting covid through the landlord and now facing evictions because they are facing tremendous financial issues due to the post covid side effects. And despite knowing the condition of the renter, the landlord still continues to increase the rent, causing attendant additional distress.
Housing issues can and should be addressed to ensure tenants such as these um to not have to worry about losing their homes while working through financial and physical concerns. The people in my community will continue to live in distress without rent control and my family and my neighbors will continue to live in2380 fear of losing our homes while dealing with the pandemic. And I urge the legislature to act immediately to protect the people in my neighborhood by lifting the ban on the rent control. Thank you so much.
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Thank you Angela Conrad.
[CONRAD CISZEK (MAHT):] [HB1378] [SB886] [HB4229] [HB1440] Yes, Good morning. Thank you very much for this opportunity to provide testimony in support of reinstatement of rent control and mental protections. Uh My name is Conrad Ciszek I'm testifying on behalf of myself and the Massachusetts Alliance of Hud tenants and the Burbank Tenants Association since 1983 Mas Alliance of Hud tenants has saved and preserved over 12,000 affordable housing units. My testimony here today is to express my full support and strongly urge the support and passage of these three pending bills before the committee and Legislature today, consisting of an act of enabling local options for tenant protections H1378, S886 and then H4229 and H1440. I'm here today to send an urgent SOS to our legislative representatives and leaders requesting their action to address an affordability housing crisis of epic proportion, not only existing in the city of Boston, but throughout this entire commonwealth.
Reinstatement of rent control is urgently needed as well as these other bills affording rentprotection, as I mentioned myself, residing in an expired former former affordable housing development I personally witnessed economic and social devastation of its impact and my complex specifically, many of the former affordable units that have since transformed2477 to unaffordable luxury price units made out of reach for low moderate and working class individuals. Existing tenants who have received enhanced2487 vouchers have since passed away or moved away resulting in those units reverting to market price, luxury price units. Outside my complex and throughout the city's state and nation, I've witnessed renters of low moderate and working-class being subjected to price gouging with enormous rent Increases as high as $1,000 a month, if not more resulting in financial hardship evictions and displacement, resulting in2517 much distress for many of2519 whom are low income, elderly, disabled and have really no place to go.
Also, it's important to state that the matter has been complicated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. These horrendous situations2537 and consequences are adversely harming these parties. That could have all been avoided if there had been legislative protections in place such as rent control and the other bills pending in front2549 of us today. If no action is taken at this moment and these bills are not voted and enacted into2555 a law, there could be overall adverse social consequences that would impact our Commonwealth and would be very harmful to a great deal of our population.
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Mhm.
[CISZEK:] Such regulation exists right here in the commonwealth2575 in2575 terms of consumer protection renters are consumers and they are require protection2584 in terms of rent increases. Hearing today,2587 an individual receiving a rent increase from $1300 to $3000 is quite distressing and quite alarming and how can anybody be able to pay $1700 rental increase. Therefore, I am urging that the the committee and the legislature passed these rent control protections and2612 ensure that we retain some stability because if it's not addressed we will not address it will reserve.
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Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Thank you for that panel for hitting the 10 minute mark on the Mark So thank you very much. Next. Um we'll move on to Representative Michael Connolly Representative.
[REP CONNOLLY:] [HB1378] [SB886] thank you.2639 Chair Keenan and share Arciero. Can you hear me? Thank you. Chair Keenan and Chair Arciero and and thank you for taking us out of turn. I'm here today to speak In support of House Bill 1378 and Senate Bill 886 an act enabling local options for tenant protections. Colleague filed by myself Rep Nica Elugardo and Senator Gomez who will be joining me on this panel in addition to supporting our2668 bill, I want to express strong support for the similar bill filed by Rep2673 Rogers and Senator Jehlen as well as several other bills on today's agenda that would advance the cause of housing justice Including house Bill 4208 to enable a tenant's opportunity to purchase in the city of Somerville.
Now we've already heard across the commonwealth. The ongoing affordable housing emergency continues to2697 result in widespread displacement, cost burden and homelessness. But Chapter 40 P often makes it impossible for our municipal officials to take meaningful action to stabilize housing for our most vulnerable residents. The2712 Tenant Protection Act offers one piece of a comprehensive approach to the affordable housing emergency. It would enable local rent stabilization and tenant protections and to echo what Rep Rogers emphasized earlier, Our our bills do not seek to require these protections and we don't attempt to prescribe the details of these protections for any given community. Instead, what our bill would do is repeal the preemptive provisions of Chapter 40 P, thereby enabling our municipal officials to bring everyone to the table.
And I want to be clear, that means renters, homeowners and landlords alike to craft tenant protections that work on the local level. The Tenant Protection Act allows the municipality by vote of its local elected body to adopt rent stabilization, just cause eviction protections, notification of rights and2772 resources for tenants facing eviction regulation of upfront fees, such as broker fees or payment plans for first and last month's rent and security deposit, as well as anti price gouging protections. Our bill explicitly exempts small owner-occupant landlords from any rent regulation. In addition, it empowers municipalities to craft broader exemptions as they deem fit or to specify that certain protections will only apply in specific anti-displacement zones and this anti-displacement zone idea came directly from our leading housing justice organizers.
I want to note that one exemption uh that could be considered by a city is one that I think the real estate industry often overlooks and that is the potential to exempt new construction of multi-family housing states that have recently passed rent2828 stabilization laws typically exempt new construction for a period of years. And in this2832 way we can make2834 it possible to stop displacement without impacting the incentive to build new housing. Uh Representative Elugardo and I first introduced this bill last session and we have been so grateful to see uh the initial response, it's been very encouraging. In 2019 legislators in New York state, Oregon and California all passed Rent stabilization laws more recently, voters in Minneapolis and St. paul passed a pair of rent stabilization initiatives.
We know Boston mayor2865 Michelle Wu won election on a platform that included strong support for rent control and today she is submitting a letter to this committee in support of our efforts. Uh meanwhile, I'm also proud to say we are expecting to hear testimony today from the mayors of Cambridge and Somerville, from city officials in our community and from across the commonwealth. There are scores of municipal officials who are now calling on us to2892 allow for a local option for rent stabilization. Um In conclusion, I want to circle back to something I said at the top lifting the ban on rent stabilization is just one piece of a comprehensive approach to addressing the housing emergency to truly make housing a human right. We need smart housing production, strong tenant2915 protections and big investment in a program of guaranteed housing for all.
We should acknowledge last session we made progress on this comprehensive approach bypassing two major housing production bills. The governor's bill, as well as legislation to require zoning for multi-family housing near transit. We also took action2936 to protect tenants by passing tenant opportunity to purchase an eviction ceiling. Unfortunately Governor Baker vetoed those tenant protections. So in conclusion, I'm2947 here to respectfully ask the committee to work with us to once again advance this bill favorably and with that I'll pass it2955 to our colleague, Senator Gomez of Springfield, followed by Representative Elugardo of Boston, Thank you.
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Thank you. Representative. Any questions for the Representative seeing none we'll hear from Senator Gomez and Representative Okwara,
[SEN GOMEZ:] [SB886] [HB1378] thank you. Chair Keenan and chair uh Arciero and members of this committee for hearing me support of S886 and its House counterpart H1378 an act enabling the local options for protections. I filed this bill alongside my colleagues in the House Representative Elugardo and Representative Connolly to address the ongoing statewide housing crisis that that this community faces. This legislation enables local rent stabilization and establishes necessary tools for municipalities to protect vulnerable tenants from displacement, price gouging and homelessness. For nearly two years. COVID-19 has caused irreparable harm and trauma of needless evictions for the commonwealth to recover.
We must protect renters throughout this public health crisis. This pandemic has accelerated the negative impacts of price gouging inour communities and allowed for landlords and real estate, excuse me, speculators to drive out families from their homes in the Hampden district, which I represent Greater Springfield, it's facing a housing and rental crisis. Unlike any we have seen in the past, A study conducted last year by the UMass Donahue Institute found that more than half of all bipac renters in Springfield are cost burdened, meaning more than 30 of their income goes towards their rent. These issues extend beyond Springfield's affecting surrounding areas into the Pioneer Valley as well. It's for this, these reasons that I speak in support of this critical legislation. Thank you to the chairs and the members of this joint committee for taking this time to consider the importance of this legislation. Please do not hesitate to contact my office. Should you have any additional questions? Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak in front of this committee.
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Thank you, Senator. Great to see you just folks. If I could just make a quick point at the outset of the hearing, I asked that, um, the, the chat be used only for purposes of determining who who's next to speak. Um, there's a lot of back and forth in the chat right now and what we're hearing is that people are curious about when they're going to speak and there uh resignation when they're being told they're going to speak as being lost because of all3139 the other comments that are in the chat. So going back the chat, we request only be used for members of the committee to ask a question and also to notify those on the call who are on deck to speak. Please do not use the chat for3152 any other function. It's inhibiting our ability to notify people that they are up next. So thank you for your cooperation that um next Representative Eldorado.
[REP ELUGARDO:] thank you. Chair Keenan and thank you Chair Arciero for taking us out of turn. I also3167 want to give a special thanks to the residents and advocates who wait for hours and hours3172 and cannot be taken out of turn. We deeply appreciate your advocacy and of course that of my colleagues, Senator Gomez and Representative Connolly, I have more things because we have many boston city councillors here today in support. Uh and also I spoke with our mayor in boston3192 Mayor Michelle Wu yesterday who asked me to relay that she, her apologies for not being able to make it Mass and Cas is uh presenting a full schedule for her today and tomorrow. And also as Rob Connolly said so grateful to her for submitting written testimony because as she has shared with me lifting the ban would greatly enable Boston to have a targeted approach to dealing with our rapidly rising rents and property values and property taxes as a result.
So Chair Arciero knows that my husband and I just bought our first home and he knows that because he took a tour of our district of it turned out to be a five hour tour with food and staff and it was great fun and many of the advocates here on the call today showed up to showcase the wonderful things you can do when you allow government to invest effectively in what inwhat tenants are doing and what homeowners are doing right there on the ground And this is an extension of that really you know it took my husband and myself 25 years to save. I know I look like I'm seven I was just kidding I'm almost 50. It took us 25 years to save because our rents kept increasing by a lot and so we3263 had to move a lot and we raised our daughter3265 people ask her what neighborhood you grew up in.
She says JP but3269 a lot of different houses in JP right and missions home because we had to move a lot and on top of that the down payments to get into the market kept going up. So we kept thinking had enough and then if you take a hit because you got to help a family member out you know that few 1000 that you lose, it kicks you out of the market. We're lucky, you know, for us, our income increased with time, that's not been the case for the vast majority of Massachusetts residents. We know3295 about rent stagnation. And so the rapidly rising rent means financial crisis or worse for many people and worse means homelessness in some cases, including for families. So the commonwealth needs a modernized approach to a contemporary challenge. We are not in the situation we were in when my daughter who's now married and living in Quincy because she can't afford to live in Boston.
You know, we love Quincy but she'd rather live where she grew up and she can't with her husband, she can't move back here because it's too expensive. And when she was born we were in a totally different situation and that's when this ban passed. So Rep Connolly and I filed and so grateful when as soon as Senator Gomez was elected, he jumped right in there with us. The tenant protections act. And a lot of people will either cheer or heavily moan when they hear about that, right? Because they're like, oh rent control of the past. Well one of the things that Rep Connolly and I have been really trying to help folks understand and our colleagues have been working with us to help folks understand it's we're not really talking about whether we should go back to rent control of the past or not.
And particularly my fellow members of the committee because I have the honour the distinguished honor of being on the Housing Committee this session with you. Uh we really need to understand we're not proposing to go back.3372 We're proposing to go forward. And so it's the wrong debate about whether we should have rent control from the 90s or not. Um, lifting the ban is critical because not not because of going back, but because we can't really stop. We can't stick with the way things are right the way things are do not work. So this 27 year old language when the ban is really antiquated and I just want to read, I don't think people know that it says this. So if you if you just google chapter 40 P Massachusetts General Law, you will see the purpose, right? You click on the purpose and it says this policy, it's based on the belief that the public is best served by free market rental rates.
Does anybody believe that anymore? I just completely uncontrolled free-market rental rates. I mean, if we ever believe that if that was a statement, we were debating back then nobody that we're not even debating that anymore. Right? So we already need to strike that out from the from the code, it shouldn't even be there. And so it's not bringing back the control from the 80s. It's whether radically and unconditionally unfettered rental markets are3439 really in the best interests of the public. So according to the national low-income housing coalition, we had our Senate Senate Connolly talk about the situation in Springfield. Well, commonwealth wide, more than 30%, I'm sorry, um more than 3/4 of Commonwealth residents who are low-income renters are paying more than 30% of their income on housing, right?
So this is especially in urban areas where the numbers are staggering, and many renters are paying over half of their income on housing as as Senator Gomez said, so this isn't just localized, it's across the board. And I've even had one of my Republican colleagues talk to us about some of the challenges in his relatively wealthy district. So we can't overlook the3484 pockets of poverty and and we know that it's also creeping up into3488 the middle class and has well crept into the middle class by3495 now. So people are choosing between their housing and often sacrificing food, education, utilities to stave off homelessness. And we've had testimonies on this today, and we'll have many more, I'm sure, unlike, we've pointed out homelessness is on the rise.
So this3511 is unacceptable by itself, the3513 Massachusetts housing crisis where nearly one in five middle-income renters, So that's 20% of the people just in the middle are paying over a third of their income, that means probably most of the people on this call, right, you're paying more than a third, and it's and it's tough for most people and3529 and they're unable to stay so unregulated markets completely unregulated markets. They actually foster the crisis that we're in and and that's where we're trying to, that's where we're trying to get out of. So the TPA strikes, this antiquated plan. I read that language about market rates are the best interests of the3544 public and the new purpose. I'm going to read it. The purpose of this chapter is to provide municipalities with a variety of flexible options to help address the housing emergency in a locally appropriate manner.
Everything under that we can fix it up to whatever we need it to be. But we need to strike that language that's in there and replace it with language like this and that's what the municipal leaders who are here from all over the state, not just from my great city of Boston are telling us today3576 and I really do pray that we listen. So the TPA Tenant Protection Act as I spoke and invites municipalities to learn from the past not to ignore it, but to learn from it and to craft something better and something that allows for tenants and all property owners who want to do the right thing to flourish and to thrive in place where they grew up, where they live. So learning from the past means some things that Rep Connolly listed never freezing rents, We're not talking about that. So that came up in the mayoral debate that's never ever what we're talking about.
We're talking about capping annual increases. So I know the committee members know this. I'm saying this for the public capping annual increases at reasonable levels. I'm getting some something here. I'm just gonna click that up. Okay. It means allowing for a reasonable profit, uh, generous profits so that you can maintain the properties. This is a problem in the past. That's something that localities can, can address. It means all owner-occupants of three families or less remain exempt. We've got to repeat that over and over because sometimes folks forget that's most of whom were talking about when3649 we're concerned about the impacts. Right? And so we're excluding those people, no matter what you do from every local option that will be excluded if you are an owner occupant and you can expand that any municipality can expand that to more more units or income levels or our target elders or or whatever you want to do.
And then, and then municipalities can also slow down rental increases temporarily. Or they can limit the scope as Rep Connolly said. And I'm sure city life will talk about anti-displacement zones that our own veto. Havana. I was the first one that heard. I mean, they were the first ones I heard talk about that in a meeting with Rep Connolly way back at the beginning of my very first term. So we can regulate medical fees. We can choose to do nothing. Okay. But there's a lot that you can do to ensure a generous profit while avoiding rewarding speculation or even exploitation that wants to double or triple as we've heard here. Some numbers in a matter of years, how much rent a person is paying? That's not good for the commonwealth. Not only in terms of ethics and morality, but we lose revenue when we send people into poverty like that because there's a whole cascade of structural poverty events that go down when3728 you can't afford your housing from healthcare to jobs to transportation, You name it.
So my husband and I, we were lucky, but Massachusetts deserve better3736 than the luck of the draw. The TPA3738 doesn't solve affordable housing. We've got a lot of other bills and more bills that need to be drafted, but it does give cities and towns the choice to prevent rates from skyrocketing during a crisis. Uh, so please help us in lifting this ban and ensuring that we slow down these rapidly rising rents and property taxes that are greatly impacting our elders and others to ensure a healthy future where we can all live here. Now, I know that was a long testimony. I did sign up to testify on two bills chair.
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My second testimony is shorter on H4229 a homo petition. Should I give that now or should I wait to be called at a later time? and I would be3781 fine. Thank you. Okay, thank you.
[ELUGARDO:] [HB4229] I will I hate saying I will be brief because3787 then what happens if you're not but I will actually be brief on this one. So H4229 is a unanimously passed HOMO petition from Boston that only applies to a couple of parts of the city, one in my district and it's to restore Boston's governmentally involved housing protection. So you're familiar with expiring use where for some reason 20, 30, 40 years ago, depending on the property, we said it will be affordable and then it won't after a certain amount of time and that you've got folks3817 that are living in the place mostly elderly and people with disabilities who now are suddenly told we can't do it, we can't do it anymore for you. And and then they have to move or what are we gonna do? Right.
So what we can do is pass this bill which allows for owners to guarantee a fair net operating income in exchange for affirmatively seeking out and accepting government housing resources that will enable affordability. I can speak to my district, the Forbes building I'm in talks not only with the tenants and advocates and we heard from MHT earlier and well in the future I think, but also with the owner. Mr3858 Paul Clayton, who is a man who has assured me he wants to maintain affordable housing, but he needs resources from the city in order to do that. And there's a real trust problem. I have a lot of trust for our administration. I have a lot of trust for the DND the Department of Neighborhood Development but it's difficult for owners to go in3879 uh and feel like they can go into an honest deal with the city. This bill really helps everybody know we're all on the same page here.
We want to extend affordability and we want to make sure that the owners have the profitability to maintain a property and to keep a green and all that type of stuff. And so that's what this bill is about and I really hope that you will pass that quickly as well at least out of committee we can keep talking about the language. Happy to bring in that owner. I will talk with the reps from Brighton. I know that Babcock Towers is another place that might be impacted by this bill but please do pass it out of committee so that we can continue this conversation and make sure that our elders and people with disabilities are able to maintain their housing indefinitely. We owe them that. Thank you.
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Thank you Representative. Any questions of the Representative See none. Thank you very much for your testimony. Will now move on to Representative Miranda then Representative Uyterhoeven, I hope I pronounce that right, I'm sorry Representative Barbara and also councilor Lydia Edwards from boston and may I say decoy and I again, I apologize for that if I pronounce that wrong, that's the order that we have.
Good morning.
[REP MIRANDA:] [HB1378] [HB1440] [SB889] Yes. Hi, good morning, Chairman Arciero and Chairman Keenan And members of this committee, thank you for taking me out of turn and hearing my testimony today. I'm pleased3973 to testify in support of two very important bills regarding the housing crisis. One you just heard from my sister in service Rep Elugardo um H130 1378, which with also Rep Connolly and Senator Gomez and H1440 S889 with Senator Jehlen and Rep Dave Rogers lifting the statewide ban on rent control and stabilization will allow municipalities who are most impacted by the rising costs of housing and displacement to make their own choice and create their own path toward housing security for all of their families.
See, I grew up in the Dundee Street neighborhood and as a DSNI kid I started organizing for housing and EJ Uh communities rebuilding our community. After decades of redlining, developing 1400 parcels of vacant land for and by our community and protecting our land to creation of land trusts. When I was just 134022 years old and I didn't even know what I was doing then. I could say that the housing crisis in my district has never been as prevalent as it is today. Entire families and communities have been displaced from Roxbury and Dorchester and we've had enough. We've worked to create new affordable housing in my district successfully, but we cannot tackle the rapid pace of displacement without the action that meets the gravity of this moment. And lifting the ban allows4049 us to begin that work.
4051 The people in our community who have been displaced and priced out the most are also the people who built our communities brick by brick and they are the backbone of our city and it's time that we return their investment and that investment. The price of rent has gone up over 200% since the ban of rent control almost 28 years ago. Although this is a statewide ban, residents of Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Hyde Park, JP and other communities of color across the commonwealth have been disproportionately impacted by this decision made in 1994. Over two thirds, 70% of market-rate eviction filings are in census tracts, where the majority of the residents are people of colour, despite the fact that these neighborhoods only include roughly half of the city's rental property.4099
For me, this is more than just a statistic. I represent a district that is over 50% foreign-born and the most of colour district in the Commonwealth. I look around in my neighborhoods of Roxbury and Dorchester and longtime residents who are victims of the discriminatory practices of redlining, being priced out of the very same communities that they were boxed into and being forced to move elsewhere. I take this so personally because we know living in these communities the housing insecurity and displacement is actually violent. More than half of Boston renting households, particularly black and brown communities pay more than 30% of their income for rent. Increasing their vulnerability to displacement. Research even shows that a family must earn $120,000 to live in Boston.
Yet the median income is 80,000. And in my district, people are making 17,000 to $30,000 depending on where you live in Roxbury Dorchester. And since 2010 we've witnessed a rapid decline in black people because of displacement. We've had a 13% loss of black and African American families in Dorchester and 11.6% in Roxburgh. We need to give the power back to local control and back to the people fostering the ability to address this crisis in ways that meet each community's unique needs. We need to listen to the residents of the commonwealth who overwhelmingly want this ban lifted and protect our communities from any more displacement. In conclusion Boston landlords in Boston excuse me landlords filed evictions at twice the rate in neighborhoods with the greatest incidents of COVID-19 which are disproportionating communities of colour.
Furthermore, more research demonstrates that evictions have caused lingering4212 trauma, PTSD with a ripple effect that last not only for this generation that's impacted by it, but the generations they are from. Rent has continued to grow in cities across the state, even as thousands face unemployment as a result of the negative negative effects of COVID 19 and many are4230 still trying to find permanent jobs, stay healthy and stay safe and have stable homes. At the same time moving into a new home has gotten increasingly expensive and seemingly impossible for far too many families. Since the pandemic began over 25,000 mass eviction notices have been filed with the court and the number of no-fault evictions has been significantly increasing since the beginning of 2021.
To end COVID-19 devastated areas that were already dealing with displacement and skyrocketing rents and thousands of Boston households who are4265 fearful of a looming eviction crisis4267 are counting on us to make the right decision. Thank you so very much to the housing committee and to both chairman, I would respectfully urge a timely and favorable report on H1378 and age 1440. Thank you.
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Thank you Representative. Any questions for the representative seeing none, thank you for your testimony. We will move on now to Representative.
[REP UYTERHOEVEN:] [HB4208] Thank4287 you Chair Keenan, chair Arciero, vice chairs4289 Jehlen and Rogers and esteemed members of the Joint committee on Housing. I am grateful to testify with my colleagues and fellow Somerville delegation on H4208 an act authorizing the city of Somerville to enact right purchase legislation before diving into my testimony for H4208 I do want to express my support for a number of bills, S889 filed by senator Jehlen, S866 homes for all by senator Chang-Diaz and H4057 filed by Rep Connolly And most importantly, we want to express my support for H1378, S886 to provide a local option for rent control. I'm very grateful that the newly elected mayor Valentine of Somerville's here to testify in favor of these bills alongside Somerville city councillors.
And in addition, a few of my constituents will be testifying in support of rent control later to this afternoon on these constituents. Experience exemplifies why we need rent control when their building was purchased by a billionaire landlord at the height and the shock and impact of the covid 19 pandemic during spring 2020. Uh these tenants faced a 30% increase for a two bedroom apartment, so that comes to $550 rent increase. Uh That's 1950 to $2,500. Um and so I am looking forward to their testimony and want to ask for a favorable rating of report for H1378 and S886. Um But onto my testimony for the home rule petition we filed on behalf of city of Somerville H4208. As members4378 of the housing committee, I'm sure you are all aware of the housing crisis and in particular of the displacement crisis here in Massachusetts.
After the unprecedented4386 year of 2020 you know that housing and rental4389 prices are once again setting all time highs. This is an issue that is affecting the entire commonwealth and not just coastal cities. The Bay State overall is increasingly becoming a state that only the wealthy can4403 afford to4404 live and raise a family in. This crisis is forcing working class and middle-income residents into longer commutes and are forced to find housing further and further away from their jobs.4415 Children are not able to stay with their neighbors, friends and teachers4418 as rents rise and displace families from the communities they grew up in and lifelong retired residents who are getting by on fixed income are displaced. They lose their surrounding support network and way of life.
Our most vulnerable residents, low-income people, people of color, seniors, people with disabilities and other vulnerable groups are disproportionately feeling the brunt of these rising prices. And I want to acknowledge that there is not one single cure-all that would lower rents and allow more people to enter the housing market as first-time buyers. And we cannot exclusively build our way out of these rising prices and rampant displacement. But this home rule petition is just one4456 piece of this puzzle needed to combat the displacement crisis. Uh this home rule petition would allow nonexempt owners to provide existing tenants and tenant associations the right to purchase their property at market rate before going to the open market. I want to uplift Senator Jehlen's powerful story she shared with us earlier today that this bill would help tenants4478 first-time home buyers like her buy the place they've called home for years.
It also allows the city of Somerville or its designated to purchase the property at market rate if it4490 remains permanently affordable. And our city is committed to this and will help us use local tools to stop the displacement crisis. And after months of hearings and testimonies, exemptions for owner-occupied one, two and three bill. Unit buildings are included in this bill. Through this bill, Somerville aims to strike the right balance between preventing the unnecessary displacement of Somerville tenants and the preservation of owners rights to dispose of their property at market value, which as we heard from Senator Galen's story is exactly what happened back when she purchased her home.
Um this bill would not cost the state anything and I do want to highlight that this bill, filed by my predecessor Representative Provo did make it almost to the final version of a bill last session but unfortunately it was taken out at the almost the last step um and really want to urge um the committee to vote favourably on this bill on this Home rule petition because it would give Somerville and important tool to stop the rampant displacement in our city and with us with that I respectfully ask for your favorably favorable recommendation. Thank you so much.
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Thank you Representative Any questions seeing none. I just want to thank Senator Chandler who has been with us um during the course of this meeting. Thank you. Senator Chandler for being with us and also to recognize the senator joan lovely has joined us. Thank you to both of them. Next is Representative Barber
[REP BARBER:] Thank you. Chair Keenan and Chair Arciero and all the members of the committee. I really appreciate taking me out of turn and your time today. Um I'm Christine Barber State Representative for the 34th Middlesex4596 district. Rounding out the Somerville delegation, I think we've all testified, so thank you for your time today. I will be brief recognizing there's there's a large number of constituents and folks from around the4607 commonwealth here to testify. Um as you've heard,4611 we have an incredible housing crisis and it's particularly acute in my district in both Somerville and Medford. This is a problem before the COVID pandemic and has become even more dire since 2020.
We've heard today and we'll continue to but homelessness, foreclosure, displacement and excessive rent burden our problems across the commonwealth and and really the biggest crisis facing my district um as a rep I constantly hear from constituents who are struggling um with their housing costs. Many, many who have had to move out of the city um due to increased costs, move their kids out of school um and really uproot the connections that they've had in the city. I'm a renter myself and I know first hand that over the last 10 years rents have risen exponentially, particularly in Somerville. Um so with that I strongly support House 1440 which was filed by Rep Rogers and the Senate Bill filed by Senator Jehlen. Um this bill would repeal the ban on rent control um and limit annual rent increases.
Um this has been said would not prevent any rent increased rent increases but stop the unfettered unlimited increases that we've seen at really alarming rates in our community. Um but rather keep to a rate closer to inflation to keep rents more affordable. Um 1440 would provide really clear and concise rules and make sure people have access to the most basic necessity of housing. And I also strongly support house 1378 um filed by Rep Elugardo and Rep Connolly to provide again to lift the ban of rent control and provide municipalities with a number of options for tenant protections. So I want to echo this legislature has passed a number of bills um last session to address housing affordability. There are so many things that we need to do to continue to get at housing affordability.
Um rent control is one critical tool for my communities to use housing production, greater affordability protections and working on evictions are others. Um I really appreciate all of the work that this committee continues to do. Um and I look forward to working with you and I don't want to forget that you also put a plug in for the HOMO petition rep Uyterhoeven just spoke to um house 4208. I'm also strongly in support of thank you very much for your time and I appreciate the work of the committee. Thank you.
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Thank you Representative next we will hear from boston city4772 councilor Lydia Edwards. Hello, can you hear me?
[LYDIA EDWARDS (BOSTON CITY COUNCILOR):]4778 [HB1378] Wonderful. Thank you. I appreciate you. Um thank you Chair Arciero and uh chair Keenan for allowing me to speak very briefly. I as mentioned, I'm a Boston city councilor i'M also um I apologize, I'm in my car going between polling stations as today is Election Day4794 and so I'm doing a bit of balancing a lot of things and it it is freezing outside. So I just want to say uh on a day like today talking about housing justice, it becomes even more prevalent to all of us, how many people, how housing insecurity is, is is really a matter of life and death for some people, especially today, how many people don't know where they're going to be staying tonight. And the fact that we as a state have an opportunity to talk about stabilizing our market to make sure that there are truly more options for all of our residents that are affordable for life for the life of their residencies is so incredibly important that we do that, but it should be even more4832 prevalent today in this, in this weather.
I'm here to speak in favour of House Bill 1378 filed by Representative Connolly and Elugardo um tenant protections and there's many, many bills that I do support but I wanted to make sure that in this brief moment that I talked specifically to this bill as a municipal elected official. I know and many of us know what it is on the ground to deal with the housing crisis and all you want is to have every single tool in the toolbox available to you. Those tools include stabilization tools, raising additional revenue tools such as a transfer transfer fee, but also making sure that we are eliminating as much as possible and as soon as possible4873 the speculative market and that does not mean removing the market. It means allowing for this bill to pass and giving us the opportunity to make sure that4881 people can make reasonable profits but are not in the business of housing for strictly4886 profits and not housing people.
I firmly believe that housing is a human right and this is the wonderful4894 opportunity for us to take the rights that are necessary and deal with the practical realities and let local municipalities do what they need to do in order to make sure that their municipality stay affordable to be very frank. This is flexibility that we've been asking for for generations since we took the inflexible one one size fits all approach of a ban. This is actually breaking that up and saying, well you can come up with your own special sauce if you will and if you do not want to do it as a municipality, you do not have to do it. It sets the floors and allows for more protections or more exemptions as any municipality may want. Ultimately, this is where we need to be going.
This is the stabilization of the future and it allows for grassroots4938 solutions to be at the table at the local municipality. I stand here also with the landlord's supportive of and stabilization. I would not be a homeowner if I was not a landlord. And so ultimately, these policies I think are reasonable and I trust my municipal government officials to be able to come up with a way that keeps people in their homes, allows for more homeowners, allows for more small landlords and also allows for reasonable rents. So I'm excited to continue this conversation. We'll see where I continue it after today. But ultimately, um, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to speak. Thank you.
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Thank you counsel good luck today. Um, next we have Cambridge Mayor Sadiq and I apologize if I am pronouncing that incorrectly.
[MAYOR SIDDIQUI (CAMBRIDGE):] [HB1378]4985 No worries. Thank you chairs and members and thank you for taking me4990 out of turn. I'm mayor Sumbul Siddiqui of Cambridge, Vice Mayor also joins me in the statement and my colleagues from the city council councillor Denis Carlo counselor Clinton's Donovan councillor zine. Uh, they're all here and probably hear from them. We're all here to support Bill 1378 and thank you to the bill's sponsors and the large coalition of activists and other elected officials around the region who support this bill. In Cambridge tenants make up more than 60% of all residents and there's no issue. We hear about more than affordability. Our residents are so rent burdened and they need more protections and as we've heard from prior prior speakers preventing displacement, preserving diversity, addressing homelessness or just a few of our priorities on the local level.
And House Bill 1378 would provide us with more opportunities to address these challenges. And while5050 there's various views on how to combat the affordability crisis, it's so clear that we need more options at the local level. Right now, we have no5059 options. We really don't have the tools. So this bill really does allow the municipalities with this flexible tool, flexible set of tools that could be utilized based on the specific needs and desires of each community. And as we've heard, local bodies are aware this policy-making happen happens. And so the status quo isn't working and we really need local option so some of an option that we can work through exemptions with our community as well. So5093 thank you for hearing my testimony and thank you for the all the work that's gone into this bill to this point. Thank you.
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Thank you mayor appreciate it.
Next we have ruthie louisianan Luigi in
Yes, it's ritzy Louisiana Louisiana. Thank you.
[RUTHZEE LOUIJEUNE (BOSTON CITY COUNCILOR):] [HB1378] Thank you. Chairs Keenan and Arciero Vice chairs Jehlen and Rogers Thanks for taking me out of turn and thank you for all the housing advocacy advocacy groups5125 that have pushed for us to get here. Um As an attorney and housing advocate I have represented families facing eviction in Boston housing court and worked alongside organizations like uh city like a Brana in their efforts to organize and defend tenants. I strongly support um an act enabling local options for tenant protections. Um House Bill 1378 and also um uh an ac to restore Boston's government Dooley involved housing protection House Bill 4229 I think Rep Connolly and Rep Elugardo for their work. Um and so many others. Um as city councilor at large, um my goal is to continue to uplift the voices of tenants and organizations that work to promote equitable and just housing opportunities.
The proposed legislation would allow Boston to identify methods to address the housing crisis. Rent control can work as part of a broader toolkit like we've heard a lot during these testimonies to address our housing crisis made worse by a global pandemic rent control can work. Um we've seen it work. Um it increases housing stability and affordability for current tenants, tenants living in rent-controlled units5193 move less frequently are less likely to experience destabilizing forced moves and pay substantially less than tenants in nonregulated units of similar size and characteristics. It also reduces the stress in everyday lives of so many of our residents having to worry less about whether they'll be able to afford an unquantifiable rent hike here with defined with defined amounts of permissible rent increases.
It allows people to have more certainty and ability to plan for their lives and the lives of their Children. Uh rent control especially protects low income households. If you spend any time in Boston housing court like I have as a housing attorney, you see that evictions trap poor and working-class families and cycles of poverty and displacement rent control helps low-income tenants, seniors, people of color, women-headed households, persons living with disabilities and chronic illness, families with children. The people you see in housing court who have the least choice in the rental market and are most susceptible to rent gouging, harassment, eviction and displacement. Rent control measures work to rebuild trust within our communities that have been historically marginalized and exploited um by the rent by the rental market.
Take this example. Some members of our community, particularly black and Latinx residents are hesitant about supporting infrastructure project that is going to redesign Bell Avenue, which cuts through Mattapan, Dorchester and Roxbury. They see such infrastructure projects in our communities as signs of gentrification when the real purpose is to correct for decades of disinvestment5284 and systemic inequities in our infrastructure and transportation system where neighbors and residents were in whole or in part excluded from budget conversations to to reassure our communities of color that these infrastructure repairs are meant for their benefit. We need to couple that with the infrastructure updates with the rent stabilization measures that prevent displacement.
We know that when black and Latinx residents have fought for infrastructure investments in our communities and when these investments happen, we do not always reap the benefits. Corporate landlords and outside investors take advantage of these improvements and work to gentrify the area, nowhere is that more true than Fairlawn apartments and Mattapan through sweat equity and endless advocacy Mattapan residents and allied elected officials persuaded the MBTA to add a commuter rail stop nearby. Now, Fairlawn apartments which have been rebranded, so more apartments at the T by outside owners have pushed for drastic rent increases.5340 The Fairlawn tenants association is on the front lines of demanding rent control measures and we5344 have to stand with them.
Lastly, I'd like to note that my father is a landlord, we've heard from several landlords who are in support of rent control. He still owns our childhood home in Mattapan, which he rents at prices below market to low-income families. This is the story of many small-time landlords who live in a property that they also rent who own a few units, but the onus of maintaining our affordability, our affordable housing stock should not be placed solely on individual community members give cities the ability to decide what rent stabilization measures look like for them and what exemptions make sense to protect small-time landlords and ensure and ensure that we aren't stymieing any necessary development. The affordable housing crisis is hitting all of our communities here in Boston From Austin and Bryant to Mission Hill and our residents are personally feeling the crisis.
We must act. Working-class families are being squeezed out of the city um and have no and we have no functioning city without them. They deserve to live and thrive here. They deserve housing justice. There are loved ones are frontline workers, our cleaners and we must do better5406 when it comes to providing them with stable affordable housing umhousing is a human right and we must make it so thank you so much. And I hope that these bills can leave committee favorably. Thank you.
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Thank you very much. Council. We appreciate your testimony. Any questions seeing none, thank you. And next we'll have a councillor, Denis Karlan Campbell City Council,
[DENNIS CARLONE (CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCILOR):] Thank you Mr Chair, I greatly appreciate the time at first, I want to say that I am so impressed by our senators and representatives and additional speakers and the passion they have and the love that they have for their communities. This is why I got into politics and I suspect all of them got into politics. So if5458 we don't deal with the issues before us and there's so many good bills being proposed, what do we need to do? We need to limit significant commercial development, which5470 tends to increase rents. We need to curtail tourism in places where people rent out their houses to tourists. We need to look at the real estate industry, including the pricing of housing. We need to increase livable income to a livable point. We need to look at mixed-use zoning, which typically goes to commercial development and not housing. And we need to increase our public investment dramatically.
So if we don't do some of the bills before us, which is an easier way to deal with the issue. We've got to do many more things and we all know that's much too difficult. You all are aware that we're an expensive state. When I moved here from New York 50 years ago, I couldn't believe how inexpensive everything was. My wife and I, Our rent has gone up 15 times since that time from less than 200 to 3000. Yeah, it's a different neighborhood, but it's still a dramatical increase and our income has gone up five times. Now You can question that, but the point is 15 versus five and we all know middle income and low income really has stabilised over most of that time. It has not gone up. There are a number of excellent bills in front of you. Some are very similar. Um I particularly favor the Tenant Trotection Act because it gives the cities the ability to limit annual rent increases and restrict evictions.
Um if this has passed it would give greater flexibility to the city council in Cambridge. I I am constantly amazed at how many state restrictions limit what cities can do in other ways. I won't get into that now. I'm thrilled that friends that are in Minneapolis, St. Paul, New York, Oregon and California have all written me about what their states have done. These are people I studied with in grad school and worked with so we need rent stabilization within reason and I hope you will proceed with this. I'm an architect urban designer by training and the reason I got into this end of the world with politics is because we need a more holistic view on all the issues and growth by itself isn't necessarily always good it's got to be balanced and that's what you're talking about today. Congratulations on the subject and the quality of discussion. I greatly appreciate it. Thank you.
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thank you. Council thank you for your testimony Next we have Medford City Councillor. Kit Collins
[KIT COLLINS (MEDFORD CITY COUNCILOR):] [HB1378] [HB1440] thank you. That's my name5659 is Kit Collins I'm city councillor and a renter here in Medford. Thank you to the honourable joint committee members here today to everybody who5666 has spoken so far and thank you5668 Mr Keenan for facilitating today. I am here to voice my strong support for especially bills H1378 and H1440 and their accompanying Senate bills as well as the other housing costs stabilization bills being discussed today. But I do want to focus my time on these two bills because as a local elected here in Medford, I feel urgently that our community needs and deserves the right to decide for itself how to deal with the housing crisis as it has manifested in our city. And I think that's true for every community represented on this call today.
The5701 current prohibition on measures like rent control and other housing stabilisation methods like local regulation of5707 brokers fees and other rent associated fees. Uh this privilege is the interests of commercial landlords and investors over the needs and the local democratic decision making of municipalities and residents as so many people have articulated already through data and anecdotes and accounting conversations, displacement is already widely occurring throughout necessary said throughout the greater Boston area and here in Medford. In fact, this is so widespread in our city that the unaffordability actually came up at our inauguration ceremonies last week and it was meant as a humorous off the cuff remark, but obviously it's not funny at all and it's that widespread.
The existing prohibition on local measures hobbles the ability of constituents to use their most local and direct form of governance, people like me to decide for themselves what form of rental control or other measures will be able to in a sense stop the bleeding where displacement and increasing cost of housing is concerned. We need to be allowed to consider more powerful tools to withstand the increasingly expensive speculative housing market. When it comes to housing costs, the house is out of the barn, people are already experiencing displacement and we as a region are experiencing great turnover, loss of local homeownership, which of course has far rippling effects for the diversity and vitality and the strength of all of our regions and all of our communities and economies, not to mention most importantly, the devastating effect on individuals and families.
5794 So I urge you report these bills favorably so that residents themselves through their local representatives may be allowed to decide for their own communities what measures to5803 take so that we have a fighting chance against the increasingly expensive and exclusive and speculative real estate market. Thank you very much.
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Thank you counsel, I appreciate the testimony. Next is Medford City Council Vice President. Zac Bears council beers.
[ZAC BEARS (MEDFORD CITY COUNCILOR):] [HB1378] [SB886] [HB1440] [SB889] Thank you. Chair Keenan, Chair, Arciero, Vice chairs Jehlen and Rogers and members of the5829 Joint Committee on Housing. I'm Zac Bears Vice president of the Medford City Council. Time is short and I'll be brief. I want to thank everyone who has spoken so far for your brilliant testimony. I last testified before your committee in early 2020 back then I was a newly elected councillor and we were speaking face to face in a packed hearing room at the statehouse. We were already in a housing crisis and we already didn't have the tools we needed to fight back. That was before the pandemic and now we've seen our housing prices explode. The black community in West Medford, one of the oldest in the United States with 200 years of history is disappearing. Young people and elders are being pushed out of every neighborhood in Medford, families are being displaced and5868 students are being torn away from schools and friends and potential futures.
We need immediate action. Every time I look for a new option or answer I find a state law that tells me what we can't do or how we can't raise the funds we need. Please let us take the lead. The cost of inaction is worsening poverty. The cost of inaction is the destruction of vibrant communities. The cost of inaction is human lives. I strongly support H1378, S886 an act enabling local options for tenant protections filed by Reps Connolly and Elugardo and Senator Gomez and H1440 S889 an act relative to the stabilization of rents and evictions in towns and cities facing distress in the housing market filed by Rep Rogers and Senator Jehlen. Both of these bills would provide cities like Medford with the options we need to craft housing policies that help tenants, homeowners and landlords that prevent displacement, help increase affordable housing production and provide the stability and security that everyone deserves. Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope you will report these bills out favorably, push them to the floor of the House and Senate and get a full vote as quickly as possible. Thank you.
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Thank you counselor. Thank you5938 for your testimony Next we will have boston city councilor Kendra Lara,
[KENDRA LARA (BOSTON CITY COUNCILOR):] [HB1378] [SB886] [HB1440] [SB889] Thank you so much. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Kendra Lara. I am a Boston renter and a city councillor representing District six.5954 I'm here today to share my support um for house bills. H1378,5959 S886 and 1440, 889 in November, I was sent to city hall with a mandate from the people of my district5965 to ensure that our neighbors have access to affordable, safe and stable homes so that neighborhoods and families can thrive without the threat of displacement. In order to deliver on this mandate, Boston is dependent on the passing of the bills before you today. Growing up in Egleston Square in the aftermath of the end of rent control in Boston, I watched my neighborhood change.
At the end of the day at the Curley Middle School large group of friends would gather together for the walk home. Our group spread out as we walk down Boylston street, stopping to say goodbye to kids, climbing up the steps into their homes or veering off onto the side streets like Dresden chestnut or Germania. Slowly though, as the years passed and I support for renters eroded as development and free-market housing prices increased, the group of kids got smaller. The homes that were formerly occupied by working-class people of color became unaffordable and our neighborhood largely unrecognizable. Many of us were ripped from the communities that we spent our entire lives tied to. Even in West Roxbury, a neighborhood believed to be unaffected by rising rents, we find ourselves fighting against decreased affordability.
The result of luxury development constructed with little regard for character and history of the neighborhood. Housing should be guaranteed. Our housing policy on6042 a state and city level should affirm people's right to remain in their communities and create space for robust social and cooperative housing. It should be driven by the communities themselves and informed by the needs of the residents. Our neighborhoods should be interconnected If we want to build dynamic intergenerational and culturally diverse communities, ones that prioritize the needs of working-class people, housing must be affordable now and in perpetuity and in service of this vision, thousands of organizers have worked tirelessly to ensure that all people have access to the fundamental human rights of housing.
Many of these community-based organizations, tenants associations, advocacy groups, and neighborhood development corporations are here with us today, we've tried to build our way out of the problem. We've increased linkage fees, we've mandated greater percentage of affordable units in new developments. We fought to increase tenant protections. All of these solutions have helped renters throughout the city and state. And yet the fundamental unaffordability of housing persist. In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic our neighbors continue to struggle under the crushing weight of housing costs and the ever present threat of displacement.
The swift passage of these bills in the committee on the floor will give cities and municipalities all across the state the ability to craft tailored solutions to the housing crisis, solutions that best fit the needs of their residents. In Boston. That means that we will be legally allowed to do6129 what we've always known is morally necessary to put people over profit. All set.
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Great, thank you very much for your testimony, appreciate it. Next we'll go on to boston. City councilor, Julian major. And I again, I apologize if I'm mispronouncing some of these names.
[JULIA MEJIA (BOSTON CITY COUNCILOR):] Thank you to the chair and for the record my name is Julia Mejia. That's right. Um and I'm an at large a Boston city councilor and I'm here to offer my support for lifting the ban on rent control before I6167 became a city councilor I worked with as a community activist, bringing together coalitions of low-income communities, communities of color, single parents, immigrant communities from all across the city of Boston, that job became increasingly impossible as most of the advocates, I6182 worked with had to leave Boston to find more affordable housing in places like Brockton Stow and Randolph and other places, while still struggling to juggle their budgets so that they can cover the cost of commuting here to the city of Boston.
What was6196 the purpose then of advocating for a better city if we couldn't even afford to live in it by now the facts are so well known that they hardly need repeating. We know that the average net worth of a black family in Boston is $8.6211 We know that nearly half of Boston is living on less than $35,000 per year. We know that throughout a global pandemic rents are increasing. People are being faced with hard choices. Do they leave the city they love and rely on access to services, information, and families and friends? Or do they choose to move in with three, four or five and and other people just to make ends meet. Neither of these options are ideal. And it is time that we found a way to make it possible for people to live. Um, and thrive comfortably in our city.
I normally do not like using the words like crisis, but when we're looking at the state of our rental market, it's hard not to conclude that we are in the middle of one of the worst housing crisis we've ever seen. And throughout this crisis, one solution has made itself painfully clear we need rent control rent control, helps fight against displacement and gentrification, something that is deeply needed in Boston a city which was found to be the third most gentrifying in the country, rent control is also greatly helps those who are experiencing a decline in wages either as a result of inflation or as a result of unemployment due to a worldwide pandemic. Of course, a topic as6292 big as rent control is not without its opposition. Some people may argue that rent control drives down the property values of neighboring apartment buildings, but I think it's time that we, as elected officials start asking ourselves this important question, what's more important property values or the lives of the people we are elected to represent.
We can all say housing is a human right we all want. But until we are serious about pulling the levers of power that we have to dismantle these barriers to affordable housing, then they're just words. I urge you to support lifting the ban on, on rent6329 control. The time has come and gone um for us to move urgently, we need to be moving impatiently because our constituents, those who are facing eviction for not being able to afford their rent. Um, the clock is ticking. You know, and I6344 became the first person in my family to purchase a home. Um getting my mom out of section eight, my brother and I share one side with our Children and my mom lives on the other. The fact of the matter is is that the more6356 that we wait, the longer it's going to take for us to deliver to the people what they've been asking for and that is an opportunity and the right to stay in6364 the city that we have built. So I'm urging you all to favorably report um in support of this bill. Thank you very much.
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Thank you councillor here, appreciate the testimony. Any questions seeing none. We'll move on to the Western City Council to tell. Hi gi6382 and I hope I got that6384 right.
[ETEL HAXHIAJ (WORCESTER CITY COUNCILOR):] [HB1378] [HB1440] Thank you. You Day Thank you so much. Senator. Senator Arciero House Chair, Keenan and honourable members of the committee Councillor Haxhiaj herefrom Worcester City Council by day I am an advocate for families and our emergency shelters and those on the verge of becoming homeless. I am testifying in full support of lifting the ban or rent control as well as bills H1378 and H1440 but I'm also speaking to you as a housing advocate as a mother who sees other mothers struggling to keep or find a roof over their kids' heads, whether they are in one of our homeless shelters in the city or they've been displaced as a result of high rents, couchsurfing invisible from everyone's view.
Now I hear these stories daily from residents asking for help finding an affordable apartment and so when I speak to folks whose distress because they've been, they had to leave their apartments because they cannot afford a 200, 300, 400 dollar rent increase I feel guilty and I feel helpless guilty because it really, really hurts that people in my city are hurting so deeply and helpless because as a newly elected official, I do not have any mechanisms at my disposal to help keep families stably housed during the most dangerous global pandemic homelessness climbs faster when rent affordability, which is 22% and 32% thresholds. Over the last six years rent in Worcester have consistently and dramatically increased month over month, resulting in a 50% increase in market rents over the time.
If I and others do not have any tools at our disposal to have a thoughtful discussion with renters and landlords alike, we will keep witnessing a violent speculative market where high rents become a sentence to poverty, housing instability, and homelessness. In Worcester we don't even have basic measures like inclusionary zoning or any anti-displacement policies to keep people in their homes. We only have dwindling rental assistance and an overworked housing worker and organizer family, we're seeing not only a dramatic rising rents, we're seeing an influx of6514 luxury housing being built and speculators rushing into turn multi-family housing into high rent traps for those who cannot afford them. So what we're witnessing now is an upward race to charge the highest rents for-profit and6526 falling to the bottom of those who are squeezed tight between poverty wages and an unchecked market.
How am I supposed to support the young children in my kid's schools and in my neighborhoods and across the city who shouldn't have to worry about whether going where6541 they're going to put their heads at night rent stabilization as many said is only one of the instruments municipalities like ours can use. And as local officials, I need to have any and all means to protect families and children from the toxicity and the stress of housing and stability when a housing crisis collides with a raging pandemic, those who bear the consequences are the same black and brown low wealth communities that get evicted, are displaced, doubled up further risking illness, chronic stress and ultimately ending up in our shelters if they're even able to access them.
I'm6576 not asking you to make a decision as to which rent-stabilization bill is better or even take a position on rent control. What I'm begging you on behalf of our children, moms, dads, low wage workers, seniors, young families, young people, those with disability and others to give municipalities like Worcester the ability to have a thoughtful and inclusive conversation about what form of rent stabilization program makes sense for our community we were elected to serve. So give us the opportunity to serve and protect our communities from housing injustice. Thank you.
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Thank you, counselor, Thank you for your testimony. Um Next we have counselor Cambridge city councilor brian Asim.
[BURHAN AZEEM (CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCILOR):] Wonderful. Thank you so much for having me here6623 today. I wanted to echo a lot of the comments that came before me but then also talk about the development piece of it. Uh my name is Counsellor Burhan Azeem. I represent Cambridge massachusetts. Uh We are facing a rental housing crisis in Cambridge. Rents have doubled over the last 10 years and over the last three decades have grown exponentially. Um I read the first floor of a triple-decker for 1000 square feet ourrent is about $3400 a month. Um and it is only getting higher from here and the pandemic has made it worse. Um What I think that is uh you know wonderful about these bills is that they give us the option to6662 have under control as uh something that we can really debate at the local level.
Um rents sometimes increased here between 15, 20, 30% per year. Uh as someone who grew up low income, my family, we immigrated here from Pakistan and we rented out uh you know, we couldn't afford a place of our own. So we had lived in the basement with another family. Um and it was 11 of us in this three-bedroom. Uh it was so small and illegal to have so many people there that the landlord wouldn't allow us to live there. So we hid in the closet whenever he came so that we could pretend not6699 to be there. I skipped pre-K I skipped kindergarten because we were afraid of getting caught when you're living low-income rent is the biggest piece of your budget and increasing 30% per year. Uh is basically a sentence for you to move out. And that period is so stressful.
The only way you make it out of poverty is by going through a decade with no mistakes as you know and a rent increase of that size is a mistake or a problem that causes you to have real difficulty exiting poverty. Um I also wanted to address the development piece which is something that we talk a lot about in Cambridge and having new housing. Um There's always6732 concerns, you hear that you know, this will stymie housing. Um I will say two things. One, this gives us options to have6738 that debate holistically. So it doesn't put a limited but also the triple-decker that I live in has a value of $2.4 million of that only the first floor, the house itself, the actual building is worth only 600,000. The other 1.8 million is in the land. And this means to us that it's actually not, you know, the current6759 price that stopping new housing from being built.
It's the zoning which is a completely different conversation rent controls at the levels that we have now will not hinder any construction in the region from my opinion that is all. Thank you so much.
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Excuse me. Thanks appreciated council. Any questions of the council seeing none, thank you for your testimony next will be Cambridge. City Councillor Quinton Zondervan, I'm getting all the difficult names on this list, just trying to reflect, thank you. Council House doing that name, you did great, you're doing very well, thank you.
[QUENTIN ZONDERVAN (CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCILOR):] [HB1378] [HB1440] My name is Quentin Zondervan, I'm a Cambridge city councilor and I'm testifying before you today in support of H1378 from Representatives Mike Connolly and Nic6816 Elugardo as well as H1440 from Representative Rogers and any other bill that would lift the statewide ban on rent control intended protections. I especially want to focus on the Connolly Elugardo bill today. This bill would give municipalities a flexible set of tools to regulate the landlord-tenant relationship in a way that makes sense to each of our own communities. Every6843 community is different and we all need different, slightly different tweaks on these policies to make them work for our community. In Cambridge 2/3 of our residents are renters and the city councilor, I constantly hear from constituents who are facing burdensome rent increases eviction or homelessness.
Nearly every day I have to look someone in the eye and tell them that there is almost nothing that we can do to help them. Just this morning, my office met with a woman who has been living in Cambridge all her life and is now facing homelessness because of eviction. She has done nothing wrong. Our building is sold and the new owner wants to make more money. Not too long ago I6892 met with the family living in an untenable, untenable situation. There were too many people living in a small space and the parents had to bring their own children to the meeting as translators because they didn't speak English. It was very difficult to explain to them through translation by their children that they had no options that would keep their children in the Cambridge public schools. It was one of the most difficult meetings I've had as a city councillor with constituents.
Cambridge also has a large population of section eight voucher holders who would benefit immensely from lifting the ban on rent control. Now, more than 25 years since we lost rent control, Cambridge is beyond ready to have this conversation again and given the ability to do so, we would come up with laws and regulations that make sends to our community and meet the needs of our community members. It is shameful that we have allowed and continue to allow homelessness and housing instability in our communities. All in the name of greed and corporate profit. We need the flexibility to regulate the landlord-tenant relationship and you have before you today the bills that would help accomplish that. So I hope that you will recommend these bills for passage and I thank you very much for the work you're doing on this very important issue. Thank you.
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Thank you. Counsel appreciate the testimony. Next is proclaimed select board member, Raul Fernandez.
[RAUL FERNANDEZ (BROOKLINE SELECT BOARD):] [HB1378] [SB886] Great, thank you. Thank you chairs and members for holding this important hearing. My name is Raul Fernandez. I am the vice-chair of the Brookline select board. I'm testifying today in my personal capacity in favor of the tenant7004 protection act, H1378 and S886 and other bills that would make housing more fair, accessible and affordable. I testified testified previously on Brookline's homegrown petition to allow our community to enact a real estate transfer fee To fund the much needed development of affordable housing in Brookline. I remain deeply frustrated by the legislature's lack7021 of action on such enabling legislation based on our assessor's calculations, the delay in passing that legislation has already cost our community an estimated $35 million dollars over the last two years alone. That could have gone to creating or preserving affordable housing.
I get that many people think of Brookline as an unaffordable community and that we haven't done enough to create affordable housing and their right as a renter, myself and someone who dreams of someday owning a home here I can attest to how rising rents and other costs like childcare have made our town increasingly unaffordable for underpaid7055 and middle-income people, but it wasn't always that way Brookline was one of the first communities to institute rent control before corporate interests preempted us through a ballot measure and look at us now the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Brookline is well over $2,000 and rising the free market has no interest in providing affordable homes for those who need it.
Its primary concern is profit and incentives like 40 B requirements like inclusionary zoning have done little to put a dent in the housing crisis. It's past time for you all the state legislatures and we as local leaders to step in, we urgently need more robust action. Action like the real estate transfer fee to create more permanently affordable housing and actions like rent control to keep people in homes they can afford for years to come. Let's be clear about this rent control or rent stabilization isn't about freezing rents, it's about ensuring that rent increases are reasonable and predictable. It's about giving renters many7112 who may never be able to own a home in a community with soaring prices like ours, the ability to make a rental unit a home to raise kids in our community with certainty that they can live here until their kids graduate from our high school and to age in community with certainty that they won't have to live out their last days in an unfamiliar place because they were priced out by so-called market forces.
I cannot stress this enough housing is a human right and in lieu of state protections, communities like ours need to make zoning reforms, developed community land trust and yes, we should be able to enact rent control to provide stable affordable homes for all. I urge you to support the Tenant Protection Act and related bills, which will be game-changers for communities like ours and as a community that continues today to benefit from redlining Brookline has a special responsibility to enact anti-racist policies that reverse the devastating effects of segregation. Making our community more affordable is an essential part of making that happen. But we need your help to get it done. I'm here to encourage every lawmaker in the statehouse to vote for these bills in every community in the commonwealth to combat segregation, displacement, housing insecurity and homelessness by leveraging these bills and others to make sure everyone in your community has a place where they can live, raise a family and permanently affordably call home. I look forward to your partnership on this. Thank you.
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Thank you very much for your testimony next. We'll move on to Representative Michele Dubois
[REP DUBOIS:] [HB3721] Thank you Chairman, I appreciate this7204 opportunity. Um Today I am here to speak in favour of a bill I filed H3721 and act relative to avoiding senior homelessness and stabilizing senior housing as well as portions of um H1378, an act enabling local option for rent control. They kind of go together from my, from my perspective um I think section five, six and nine in um the act for rent control. H1378 should really be a state um should be statewide and that I like this bill very much, but my concern is by making it a local7243 option communities um that I represent like Brockton, um they won't accept this.
Um and the folks in my community who have skyrocketing rents, maybe not at the $3000 level, but at the $1500 level, um we'll still see those increases and still become homeless, and so there is7264 a limiting factor that is already preexisting in H3 Um H1378 and that limiting factor um of requiring local um votes to7276 enact these wonderful programs. Um since its introduced um my take is if we're going to limit it, I really think we can be limiting it um in a manner that helps one of the growing um homeless populations in our commonwealth and that is senior citizens, so they live in an apartment, a new person um buys the apartment in the gentrification system that we're seeing, and they have lived7302 there for many years and they have nowhere to go.
That is the number one um growing group of homeless people in Brockton from the housing authority have had many conversations with the director of our housing authority and other people on this and what this bill does. Um The bill I7317 filed H3721 it enacts a type of rental protection across the state, not just in local um by Communities that accept the law and it provides five years of rental protection and increasing the rent only at 5% if the person is on a list for public housing. Um the issue is it takes five years to get any public housing. And so we see senior citizens that have worked all their lives wind up homeless because the person comes in and triple7345 the rent and they have to move out and and then they have nowhere to go.
So what this would do is if we're already limiting rent control, because I think we really should have a statewide um rent control protection, more rental protections. But if we're gonna introduce the limit, I really think we should limit it in a way that um every single person across the commonwealth can benefit for some type of rent stabilization through senior rental stabilization program. Um if we're going to test it out, I think this is the way to do it because7374 our seniors um have worked their whole lives and their winding up homeless because of the gentrification that's happening with people leaving7380 Boston or people moving here7382 to Brockton because the rents are, you know, respectively, comparatively cheaper here. Um by half, than some of the cities that will enact the rent control, which good for you, if that happens, I support that too.
But I really think if we're going to limit it, we should limit it to a factor of senior citizens and not necessarily communities just that just choose to accept the law or not. Thank you very much for your time.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank thank you Representative Now move on to Senator Jamie Eldridge, Senator
[SEN ELDRIDGE:] [SB884] Great, thank you so much to chair Keenan uh and to chair Arciero and members of the Joint Committee on Housing And I'm7426 here to testify first on a bill that I have filed. That is Senate 884, an act to reduce the financial barriers to renting, Holmes And right now, as I know, the committee knows landlords are allowed to charge upwards of four months of rent before a tenant is handed the keys to his or her apartment. So think about the barriers that creates for low-income and working-class families having to come up with up to four months' rent. And so what this bill would do is it would allow, it would prohibit a landlord from charging more than two months rent upfront. Um That is7465 more realistic for people to get into their apartment while also providing a level of security by having that additional month's rent. That would be allowed.
I think that's a very reasonable requirement and I don't have to tell anyone in this committee or in the legislature how tight the housing market is. So I do think that this is, you know, one more tool in the toolbox to help working families and low-income residents um gain access to rental housing. I would just lived up in my district which more and more people are familiar with is in the town of Eda there is a working class neighborhood called Devon's crust. It was originally built as veterans housing, it is housing that is below market though not subsidized Recently a developer out of New Hampshire Brady Solver Realty purchased the entire neighborhood 120 apartments and has begun to send mass eviction notices to the tenants. So right now there are about 40 families under eviction.
Um this is something that is happening across the state where developers where realty companies that gained capital during the pandemic are now using that capital to buy distressed properties, evicting people and raising the rents and so with respect to that, I would just close and highlight that I also support the bills filed by representatives Connolly and Elugardo and Senator Gomez House 1378 and Senate 886 enact enabling local options for tenant protections. So local option for rent control, I think we need to give communities every tool in the toolbox to7570 address the specific situations in their communities.
I want to mention Representative Rogers Bill also on rent control, house 1440 and then I want to express7582 my support for Senator Jehlen's bill, Senate 889 an act relative to the stabilization of rent and evictions in towns and cities facing distress in the housing market related to providing more protections around evictions. So7595 thank you so much to the committee for having this hearing focused on these issues and thank you so much to the chair for taking me out of turn.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you Senator. Good to see you appreciate the testimony. Next we will move on to Sir Blais Alemu.
Do they get that one? Get all close
a sub sub Lee Alemu.
Okay move on to Jonathan pas
Jonathan pas
Okay move on to cecilia who
[WU:][HB1429] [SB894] thank you. Chair Keenan I'm here. Thank you to both chairs for including the Fair chance and Housing act H1429 and S894 in this hearing. Also thanks to Senator Lesser and rep Malia for introducing these bills. I'm speaking on behalf of the low-income clients inthe National Consumer Law Center. Um as we've heard repeatedly in this hearing, there's an affordable housing crisis in Massachusetts and I want to talk about another thing that exacerbates this crisis. The use of credit reports and credit scores and tenant screening by some estimates 90% of landlords use them. In May of last year. The New York Times reported how many many low and moderate-income families unable to obtain decent housing are forced to rent expensive inadequate motel rooms.
It described a survey, Motel residents in Georgia and how when the respondents, 70% of whom were black were asked to name the biggest barrier to more permanent housing. One person after another cited bad credit. Now, this is definitely happening happening in Massachusetts, for example, in June 2021, I was copied on an email from a West Barnstable resident describing how her 71-year-old mother was denied senior housing and at risk of becoming homeless due to a negative credit report caused by errors Using a credit reporter score alone to deny housing is wrong for a few reasons. First, credit scores aren't intended to7732 gauge whether someone is going to be a good tenant or not. They're designed to predict the likelihood that a borrower is going to be 90 days late on a loan, not rent, which is a much higher priority bill that families pay before all others.
A common refrain is that the rent eats first. Credit reports tell a story7751 about past, not current7752 ability to pay. That would be shown by pay stubs, tax returns, W2s, bank statements. After all, we have a lot of families suffering economically at the beginning of the pandemic but may have recovered as jobs came back. No one in the commonwealth should be7767 denied housing simply because their credit report shows financial hardship, they suffered during the pandemic and using credit scores and reports is especially illogical when it comes to screening renters with section eight housing choice vouchers where the government pays much of the rent and it's for7783 low-income tenants who struggled yet we've seen instances of this as well. Black and Latinx renters are disproportionately harmed by the use of credit and rental decisions.
Our nation's long history of racial discrimination, redlining Jim Crow and more. It shows up in credit scores in Boston 91 points lower in non-white areas than white areas nationally An Urban institute report found that over 50% of white households have a Fico score above 700 compared to only 21% of black households. And of course there are disparities by income. Credit reports are also riddled7817 with errors. The Federal Trade Commission found that 21% of consumers have7821 verified errors and 5% had errors that are so serious they could be denied credit or an apartment. In a time when the lack of affordable housing has reached a crisis proportion, we need to ensure that at least one unfair and illogical barrier to decent housing is eliminated. I urge you to report out favorably H1429 and S894 And I thank you and look forward to your question. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Great, thank you. Any questions from the committee,
seeing none. Thank you for your testimony. Now, we will move on to Danielle Allen.
Danielle Allen. Yes.
Okay, move on to boston city councilor, ken, Ziebart.
[CLLR BOK:] [HB4229] [HB1378] [HB4229] thank you so much. Mr Chairman. Um and members of the committee. Um I'm Kenzie Bok. I'm the Boston City Councillor for District eight. Um I want to speak on the two bills today. One is7894 as an original co-sponsor at the city level of H4229 when it was a home rule petition. Um I want to testify strongly7900 in support of that bill. Um and I will also be adding my voice in favour of H1378 um on 4229 Rep Elugardo's bill I just I can't say strongly enough that we are in a housing crisis. And as you've heard from everyone, you know, we need to add units. What we cannot do is lose units and what we cannot do is lose long-term anchored communities in the city. Um and these are communities that were created with public dollars when we're talking about state and federal supportive housing.
Um and you know, I7931 think we're all struggling with the one where where where we've got a cliff effect and these are expiring. Um and it's just, you know, I've got folks in my district who live in these that have not yet expired, but they see that deadline coming and it looms over them every day. And as you've heard, um you know, in other parts of the city, we've got buildings like the Forbes building that are already facing the realities of this. Um and I just think that this is housing, the public created for an urgent public need that persists and we need um we need your support in continuing to recognize that public need exists and and that we have to step in and I think there are ways to, you know, make owners whole in this process, but just hold to the core value that we are not giving up these communities and these opportunities for people to live um in every part of our city and it really is scattered all over the city.
Um and uh yeah, like I said very personal, I can think of a number of buildings across my district that are the only way that low-income people are staying in expensive neighborhoods where they have built their lives um neighborhoods that often have become expensive because of the work they did to build community there. Um and I just can't speak strongly enough in favor of 4229 and just say that that's something that um really was strongly supported at the city council level. And so it's a home rule petition that I think we're all united um in Boston and asking you to support um and then on H1378, you know, I just want to echo many speakers and say give the city the tools that we need for handling this crisis.
Um you know, I think that there's a lot of conversation in the real estate world about predictability um and we don't recognize enough that predictability is also something that people need in their day to day life and they need to know that they're going to be able to stay in the community where they're putting down roots, it affects everything. We often talk about mortgages and homeownership um as being about wealth creation and it is a really important way that a lot of middle-class families build wealth, but a huge part of the relief of a mortgage8045 is actually knowing what that number is going to be each month sort of out indefinitely. And I think that um, you know, disproportionately folks in leadership, um you know, all levels of government leadership are in that position of being Homeowners and so you forget what it would be like not to have that number locked in.
Um and it's so terrifying for renters and I was on a panel with someone in the capital-market space yesterday who said that new rentals in Boston. So things where people had just signed as a sort of8074 separate data set that they're looking at rents are up 20-30%. It's totally insane. And I just think that this Legislature talks, you know, all the time operates on the principle that there are certain types of things that we need to control the costs of because people need them. That's why we have a health policy commission looking at health, health um controls. It's the reason that government has a long tradition of stepping in against price gouging.
Um And we have seen in the pandemic that there is nothing more essential than that people have homes and I think that there are ways of doing rent regulation that are sophisticated um that keep in8109 mind the need to also produce um considerable new housing, that's something I'm a huge supporter of but it's got to be a tool in our toolbox um and8117 frankly we've just got too many communities are facing existential crisis for it not to be. So I I think that at the city level we will um utilize it well and thoughtfully and8129 um and make sure that what we're doing is something that8132 sort of continues to provide housing at all income levels but I just want to stress how much we need this tool and uh and urge you to report favorably uh H1378 along with as I said H4229 and and a host of other bills but I know I've used my time so thank you Mr. Chairman.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
thank you. Counsel appreciate your testimony. Mhm
Sorry about the technical difficulty floats we've moved on to our panel for the city of Lynn. We have representative Capano city councillor fred Hogan and Lynn residents
councillor Capano had to attend some meetings I'm not sure if he's gonna be able to get back on shortly and counselor Hogan will be submitting written testimony as well as the other tenants. Okay so it's gonna be alright. Okay thank you moving forward somerville city official panel I have charlotte kelly.
Um Actually, if you8211 don't mind, I'm going to go first, this is councilor Kristyn Straus ceo of the Somerville panel as well certainly.
[CLLR STREZO:] Um and I appreciate you recognizing us and and letting us speak and taking us that time. So I am councillor Kristyn Strezo, so and I am uh for those of you may not know my story, I'm a city councillor, Somerville elected official who is a single mom and I live in affordable housing and I understand how positively it can impact lives in families' lives. And I chose to step up and fight from my community and support housing stability and I am in favour of all the housing solutions protecting housing stability before you today, Honourable committee members H378, S886 feels may feel like a leap for some of you, but we can modernize rent stabilization based on years of what has worked and didn't work and make this work for everybody.
Like rep Elugardo stated all of us know here that housing instability has been a consistent problem in the commonwealth for long over a decade at this point. And the difference is now that the pandemic has created deeper gouges in poverty and we can no longer ignore it or table policies for another session. We need your support now. In 2022 the housing needs are just too great to bow to the fear and vote against the bills before you. Housing instability is the norm for all of our districts now, my gentle legislators. This affects every corner of Massachusetts. And I ask you with complete respect, what are you comfortable8313 doing or not doing to shield your constituents from sliding further into poverty because if this these bills fail and if this bill fails and this human crisis we're trying to fix if it goes unstopped these hearings will continue on because Somerville will keep showing up and keep introducing more legislation.
You'll keep seeing me and I'll bring more and more friends every time. And not only that. Now, there's a wave of municipalities, districts, towns, agencies, non-profits from all over the commonwealth who are fighting for housing stability and we've got the numbers and we've got lots of solutions because we need more solutions. We need to attack the housing crisis Massachusetts and facing facing and this bill H1378 S886 will help us. So I'm asking each of you to vote in support of it. Otherwise, I'll see you at the next hearing on the housing crisis and we'll spend hours and hours and hours and hours discussing all the statistics we already know. Please vote yes.
I also ask that you report out favorably H4208 a home rule petition to allow Somerville to implement a home rule petition uh and right to purchase policy so we can both protect and empower our tenants. Please vote yes on these housing solutions and thank you so very much.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you counselor. Thank you to councilor stress. So is there any questions for for council espresso seeing8410 none. Thank you very much for your testimony. I'm now in moving forward with the Somerville city officials panel with with charlotte kelly. Starting off
charlotte charlotte kelly will be submitting written testimony. Okay8426 on the panel here, I have Ben um camp in judy, Panetta Neufeld, William, Burnley Jr and Matthew Mclaughlin, sorry for the mispronunciations and the masks a little more difficult.
[EWEN-CAMPEN:] Uh Not at all. Thank you Mr Chair, I'd like to defer to my newly elected colleagues, counselor Bernie counselor Pennetta Neufeld and I'll go last if we still have time. Thank you.
[BURNLEY (RENTER):] [HB1378] [HB886] All right, first and foremost, thank you to the advocates who've taken the time out of their day to share their stories. My name is Willie Burnley Jr. I am a renter and I'm speaking in support of bills H1378 and S886. While I am humbled to be a newly sworn-in city councilor at large for Somerville. Um my Somerville story was almost cut short four years ago when my landlord raised my rent by hundreds of dollars at the time. Like so many of our residents today, I was living paycheck to paycheck and the shock of my landlord's decision was like a punch to the gut. I know from lived experience that housing instability not knowing where you will live, not knowing if you will have a roof over your head, leaves painful psychological scars for those impacted. In my case, I felt a deep sense of shame, failure and abandonment.8503
In addition to being left economically devastated in the wake of my displacement, let's be clear this was a result of like policy failure. Not only are there currently no legal limits to how much rents8519 can be increased in our commonwealth, municipalities have no mechanism to reach reasonable solutions. As Senator Jehlen referenced earlier in8527 this meeting, the displacement faced by our neighbors impacted by extreme rent increases is tantamount to eviction by another name. In that context. The passage of these bills provides the opportunity for municipalities to provide stability for their residents. As an alumnus of the campaigns for both Senator Warren and Senator Markey I've had the pleasure to talk to residents across this commonwealth about the burden of drastic rent increases and I know that the desire for community control on this issue goes far beyond the greater Boston area.
I will continue to talk to these residents. We will continue to organize and we will continue to stand before this committee until legislators and politicians stop shirking their responsibility to enact meaningful change. I urge this committee and the legislature to be bold in providing the option for local legislators such as myself to bring our community together around common-sense solutions that stop vulnerable residents from being displaced. As my colleague said, if that does not happen, we8595 will be back here and we will bring more people and we will be louder. Thank you.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you. I have judy and Matthew however, the panel wants to set up, wants to move forward. Please please go ahead.
[CLLR PINEDA:] Thank you. Mr Chair and the honourable members of the committee. My name is judy Pineda Neufeld. I'm a Somerville City councillor for ward seven. I'm also a renter having lived in Somerville for 12 years and I'm here with my colleagues in the Somerville City Council to support the passage of House Bill 1378 also known as a tenant protection act. In the last year as I ran for office, I knocked on over 19,000 doors and made more than 6000 phone calls to residents and voters in the ward. The NUMBER one issue I heard about during these conversations was the housing crisis in Somerville. I spoke with a household of renters who had just received notice from8653 their landlord that their rent was increasing by $200 a month and who were worried about having to move in the midst of a pandemic because they couldn't afford the increased rent.
When I went back to knock on their door months later they had moved, I spoke with residents of young Children who saw their kids' friends have to move out of the city because they were evicted without cause I spoke with homeowners worried that their neighborhood was changing and was no longer welcoming to the working families who couldn't afford the community that they had grown up in. And I spoke with residents in the second largest public housing development in the city, which sits in my ward and heard over and over and over again how challenging it was to balance rent payments with food, school supplies for their kids, bus passes, medical bills, covid tests, masks and more door after door conversation after conversation. Our community asked over and over again what are we going to do about8710 the housing crisis?
We often talk about our values of equity and justice here in Somerville8716 and across the commonwealth. But equity and justice can't just be boxes we check on a to-do list. We must lead through a lens of equity and justice and walk the walk on our values the tenant protection act advances racial and gender justice and especially protects low-income households. That should be reason enough for us to pass this bill. Housing is a human right and every person in our community should have access to a safe and dignified place to call home as a city councilor. I know that we need every available tool to combat the housing crisis. We must act now and I'm urging this committee to to pass favorably out of committee, the House bill 1378 an act enabling local options for tenant protections. Thank you
[EWEN-CAMPEN:] and thank you Mr Chair. My name is Ben Ewen-Campen, I'm also a city councillor in Somerville. I'll be the last speaker for our panel. I'm gonna be really brief. I want to thank all of you for giving us the opportunity to speak today. Um I myself was8777 lucky enough to be in a position where I could buy a home in Somerville several years ago And when we signed our closing documents and got a mortgage, uh we now have rent control and I can look forward 30 years into the future and know exactly how much my wife and I will be paying the bank 30 years from now and I think about uh the fuhrer that would rain down upon the Legislature if we were to, if a law were to pass that banks could just willy nilly8805 increase the rate of our mortgage, our monthly payments 30 40% and kick us out of our house if we couldn't make it.
Um that is exactly the situation that that renters are in in Somerville and Cambridge Boston. All the communities that we're hearing from today. In Somerville were 60 - 70% renters. Um and that is exactly the situation area. And so I'm not going to repeat all of the just totally heart heartbreaking anecdotes and data that we've heard today. I will just say I from my perspective, the only thing that separates in today's Somerville, the people who can and can't buy houses are people who are either kind of born with generational wealth or have incredibly high incomes and I think that for the large majority of people who are currently renting in our community, they deserve that same stability and right to a home that that that anyone that any of us do so thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. And I stand with all of my colleagues in asking for a favorable report and a vote on the tenant protection act. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Great, thank thank you, counselor, thank you to the panel. There. Any questions from members of the committee for the panel,
seeing none. Thank you for your testimony today. Um The next panel I have here is the greater boston real estate8886 board, Greg vassal Paula munger and Kathleen franco.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr Chairman, I'd like to see my time over to Paula munger Paula. Please
[PAULA MUNGER (NAA):] thank you to the committee for the opportunity to present the National Apartment Associations. Most recent research on the impacts of rent control through education, advocacy and collaboration NAA, The leading voice for the rental industry is a federation of 149 state and local affiliates, including the greater Boston real estate board. We serve over 93,000 members, representing8925 more than 10.58926 million apartment homes worldwide. I'm Paula Munger the AVP of research for NAA. Rent growth caps affect the apartment industry in several ways, each of which we estimated by modelling the impacts of the 3% rent growth cap on the Boston and Massachusetts apartment markets, limiting rent growth affects the long term viability of building new units and performing maintenance on existing units because it changes the expected return on investment for each of these activities.
Additionally, a cap on rents is essentially a cap on rental income for affected properties, which would directly result in lower property values, which in8963 turn impacts property tax revenue. There are few areas of study that most economists and scholars agree on rent control is one of them. While it is a well-meaning policy, its effects represent inefficient outcomes relative to allowing the market price to adjust accordingly to supply and demand. Under normal conditions, rising rent levels would be met with increased building in an area curbing long-term rent growth. However, rent control blunts the price mechanism, causing a misallocation of housing investment, both within and across areas, it destabilizes the rental market by driving away investment and new construction, ultimately decreasing affordability based on a 3% annual rent cap and apartment rents our study concluded the following for the Boston market.
New apartment supply would drop by more than 700 units, apartment property values would drop by more than 260 million and property tax revenue to the city of Boston would dropped by more than two million annually. Across Massachusetts where we used our apartment demand forecast to estimate longer-term impacts it would impact nearly 40% or more than 18,000 units of both future supply that9032 will not get built as well as existing units that are potentially lost due to the infeasibility of making repairs and upgrades. Apartment property values would drop by more than 820 million. And property tax revenue to cities and towns would drop by more than seven million annually. Rent control also hurts jobs in the economy.
Housing development rehab and property maintenance generates significant economic benefits in terms of job creation and wage growth as well as overall economic value to regional and state economies. Rent control policies eradicate these benefits as development, renovation and rehabilitation of rental housing is significant, significantly reduced or even eliminated. Research in real-world experience show that rent control policies do not work and hurt renters, housing providers and the broader community. Thank you for the time and consideration.
[FRANCO:] Mhm Good afternoon. My name is Kate Franco. I am here today as a volunteer and as the chair-elect for the Greater Boston Real Estate Board and as a housing practitioner for over 40 years in Massachusetts, New England and New York City. Chairman Keenan, Chairman Arciero and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and thank the members of the committee who voted to oppose rent control in 2020. I am extremely grateful that the house voted overwhelmingly to reject rent control and instead pursued policies that address the housing shortage and provide rental assistance to those who are truly in need.
The eviction diversion program has been a lifeline to so many of our members yet so hard by this pandemic especially has smaller property owners, small and large property owners alike have been working together to keep people in their homes this fall, the Greater Boston Real Estate board members volunteered to help those in need complete and submit applications for much needed housing assistance. The workshops were open to property owners. They were open to renters and all families9153 living in the areas served by metro Boston and the Greater Boston Real Estate board. These workshops would held in multiple languages to make sure that they were inclusive and were reaching out far into the communities. We're happy that we were able to assist 74 tenants and three property owners through this process.
While much of the focus and the efforts have been on government support during this crisis, there was an important untold story about the property managers and the property teams who all have been essential workers that have remained on the job committed to these residents through the pandemic. These are not stories we're reading in the headlines, these are the stories were living on the front lines and large and small9193 properties alike. Property owners have really stepped up to try to make their tenants' needs met. They've done everything from wellness checks on their elderly tenants to coordinate flu and COVID-19 clinics for vaccination, providing transportation to essential services, providing access to mental health and facilitating virtual events to give people a sense of socialization and a safe environment.
They have also looked after the youngest and most vulnerable of the tenant population, the children who are living in these properties, they have done all they can to assist families with making the connections to resources they've needed to make sure that they can have a positive homeschooling experiences when necessary or when required. But they've gone beyond that. They have also made sure that the nutritional needs and sustainability of the families have been met as well by providing access to various food programs and also assisting in that transportation. Property owners have really been deliberate in making sure no one loses9253 their home. Our statistics tell us that less than 5% of the evictions that have put through our court system in Massachusetts actually make it to a termination of tenancy.
We have really opted to work with the tenancy in our housing offering repayment plans, connecting tenants with state and9271 federal funding, connecting them with utility assistance. Landlords have even gone above and beyond additionally, by helping9278 their residents get unemployment benefits, snap benefits and internet assistance. These aren't tasks normally that a property owner small or large would undertake, but a need was recognized and property owners took that step forward a large step forward to help their tenancies remain in place. These have truly been challenging times for everyone renters and property owners alike throughout the pandemic, some people have blamed property owners and housing providers for the current affordability crisis. Even though property owners have been asked to mask a significant amount of debt faced by misrent payments and eviction moratoria passing a rent control measure in any form at this time would be counterproductive.
But to do it, especially in this time of this pandemic would be especially destructive if it was passed now it would be unprecedented in a national emergency that we face. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with9335 you today.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you kate. Thank you to the panel for your testimony. Is there any questions from the committee for the panel? Uh may I ask a question, Sarah Sarah. Certainly. Representative Connolly.
[REP CONNOLLY:] Thank you Mr Chair And through the through the panelists we've seen the National Apartment Association put out some study And so I guess my two questions are the study that was referenced um by Miss Munger who funded that and then the second question, one of the exemptions that that we have highlighted in this hearing today would be the exemption of new construction specifically to address I think the concern that's being raised here around protecting tenants versus the incentives for new construction. So I'm curious to know um with the model that has been suggested, um does that account for this potential exemption on new construction? Thank you.
[MUNGER:] Sure. So um we actually we have a research department at the National Apartment and Associations. So we did that research ourselves um using various statistical models and historical data that basically looks at the relationship between rents and rent growth in the Boston and Massachusetts areas over time and what that relationship is to new construction and the second part of your question, at the model that we're doing, we've done it for several different markets. So in order to be consistent we start out with um for this one we did a 3% cap and just assumed it wouldn't be actually wouldn't be all properties because not all properties would would achieve 3% rent growth in any given year.
Um but we do not account for any other nuances like like the because rent control laws are so different in so many places, this would just be abroad, here's what would happen and as we, what we've done with other markets is as legislation is proposed, we were able to change the models.9468 You can change the cap, you can take out new construction, you can take out buildings of a certain age, but this particular one we sort of just start with our baseline.
[REP CONNOLLY:] Well, thank you for that. That that9479 definitely helps answer the question and I think just to reiterate, I think the message from early in the hearing, you know, our intent with the bill is to really bring everyone to the table. So um appreciate you being here today and certainly appreciate my understanding that the model doesn't necessarily correlate with some of the proposals we're discussing.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Okay, thank you, Representative. Is there any additional questions for the panel from the members of the committee?
Seeing none. I now have councillor Ed Flynn.
[CLLR FLYNN:] [HB1378] [HB4229] Mhm. Thank you. Thank you Senator and thank you to the Joint Committee on Housing. It's it's an honor for me to to9531 be here with you. I will be brief. I just wanted to9534 highlight a couple of points I know my colleague councillor councillor Bok was on earlier. Um let me just say that um I wrote a letter um in support of there 1378 and 4229 and let me just focus on one area in my district that I represent, Chinatown. Chinatown in particular has been experienced gentrification and displacement of residents at a record level. We have had many residents who have limited English proficiency who have to deal with challenging landlords and we see their rents skyrocketing almost every day as a result, um many have been displaced9579 from the neighborhood from the community Boston is in a housing crisis crisis and it's important that we preserve every unit of affordable housing that we can and to restore affordability to as much units as possible.
We need to preserve affordable housing. Um and to protect housing that's expiring as well. We also need to ensure that our tenants have the right to stop landlords from exploiting them, especially our immigrant neighbors and to evict them without cause I believe 1378 and 4229 would help us do that um creating more affordable housing, preventing displace displacement are top issues in our city. And we want to make sure that Boston is always a city of working families of seniors, of persons with disabilities of our immigrant neighbors as well. We are a welcoming city, but we want to make sure that Boston remains a city that's dedicated to helping preserve preserve affordable housing, especially for those in need. Um Senator Keenan thank you for giving me a couple of minutes and taking me out of turn.9649 I appreciate it.
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Thank you, counselor. Is there any questions for the counselor from the members of the committee? Seeing none. Thank you counselor for your testimony. Um next um panel that we have here is a small property owners association. Um Alison drescher. Alain hubert and Amir, just Sabari that's correct sir. Thank you9675 very much. We're here. Alison drescher isn't here but mr Ebert and I are present. Okay, well the floor is yours guys.
[SAVARI (SPOA):] Thank you very much Chairman Arciero, Chairman Keenan members of the committee. It's a great, great pleasure to be back to speak to you again. My name is Amir Shah Savari, I am the vice president of the Small Property Owners Association. For previous testimony, we are an organization dedicated to advocating for small rental housing providers who as a group supply over half9709 the rental housing in the commonwealth. And we're here to oppose the bills that have been presented to today for the purposes of this hearing. What we'll speak about I'll try to be as brief as possible, but I should remind the committee that as rental housing providers, we do. We are a part a major part of the tax basis for cities and towns. And we will be talking about that more moment momentarily.
But it's important to remember that9740 we're all in this together. We're all in this together and we're just wondering when the vilification of rental housing providers will finally give way to smarter housing policy that will incentivize the production and preservation of affordable housing. The Legislature and the governor took a major step last month with the Covid relief bill allocating $155 million to jump-start the effort and offer funding for rental assistance that is helping. But the bills before you would actually reverse the progress9774 made so far and severely depress the rental market. The bills that we wish to comment on comment on excuse me, fall broadly into three categories.
Those that seek to overturn the 1994 ballot initiative prohibiting rent control those that seek to hide9792 vital information from property owners when they're interviewing potential renters and a bill that would provide the city of Somerville authorization to create a right to purchase requirement. SPOA has offered a testimony to this committee before on the issue of right to purchase. So I'll just say today that in the same way that rent control is a failed policy idea. So too is right of first refusal. Jurisdictions that have implemented it have not realised any benefit and tenants rarely end up owning the property that they rent from. On the bills that restrict information, we urged the committee to consider the true significance of allowing someone to occupy your property as landlords slash housing providers we need to know about the central task.
Once we allow a tenant to rent9839 from us, it is very difficult to undo that decision. Property owners must be allowed to properly screen potential tenants, both for their own benefit and the benefit of the other tenants in the building. But the main reason for our testimony today Is to ask the committee not to endorse any weakening of Chapter 42, which as you know, prohibits rent control. This is not something that should be decided on the local level. It's something that should be decided by you, the legislature and the decision should leave the prohibition in place. My fellow SPOA member Allen Hebert will discuss the issue in greater detail, but let me just say that the committee should consider that rent control or rent stabilization, which is the same thing would do more to undermine the rental housing market than any other policy decision you could make.
I ask the question why are rental property owners have to bear an outsized portion of the burden when it comes to solving the rental housing crisis? All we're asking is for a recognition that violating inherent property rights to charge a fair market rent for our property will disincentivize people from renting their properties in the first place. It will actually incentivize them to convert or sell their properties9917 and reduce the rental housing stock significantly. And we don't want that to happen. And finally, we recognize9924 the challenges involving rising rents. It is a challenge, but it's also important to remember that the expenses faced by property owners also rise significantly, including where rents tend to be more expensive.
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So we're just hoping to find a level playing field where all parties can work together to find win-win solutions and with that, I turn it over to Mr. Hebert.
[HEBERT (SPOA):] Um Hello, thank you our Chairman Arciero and Chairman Keenan My name is Alan Hebert. I am a small property owner and member of the board of Directors of SPOA. I urge the committee to think about three things as they consider these bills. First, local option rent control is an illusion. The cost of rent controls are not confined to the cities and towns that adopt them, but rather impose significant costs throughout regional housing markets. Second, there is no mild or light version of rent control. Government price controls lead to distortions in the market that negatively affects rental housing stock. Third, rent control does not increase access to affordable rental housing. To the contrary, it actually reduces both the quality and quantity of the available housing.
Rent control incentivizes10005 inventors, investors10006 to steer10007 clear to steer10008 their investments away from the rental10011 housing production, and present owners are incentivized to convert to more profitable uses of their habitable property, even if one of the other bills before you were to pass, which tries to prevent conversion of rental property to condominiums, which was filed because rent control proponents note is exactly what happens when rent control10029 gets implemented,10030 owners will still do whatever they need to cut10032 their losses. In the10034 end, you will only succeed in pushing more and more people away from the business of providing affordable private rental housing options. This isn't just speculation.10045 We have provided the10046 committee with testimony, citing examples of10048 the negative effects of rent control.
The total number of rental10054 units in Cambridge and Brookline fell10058 by eight10059 and 12% respectively. In the 1980s, following imposition of stringent rent controls, rental inventories10066 in most nearby communities rose during that period as well. Similarly,10074 California, the total supply of rental housing units dropped 14% in Berkeley and 8% in10081 Santa Monica between 7810082 and 1990, even though the rental supply rose in most nearby cities. Studies of rent10088 control in New York and Boston similarly found marked differences between rent control and other10094 units and housing quality and the level of expenditures10098 on maintenance and10099 repair. Finally, you would be hurting local communities tax base, which we are a major10105 part of a10108 study of10109 rent control in New York City calculated the loss of taxable accessed property values attributable to attributable to rent control at approximately four billion10121 in the late 1980s.
These distorted assessments cost the city an estimated $300 million dollars annually in property tax revenues. The city of Berkley10131 California also estimates a10132 significant loss in its tax revenue because of10135 rent control. Don't allow communities to make10138 the same mistake and10140 allow those same communities to make their neighbors pay for their10146 shortsightedness, continue to work with10147 small rental housing providers and support production on a statewide basis. This10152 is the best way to bolster10154 the rental housing stock and create10156 a better situation for both both10157 renters and rental housing providers.10159 Thank you for your time.
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Thank you Alan, thank you for the panels or any members of the10168 committee that have questions for the panel mr Chair. I have, I have one question briefly. Representative please.10177
[REP DECOSTE:]10178 I'd10179 like Mr Shah10180 Savari referenced generally the difficulty in the eviction process that you have to face, which was10186 factors into the whole process of financing properties. If you could give us10191 an example of of a typical, just briefly, the typical time frame it takes to evict10197 a tenant where10198 that tenant is opposing and actively um preventing the eviction. What do you typically face in terms10204 of time frame and loss for rent in terms of months?
[SAVARI:] Thank you10209 for your question. It does typically take a very long time, I10215 would say as a10217 property owner, if you're lucky, you you might be able to get through the process within 6-9 months. Uh And these are cases10225 where you have tenants10226 who, it's not10227 a situation, I'm not referring to situations really where10230 tenants have difficulty paying through no fault of their own. These are tenants who10237 try to manipulate the system, thinking that they can get away with it, so they deliberately withhold payment. Then the property owner at10246 that point has10247 to go through a long drawn-out arduous10251 process as far10252 as filling out paperwork, serving notices.10254 Uh If the property owner10255 can afford an attorney, and contrary to popular belief, many property owners struggle with that but, you10261 know, you you you have to go through the system and and the what typically ends up happening is that the the courts typically give10272 the tenants more time and flexibility10274 and that draws the process out10275 even further.
10276 So it's a very draining, very costly process for the property owner, and ultimately the property10282 owner only does that as10285 a last resort, nobody wants to evict a tenant, but it does take a significant emotional and financial toll on the property owner.
[REP DECOSTE:] Yeah. Mr. Chair in the interest of brevity. I was listed as a Panelist or10297 I do10298 not need to go on anymore. They've eloquently made their points and I appreciate your time.
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Thank you. Representative. Is there any additional questions for the panel from the members of the committee?10299
Seeing none? Um, we're moving forward to have individual10305 testimony from Jim10306 wrecked. MD. Okay.
Jim wrecked.
Okay, Christopher,10320 grim
Christopher
seeing none lisa daily. Uh, Gargano.10333
Okay, Kathy Watkins.
Hi, can you hear me?
[WATKINS (RENTER):] [SB886] [HB1378] [HB1440] Hi, my name is Kathy Watkins. I live on10350 Fawcett Street in Cambridge. Um and I'm a low-income renter10354 speaking in support of10355 the tenant protection at S886 House 1378 and also10362 the Dave10363 Rogers, Pat Jehlen Bill, House 1440 and the other um, the other bills that are proposed10372 that will help renters. Um I've it's very hard to find an apartment anywhere in Massachusetts that I can tell that is affordable to a great number of10385 people including myself. Um and10388 even I have a section eight mobile voucher. It's really hard to find uh, a10396 um uh, an apartment on the private10399 market that will accept the voucher and that has a rent, the fair market rent that hud accepts.10406 So, um, and also one thing about rent10409 control is10410 it would help more people use10413 vouchers because the federal government and the state government would not have to10417 spend as much money on these vouchers if the rents10420 were more reasonable.
10422 Um, right now they can't10423 serve as many people because the10425 rents are so so high and their resources unfortunately are very stretched. Massachusetts has been10432 putting real estate industry profit above its residents for so long. And10437 um, it really is demoralizing for10440 me and others like10441 me to see this. Um, my building in particular, um, is10447 owned by a major,10449 a major international religion. I won't10452 say which one it10453 is, but it's not, my building is not owned10457 uh, for people to live in,10459 per se, its owned to make10461 profit. It's an investment for this religion, which I10464 assume the religion, if not the real estate10467 arm gets a major um tax relief and that it's nonprofit. So, um, and I do want to counter10475 with10475 some of the real estate10476 and the small property owners say,10479 because I don't know what world they're living in, but if you own property, you are king. I mean, and so many of us don't, and we're really feel undervalued.
So this, this bill, these bills that are10492 being proposed for10493 rent control10494 are really pretty mild. They're not forcing rent control on anyone. They're10499 not statewide mandate, which I actually think they should be, but I think in our conservative climate would not10506 pass. So I really urge you to think about this and think about that this is a commonwealth. This is not a10513 real estate wealth, it's a commonwealth, it's not a property-owning wealth. Well, that's what10518 it is, but that's not what10519 it should be. And um I just10523 um, you know, it's10524 it's really hard for us out here and10526 there's also the10527 cost of those of us who are fortunate enough to have subsidized10531 housing that we can't move. We could be in a10533 really horrible situation but we're stuck and I don't know if you know10537 how that feels to be totally stuck in your10540 housing.
Um10541 It's better than not to have housing at all, but it's pretty bad.10545 So um I just wanna um I just want to urge you to really10549 think about this and think how it's affecting people on many many levels. And10553 thank you so much for listening10554 to all these hours of testimony. And thank you for all10558 the representatives um who have spoken,10560 that's all.
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Thank you.10561 Thank you Kathy for your testimony. Um Is10563 there any questions for Kathy from10564 the10564 members of the committee? Seeing none. Thank you very much10568 for your patience, pam Chamberlain.
Do we10572 have a panel chamberlain here. I know there's10575 a lot of10576 folks signed up so it will be patient if if we call your name10579 and we don't hear you right away,10580 but we have to move forward.
Okay uh Sarah Dillon Rouer.
I'm here.
[DYLAN:] [HB1378] [HB4229] [HB1440] Uh thank you so much10595 for the opportunity to testify. Um10597 I want to10599 speak in favour of H1378 H4229 and H1440. Um I am a West Roxbury homeowner10609 and I am in favour of all of these10613 measures. Um as a10615 start to10616 housing justice and affordable housing it's in my personal interest among other things, I am disabled. Um the10627 high rents drive up the prices for things like home health care aide. They have to pay rent and so they have to charge10635 me more. It also creates things like traffic and parking problems because10641 if our teachers10643 and our firefighters10645 and our nurses and our home health care aides and all of our essential workers have to live far from the place where they work. They have to get there somewhere,10656 they have to be able to afford a car and that means there are cars on10660 the road, there are cars polluting the air that10663 I breath.
So, it's in my self-interest. But also I wasn't born owning a home. Um when I was 17 I was a high school honor student and homeless. It was10681 an absolute hell trying to survive and stay in school. I was able to go10689 to college10690 in my twenties again10691 I was a graduate student and homeless. I was able to stay in graduate school. So now I have two masters degrees, a home of my own, a wonderful family and10704 the quality of my10706 life would be improved by improving the quality of life and accessibility to decent housing for renters. Um I10717 don't think that I would10720 need a home health care aide, I don't think my hands would10725 be shaking like this if I10728 had not been unhoused um being10732 unhoused put me in a10733 position of vulnerability to violent crime, I10737 was a victim repeatedly and countless other harms that10744 are permanent.
So please10748 don't look at10749 me as a bootstraps success story in favor of homeownership building wealth. I struggled to make my mortgage payments because everybody10762 else is also struggling. So we10765 need a rising tide that lifts all boats. That tide is affordable housing10770 and I hope10771 that you will do everything10772 that you can10773 to help make10774 that happen across10775 the state at least give local authorities the10777 ability to10778 handle it. Thank you.
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thank you very10780 much for your10781 testimony. Is there any questions10782 for Sarah from the members of the committee seeing none, thank you again. Um we don't have Golden Piff
Goldie Fire,
we're only going10799 once. Okay um10801
Dominique Gardner.
There are Dominique here
and Khan are shown, is10815 there a O'Connor here,
seeing none. Um we10821 are going to be10822 moving10822 to panel six. The Allston Brighton panel um Senator keenan10827 will be10828 sharing this portion of10830 the hearing. Thank you Representative appreciate that10834 and the first person on the three people on the panel10839 Melissa10839 Wardwell council is reading10841 from boston City Council and Jason Barrows er
are the members of that panel present. This is Jason. I'm here councillor up to somebody just yeah Jason de rosa. Allston Brighton CDC. Yeah I don't know if anyone else from my panel is but I guess I can. Um um This is melissa I'm on10871 here. All right I prefer to melissa to go first.
Okay high hitting the button and then it goes away. Okay there we go.
[MELISSA (MAHT):] [HB1378] [SB886] [HB4229] Um So I'm Melissa10886 Wardwell and I live at babcock Towers um in Austin Brighton um a member of so this is my first time10894 being on this so don't mind me with the nervousness because I10898 know I'm going to be I don't want to miss10900 anything and I know it's short time. Um We are a member of the MAHT And10907 told for10908 the supporting of the H1378 the S886 and10914 the10915 H4229. Um I live10919 here with my two kids.10923 I have section eight voucher, mobile voucher I've been here for four years.10927 Um I got an eight-year-old six-year-old. My six-year-old has10931 type one diabetes so things10932 are challenging just with that alone and then add on top of the whole10938 housing situation. Um We're10939 part of the expiring10940 of the 13 A10941 Program that's here with the owner and the management um definitely refuses to do anything with that with BHA to move forward10951 to sign10952 for it.
Um there's no communication whatsoever with the property management.10956 It is hard for a10960 tenant to get a hold of them. Um myself I feel10964 like I'm a target with my family.10965 Uh the only one I am the only10969 one10969 that10970 has the two youngest kids in the building. It's 215 apartments in here10974 and there's10975 about I think about 60-7010976 people that are on the housing um situation with them with BHA and I don't know if they have like natural housing or not. Um so I'm the only like I10991 was the only one with the youngest kids celebrating him last year having diabetes. I got a call from the11000 office saying that they wanted to do an eviction because we were celebrating11005 him having diabetes for11006 his first year and kind of blown away with that because it was in the middle of the pandemic in November of 2020.
Um and then we11016 got new management in February of 2021 and it's just been horrible. The communication is not there,11022 they're changing everything. They11023 came in and did an inspection which I've never had through them. I've always had it through BHA every year and took complete photos of the11036 house. Um they've done it with other people in the building and like I said there's about 60 or 70 other11043 tenants, they are elderly, disabled, some don't even speak English11047 very well. Um and they are sending letters out saying that we need to move out by the end of August and11057 that was11058 I think in June that we got the letter and11060 they were just giving us a two-month notice saying that we needed to move11064 out because they're not accepting um11065 the housing umand some of them have moved out.11067
The office has threatened ones that pay market rent and they go11076 on11076 the cameras and watch the cameras in the11079 lobby, they watch the cameras11082 in the elevators to see what people are doing and harass them about it. Um for the housing control it would really help not only myself but others because I11092 feel like we're getting11093 pushed out as I've grown up11097 here living in Charlestown.
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So if you could just wrap it up with
11104 [MELISSA:] It's just going to make it where education11108 your kids aren't moving11111 out,11112 it's going to make it where we11114 don't have to leave and not know what's going on in the future for our families or anybody's families disabilities It's just it's11122 really hard $4,000 for a two11124 bedroom apartment is just absolutely insane and11126 I can't11127 even find updates11128 to move in the area. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
11144 Thank11144 you for your11145 for your testimony, thank you for11146 sharing that with us and we'll go on now we have Jason de rosier11152 or council Liz11153 breeden. Jason I know is here so Jason,11155 why don't you go ahead? Yeah. And I just got an email11157 from councillor Brady and saying that she is in transit11159 will log back on when she gets to her office and hope to testify when she can.
[DESROSIER (MANAGER):] [HB1378] Um Good afternoon Chairman Keenan, Chairman Arciero11169 Vice chairs Jehlen and11170 Rogers and members of the Joint Committee on Housing. My name is Jason Derosier and I'm the manager of Community Action11176 with Allston Brighton CDC. Thank you for11178 the opportunity to testify today regarding House bill 1378 an act enabling local options for tenant11184 protections and speak to the11185 urgent need11186 for stronger tenant protections against dramatic rent increases, price gouging and11191 unwarranted evictions for the past four years Allston Brighton CDC11195 has been11196 dedicated opening doors for Allston Brighton residents. Our various program areas strive to make the11201 neighborhood11201 a thriving community and to create opportunities for individuals and families to achieve their own piece of11206 the American dream.
Over the years Allston Brighton CDC has developed11211 a portfolio11212 of 506 affordable housing units. Opening doors to11215 Allston Brighton so that the community remains to be11217 a stable equitable and healthy neighborhood11219 of choice for11220 all residents who wish to stay in established established routes11223 over the years we have found doors closing on neighborhood residents. Graduates of our first time home11228 buyers program can no longer afford to purchase in11230 the neighborhood or region,11232 with even11233 condominiums beyond the reach of many residents. The renter11236 wage for a fair market two-bedroom apartment in Allston is11239 $51 an hour11240 and $55 an hour for Brighton, respectively.11243 And rents for11244 units of all sizes are out of reach for most renters in the private market.
Waitlists for income-restricted housing in the neighborhood of growing and we have witnessed the shrinkage of the subsidized housing stock over the past four years. Our11256 own affordable housing development efforts have11258 been stymied by11259 exorbitant acquisition costs as new construction costs on average,11263 $500,000 per unit in a Boston multi-family project, we have reached a11268 tipping point in our housing market that is being felt in Allston Brighton in the city of Boston and11273 the greater Boston region more broadly, the11275 effects of the affordable11276 housing crisis is being felt as far as the11278 lower Cape and11279 the Berkshires.11280 This crisis is complex and complicated, and the result11283 of inadequate community planning, nimby11285 attitudes towards affordable and multi-family housing, and exclusionary zoning practices the segregated neighborhoods and the chasm of the11292 affordability crisis has only deepened further with the emergence and continuation of COVID-19.
A11298 multilayered problem needs a multilayered response and a11301 wider variety of policy tools to tackle the challenges before us. The Tenant11305 Protection Act offers one piece of a comprehensive approach to the11308 affordable housing and emergency11310 by enabling local rent stabilization and11312 tenant protections. It doesn't attempt11314 to require these protections or prescribed the details of these protections for any given11318 community. Instead, it repeals the preemptive provisions of Chapter 40(P) thereby11323 allowing municipal officials to bring11325 everyone to the table. The Tenant Protection11328 Act allows for a municipality by vote of its local elected11331 body to adopt various degree of measures.
I also11336 testify today to11337 speak in support of11338 an act to restore Boston's governmentally involved housing protection11341 H4229 which is11343 established rent controls11344 and current expiring use buildings, saving, expiring affordable units, which is11348 desperately needed as11349 we have lost 425 units to expiring affordability11352 over the last several, several years in Allston Brighton at Camelot Court, Brighton Gardens, Brighton Village, Waverly Apartments and more involved. Uh, I hear my11362 timer going off so I will close it there and submit the rest of11365 my testimony to all. Thank you.
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Thank you, Jason, appreciate any11370 questions of the two panel11371 members seeing none. Thank you melissa, thank11374 you, Jason have a11375 great11375 day. Next11376 we'll move on to11377 a panel of city11379 councillors from uh, are in11381 Springfield, Worcester brockton. Uh, we'll start the counselor counselor.11385 Selena raise counselor, Zeta Govan11388 counselor king11390 from Worcester council11391 Mendez from brockton council to virus from11393 brockton and council given we have twice, I'm sorry, we have11398 counselor given twice. So those are the and also counselor11401 and also11403 on the panel are Pablo Ruiz and also11407 councillor jesse Letterman from Springfield. So those folks want to11412 set off counsellor raise.
Mhm
Council Galvin from pronouncing that correctly. Galvin Galvin Okay council King somebody just11429 Hampden
Yes. Hello Chairman Chairman. Keenan If you don't allow11437 Pablo Ruiz here from S. E. I. U. Um we did have a11442 couple11442 of our counselors who you know had11444 to drop off. Um I'll go a little bit11446 of out of order just to give them a minute or two to come back in. Uh
Okay we'll11454 continue mr Ruiz11455 and then we'll go to council11456 king.
[RUIZ (SEIU):] Wonderful. So my11459 name is Pablo Ruiz. I'm the Deputy11461 Director11461 of the Service11463 Employees International Union11465 State Council SEIU is comprised
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dot coms were able to see the11469 newest homes on the market. Super. If folks11472 can please make sure that their microphones muted please. So go ahead. Mr11477 always.
11478 [RUIZ:] [HB1440] [SB89] [HB1378] [SB886] Thank11481 you. Um Thank you. The11482 SEIU State Council11483 is comprised of 1189, 32BJ, 509, 888 and Committee of Interns and Residents. Um and11489 and I'm here to speak with a panel of elected officials from gateway cities um to the bill specifically H1440 and11500 S89 um as well as H137811502 and S886. I want to thank Senator Gomez11505 for his leadership um as well as reps Connolly and11509 Elugardo also want to thank11511 Senator Jehlen and Rep Rogers for for11514 for their leadership on this issue of rent control. Um the the issue of11521 rent control is um a tremendously important issue to our members that live, you know, across the commonwealth but11529 find themselves often concentrated in11531 gateway cities.
Um and we are calling11535 for you all to um11538 recommend this favorably because the lift on the ban11542 of rent control would allow11543 cities and towns obviously to inject a more just solution into their housing crisis. The cost of rent uh is something that we here at every one11555 of our gatherings we11556 hear it over over and over. And so the priority couldn't couldn't be11560 bigger for our members. Um you know, rent stabilization is a stabilization of11567 of of families,11568 it's a stabilization stabilization of home. Um and and we know that that we we can um lift11575 that cap11576 would allow for for a a solution11579 locally. Um that is um that11582 that is just critical for11583 working families across across the commonwealth. So um I'm here to ask for11589 your favorable recommendation um Chairman Keenan11592 Chairman Arciero I appreciate the time today and for the rest of my time to our councillors um11597 speaking next.
11599 SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
hank you Mr Ruiz counsellor11601 King.
[CLLR KING (SEIU):] [HB1414]11607 [HB1378] [SB889] [SB886] Thank you. Um and I want11610 to also11611 thank the joint committee um for giving us a public hearing, I'm here to testify in support of the House bills 1414, 1378, S889,11625 S886.11625 Um I certainly appreciate the11627 initiative in11628 this regard um from Senator Gomez, Senator11631 Jehlen, Rrep Connolly,11633 Elugardo,11634 Rogers um11635 I think I hit them11636 all and I'm a city councillor here in the city Worcester at11639 large councillor. My day job, I'm a 25 year employee department11644 of Children and Families and in central Massachusetts I'm11647 the regional vice president of11649 SEIU11649 Local 509. Um and11650 as you know, you've heard today that gateway cities are being particularly impacted um with this challenge11659 that we have in regards to housing um in regards to these significant rent increases.11664
Um11665 throughout the campaign, this11667 last campaign11668 for City council11669 we've heard more and more stories of folks having11672 six and $700 rent increases, um not being able to afford11677 rent on their11678 own anymore and we know the impact that it has on11681 folks who are are essential11683 workers. Um our social workers, um folks recently graduating from college, um folks who are one health challenge away um from struggling. Um so it's in that vein11697 that we ask you to support um these bills11701 allow us to have11703 the flexibility to11704 stabilize families to stabilize our workforce out here in Worcester, you know, we've been going through a bit of an11710 economic renaissance. Um this is also an economic development opportunity11713 so that we can have our workforce living right here in the city11719 of Worcester. Um and we11720 can are able to ensure as a, as a master's level clinician, I can tell you first hand this public health11728 aspect that relates11729 to mental health11730 and housing instability is huge.11732
Um we have young folks up to age 22 that we deal with at the department or11739 rendered homeless who are unable to get on their11741 feet. Um we know we are in the midst of a mental illness crisis. You haven't heard as much about the opioid11746 crisis recently, but we've heard about the pandemic11749 and the impact that11750 has on mental health, the closing of beds and the lack of11753 mental health resources. Um you know, the hierarchy of needs, it is very clear you need11759 a home base to operate from to mount those life challenges and11764 to begin your family. So it's in that vein that I11768 again, thank you for11769 the opportunity11770 um and11771 hope that we're able to move this forward and anything11774 I can do on that end um I will. Thank you.
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Thank you. Council for11781 your testimony. Council race
Council Govan second call Council Mendez.
11792 [CLLR MENDES:] [HB1440] [HB1378] Yes, Hi. Um thank you so much for the11797 opportunity of speaking today in favor of House Bill H1440 and H1378. So I'm Rita Mendez and I'm Brockton Councillor at large and as you know, Brockton has been severely hit by the pandemic and that is11813 mainly due to the overcrowded living situations11817 and the inability11818 for people to11819 properly11820 quarantine in their homes.11821 So Brockton has11822 a high number of multiple-generation homes. So, due to the outrageous rent prices increase in the city of Brockton. So11830 families are forced11831 to live together in very small places. So Brockton is a majority-minority district11837 and what we're11838 seeing is a lot of residents just simply moving out of the city because11843 they no longer can afford11846 the increased11847 rent prices in the city of Brockton because it's absolutely out of control as we see.
So these are people who made Brockton stay home since when11856 they arrived in this11857 country because there's a lot of the11859 immigrant population in the city of Brockton and they've11862 been forced to just leave their community, losing11866 their housing instability, which is11868 our most basic need causing people to lose their jobs because11872 several of our residents they depend11874 on family and friends11875 to give them rights to and from work. So, by them11879 having to move far out to fall river New Bedford Luton and whatever it is11883 out of11884 the city in order to be able11886 to find a more stability for housing that makes them lose even their jobs11891 and their kids are11892 forced to move out of the school system, which that can be also traumatic for kids.
So it's really forcing these families during the11902 pandemic to11903 really take this drastic and as I'm door-knocking11905 and going out and trying to talk to people and I'm11908 coming back, they no longer live there,11910 they moved out and and they're no longer in the city. So we're asking as11915 elected officials to have11916 more tools in our toolboxes to protect our residents, to allow us to do11921 what works for11922 our community and ensure proper protection for11925 our residents.11926 Help us protect housing stability and ensure our residents the right to be protected and stay in their homes. And I appreciate the opportunity speaking11936 today.
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Thank you. Council. Thank you for your testimony counselor to virus.
She's gonna be submitting written testimony.11947 So thank11948 you for that. Thank you.11954 Council11954 given Sullivan
Springfield,
interesting. Okay, councillor jesse Letterman11960 Springfield.
[CLLR LEDERMAN:]11963 [HB1378] [SB886] [HB1440] [SB889] [HB1434] [SB891] Good afternoon.11966 Mr. Chairman, thank11967 you. Thank you very11968 much Mr Chairman and members of the committee. My name is Jesse Lederman.11972 I'm the vice president of the Springfield City Council11975 and chairman of the City Council's covid 19 response11978 committee and I know11980 my colleague newly elected11981 councilors Ada Goban had intended to be here. Unfortunately, I think she's11984 have been pulled away, but I'm sure she will submit testimony at a later time,11989 but I'm thankful for the opportunity to provide testimony this morning regarding the issues that our community faces when it comes to housing.11996 And while this discussion11997 has often had11998 in our11999 commonwealth in the context of12001 eastern Massachusetts and the greater Boston region, our constituents and neighbors here in12006 Springfield and in communities throughout the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts are not exempt from12011 the12012 rising12012 costs and lack of access that characterized the12015 current housing market in the commonwealth.
Last year, in12017 my capacity as chairman of12019 the Health and Human Services Committee, I convened a hearing alongside our Economic Development Committee to discuss the key12026 report that was12027 conducted by our regional Housing Agency Way Finders and the UMass Donahue Institute, which was titled the Greater Springfield Regional Housing Analysis.12035 And I know that my dear friend Senator Gomez cited this12038 in his testimony as12039 well, but I think it's worth pointing out again12042 that this analysis found in key part that more12045 than 50%12046 of all renters12047 in the12048 Pioneer Valley are cost-burdened spending more than 30% of their income on housing and the most serious12053 disparity that was found in the study existed right here in12056 the city of Springfield, especially when it12059 came to communities of color within our city.12061
That same study found that the cost of rent in12065 our region is anticipated to continue12067 rising as our housing supply gap worsens. And we know that our area is already12074 short on12075 housing by 11,000 units SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
but perhaps more importantly, and outside of the12080 theoretical are the experiences of our12082 neighbors and constituents. We know that the COVID-19 pandemic lay bare the housing challenges in12087 our communities and demonstrated the necessity of housing to the foundational success of our12092 families and neighbors. And I know that you all get the same phone calls that I get from families who are seeking help desperately to stay safe12100 and to stay warm and to stay in their12102 homes. And I know that you also know these challenges are not12106 isolated to just the impact of the pandemic.
I think of the individuals and families who I sat by as a community organizer,12113 watching incredible advocates in12115 our city like the late Michael Busey,12118 Liz Busey, Joni Sanders and Rose12120 Webster Smith who have helped so many navigate this broken housing system, but we have a chance12125 to fix it. And at the local level12127 we are working12128 towards the steps that are necessary to address this crisis. We're working to create12132 a housing trust fund. Were12134 pushing back on12135 development that would displace residents. We're approving new12138 developments for affordable and workforce development housing12140 and regulating short term rentals and expanding first-time homebuyer programs just like so many12145 on this panel are but the Legislature should12148 take the steps necessary to give local governments more flexible tools to develop policies that12154 work for our communities to12156 protect tenants from unreasonable rent increases12158 and life-threatening12159 evictions.
And for this reason, I12161 join you and those on the panel in urging the12167 Legislature to advance H1378, S886,12169 H1440 and S889 to12170 put us on12171 a pathway to implementation of those flexible policies and furthermore while I12175 have your attention, I also must again urged the passage of the12179 covid 19 housing equity12181 bill H143412182 and S891. We know12183 that the current surge in Covid 19 cases only adds to the lingering effects of the previous surges and our neighbors renters and homeowners alike need expanded protection in this12193 time. Thank you12194 for your consideration and service to the commonwealth.
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Thank you counselor. Any12199 questions of the members of the panel
12203 seeing none. We're12205 taking testimony next12209 would be mayor.12211 Yeah. Katie anna valentine of Somerville.
12218 Yes I am.12219
[BALLANTYNE (SOMERVILLE):] [HB4208] [HB1378] [HB1440] [SB889] Hello, thank you. I'm Katjana Ballantyne. I'm12227 the mayor of Somerville. Um Good afternoon Chair Arciero12231 and chair Keenan and members of the Joint Committee on Housing. I'm here to express my12238 support for12239 house number 4208 an act authorizing the city of Somerville to enact the right to purchase legislation as well as House number 1378 sponsored by Representatives Connolly and Elugardo and House number 1440 and Senate number 889 sponsored12260 by rep Rogers and Senator12262 Jehlen which both12264 would enable municipalities to lift the ban on rent control. Somerville is facing a crisis of spiraling rents and home prices. Currently, three-bedroom apartments in12275 Somerville have a median in rent12279 number of12280 $3,150. To afford this a Somerville family would need an income of approximately $125,00012288 a year.
This means that once displaced12292 from below-market units, most vulnerable tenants are unable to find new housing they can afford within12300 Somerville the city they call home12302 where they send their children12304 to school and where they're lost tugs certainly12308 at our fabric in our community.12310 A study of property sales in the past 12 months prior to the pandemic12318 showed uh an alarming rate of 69% of the purchases were all-cash12324 transactions of those sales the properties that were held for less than three years were sold for an average of 425% of the assessed value. These incredibly high purchase prices lead to high rents which in turn lend to displacement. Our Somerville Office of Housing stability has been inundated12349 with requests from those facing housing insecurity, often due to the inability to keep up with rent increases or because the building is being12360 sold.
These bills would help address these all to common causes12366 of displacement and in some cases homelessness. Housing instability has a disproportionate impact on12375 communities of color and immigrants. Somerville is12377 doing everything in its power to maintain the12381 economic, racial12382 and ethnic diversity of our city. But we desperately need additional tools based on current funding sources, the high cost of development and the density12392 of our city.12393 We cannot simply build our way out of the12397 crisis. A comprehensive approach to housing12401 crisis must12402 include both increasing tenant protections and increasing12407 housing supply. House number 1378 would enable municipalities to develop the right type of rent stabilization12416 and tenant12417 protections for their communities.
If Somerville is given this12420 authority to do so, I look forward to a12425 vigorous, vigorous local process with all the stakeholders to12429 find the right balance of tenant protections and reasonable12435 market returns to12437 for property owners. House number 4208 is a home rule12440 petition that would allow tenants the right to purchase the property at market rate if the owner decides to sell and they12449 could do so in partnership with local nonprofits if they are unable to purchase on their own12456 House number 4208 would give the city of Somerville advanced notice of12461 pending building sales12462 and the right to12464 purchase the property under the same12467 conditions that were already being offered. This notice12471 would allow the12472 city to proactively12473 protect vulnerable12474 residents and to add to our stock of permanent affordable housing.
House number12482 420812482 was unanimously supported by12483 the Somerville City Council and I was a councillor and supported12488 this Home rule12490 petition and continues12491 to have my strong support. I'm grateful for the leadership of the sponsors of these bills and in particular want to thank12500 Senator Jehlen and Rep Connolly for their steadfast advocacy12504 for housing protection on behalf of Somerville residents. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify. And I respectfully request the committee to favorably report these bills these bills out. Thank you.12520
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Thank you very much, Mayor. Any questions of12523 mayor? Thank you for your12525 for your testimony. Next we have Excuse me, the wealthy um councilor Jonathan pas,
[CLLR PAZ:]12531 thank you12532 so much Mr Chairman, thank you all for having this great public hearing. I just wanted to speak12540 really briefly in support of12542 rent stabilization, reinvigorated tenant protections and local transfer fees. I represent the I'm a city councillor in Waltham.12549 I particularly represent the south side where we have working12554 a real concentration of working12555 families, immigrant families, seniors,12557 veterans we are, I would say, were the bedrock of the Waltham economy, as you may know, Waltham is part of the greater12564 Boston region,12565 which12566 means that were targeted for real estate12569 developers who want to uh, build12571 luxury luxury housing, let's say, either by right through 40 P developments or they're trying to just get special permits.
We see this ad nauseum, uh, and it's because we've manufactured a crisis, we've manufactured a problem um, where12585 a lot of there is a, there is a affordable housing shortage, but12590 it's largely due to the fact that we don't preserve existing housing affordable housing because again, there's an incentive to keep uh, skyrocketing the rent, especially12601 as these luxury developments are propagating all across, not just Waltham, but all across the Waltham, the Greater Boston region. A little bit about Waltham,12611 50% of Waltham rents, 50% of12613 Waltham owns owns12614 house12614 owns property. There's not a week that goes by, I've been around for two years, but12618 I don't plan on12619 going anywhere, but every week I hear of12622 someone who can't afford rent or they're at risk of being12628 displaced because there's no regulation, there's no real control.
Um, I hear desperate12632 stories of people who are trying to negotiate with12636 the landlord having12637 close to nothing to negotiate with. So, um, I just want to12641 and part on this committee that, um, you know,12644 rental assistance, which is the first12645 thing that Waltham did. We had an emergency rental assistance program. I think we12649 were12649 the first in the state to give out rent12653 money. Um, that's a band-aid solution to a manufacturing12655 manufactured crisis. We absolutely12657 need to put12659 a cap, We need to control the market because the market is near bursting. Um, and got the governor's trickle down housing plan is not only unrealistic, it is an immoral way of thinking of housing. So I would like to use the last 30 seconds I have to use myself12676 as an example. Um, last year, my landlord, he sold his property and12680 essentially the new, the new property owner refused to even12684 talk to me about potentially continuing our lease because they wanted to raise the threat12688 by $1,000.
And after the fact they told12691 me, we12692 don't think you would be12694 able to afford this. So12695 I had to scramble12696 find new housing uh in12698 an election year12699 because I wanted to stay and continue serving the good people of Waltham. So if someone like12703 myself, I understand my time12704 may be running out, but if someone like myself can't afford to pay rent like that, you know, what's to12711 say about other12712 um,12713 you know public officers, other leaders, we are not12716 immune to the state12717 of greed that12718 is dominating our real estate market.12721 So I appreciate the opportunity12722 to testify. Thank you to uh12724 State Representative Mike Collonny, uh Nika12726 Elugardo and Senator Gomez for your leadership and I hope to support whatever efforts there are tosupport rent stabilization. Um very robust tenant protection program and local transfer fees. Thank you. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you for your testimony counselor. Next12742 is boston City Councilor Liz12744 Brandon.
12746 [CLLR BREADON:] [HB1378] [SB886] [HB4229] Good afternoon and thank you chairs12750 Keenan and Arciero and the and the members of12752 the joint committee. Thank you12753 so much for this hearing12755 today and providing the opportunity12757 for me to testify testify. My name is Liz Breadon. I'm a district councillor for District nine Allston12762 Brighton in the city of Boston and I represent 77,000 residents in my12769 district. I appear before the12771 committee today to express my strong12773 support for two crucial bills which will afford our municipalities, especially the city of Boston with transformative12780 tools and flexibility to tackle our housing crisis. I wish to go on the record to support H1378 and S886, an act enabling local options for tenant protections12793 presented by12794 the committee members, reps Connolly and Elugardo and H4229.
An act to restore12801 Boston's governmentally involved housing protection, which is a home rule petition referred through rep Elugardo by the mayor and the12810 City of Boston City Council.12812 As a district12813 councilor for Allston Brighton, I am intimately familiar with12816 the pressures12817 of the housing crisis and the urgent need for12820 local tools to12821 ensure housing affordability and stability.12824 According to the 2020 census, over 75% of Allston Brighton's 35,000 housing units are renter-occupied,12831 and if Allston Brighton12833 residents for whom property status12835 is determined are households have a proper poverty rate of 19.5% which is slightly higher than the citywide poverty rate of 18.9, and Allston12848 Brighton12848 constitutes the third-highest share of Boston's impoverished neighborhoods to properly and adequately ensure12856 housing stability.
Our commonwealth local governments must have essential regulatory tools to12863 prevent displacement and speculation, such as12866 those in these two12868 bills. These include lifting the statewide ban over ban12872 over rent control to allow for local options,12875 just cause eviction protections, regulation of tenant deposits and fees, municipal anti-displacement zones among12883 the bills12884 essential components and regulating expiring use. Boston12887 is really is ready to lift the ban and use effective tools as our at our disposal to ensure tenant protections. Our city voted overwhelmingly against the12899 man in 1994 and the day after that election, Mayor Menino submitted to the City council a Home Rule Petition ensuring continuous protections on households then covered by the cities'12914 housing protection laws.
He stated to the12918 council that day that rent control should be a12921 Boston issue decided by Boston voters12923 through our own institutions under our own city government. And12927 he12928 urged the council to join his administration in bringing the12931 debate on this important issue back12933 to where it belongs12934 in the city's neighbourhoods and the Boston community at12937 large. The same applies to all the other municipalities across Massachusetts. That morning after12943 the ballot initiative took aim at Boston's local rent control enabling act the12947 council unanimously approved the home12949 rule petition and advanced to the legislature. Now, over 2712953 years later, we12955 are back,12956 we are12957 asking the legislature12958 to affirm local control and local options for our cities and towns.
We12963 are facing a crisis in this moment and we need to have the tools in our toolbox to be able12969 to address these crisis at the local level12972 and to effectively help relieve our the needs of our residents. H4229 is a home rule petition seeking to address12982 the expiring use, affordable housing subsidies subject to time-limited use restrictions. My district12988 encompasses Babcock towers12990 where residents face displacement with12993 160 tenants previously protected by state subsidies facing increases12998 of up to $1500 a month as current restrictions are set to expire this March, We have13006 already lost 42513008 such units in Brighton for of approximately 14,000 privately owned subsidized apartments in Boston close to13017 2000 have already been converted to high market rents. This year 928 more are at risk of conversion to13026 market rates and over13027 3000 are at high risk of conversion in the next decade.
To address this urgent13033 crisis, cities and towns must be authorized to use tools13037 to ensure that current or formally governmentally involved departments13040 remain sub subsidized or regulated. The H4229 is at least the eighth13048 iteration of this home rule petition. It13051 has been submitted to the legislature13053 with the approval of13054 both13055 the mayor and the city13056 council. This bill appeared before13057 the legislature in 1997, 2002, 2005, 2007, 2009 and again in13065 2011 after being13066 championed by Representative13067 Consalvo then a member of the Boston City council and again in13072 2017 by councilor Michael Flaherty13074 and most recently by in13076 2021 by councillor Flaherty and Madam Alley13080 prompted by the expiring use of the Forbes building in Jamaica Plain where there like Babcock towers tenant13087 protections will expire in March.13089
The stability of residents in a governmentally involved housing13094 in the13095 city of Boston constitutes a profound13098 public emergency threatening, threatening at risk, risk of13101 displacement, expiring subsidies and expected rent increases and loss of affordable housing13107 stock Boston is willing13109 and able to13110 address this emergency and divert further displacement with13113 the tools enable through this13115 much needed legislation, I respectively, urge you to13118 report H1378, S88613120 and H422913121 favorably out of13122 committee. Thank you for your13126 time today.
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Thank you counselor. Any questions of the counselor, seeing none appreciate your testimony. Next, we'll go onto panel eight, which is council Arroyo jean13139 Dubois and a13140 tenant from Georgetown Holmes
13142 Thank you so much. I wasn't sure what the13146 order was there.13155
[CLLR ARROYO:] [HB1378] [SB886] [HB4229]13156 [HB1440] Thank you so much. Uh, and thank you for allowing me13159 to testify today. I'm testifying13160 in support of House Bill 1378 and Senate Bill13163 886, House Bill 4229, and House bill 1440 today. I've heard, I've been on since13171 noon and I've heard from many people,13173 many of the things that13175 I was going to speak to13176 and so I'll attempt to keep it more brief into the point.13179 We are in the middle of a housing crisis. I represent um, the district councillor for high park13184 Mattapan in Rosendale neighborhoods in the city13186 of Boston. Uh, and in13187 my district, we have seen folks13189 being moved13190 out and displaced. And frankly what has actually happened is we are receiving other neighborhoods folks who13195 have been displaced. We are like the last bastion before they get pushed out13200 of Boston because frankly even13201 at unaffordable rates13203 we are still13204 some of the most affordable13205 neighborhoods13205 in the entire city and those rates aren't even that affordable.
And so we have13210 communities that are holding13211 on,13211 there will13212 be somebody who speaks behind13213 me on Georgetown13214 homes. Georgetown himes is in my district,13216 what happened to them would have been prevented and would have been solved by this13220 these bills uh, and frankly is13222 required in my13224 opinion for what we're facing.13225 This is an all-hands-on-deck crisis.13226 We need every tool that we have available to us to do13229 this work. Uh, and13230 these bills give13231 us those tools and frankly I think we just, we just did a13235 mass race, everything was pulled repeatedly and consistently. Housing number one is the number one issue and we've seen that bear out and teaching impacts that13244 was in the13245 city anymore. People have discussed as immigration from that.
I13248 also just say before I came to13250 this13250 work, I was a public defender uh, and I had hundreds of clients and many of them were non-stabilized and we're always trying13257 to stabilize them. And the number one source for most13259 of them was that13260 their housing wasn't stabilized, that they never had a specific place to live. They were13264 fundamentally homeless without living on the streets.13266 They were couch surfing. They were13267 doing all of these13268 different things because they could13269 not afford to stay at home and be stabilized. They could not afford to13273 have an apartment that13274 was13274 in a level13275 where they could even many of them had jobs that they can afford to keep. And13278 so these are the13279 kinds of things that we're facing all13280 these butterfly13281 effects when we don't do this. I urge you to report13284 these out13285 favorably and I hope that you do vote and support of them after13288 after that. So thank you very much for your time.
13291 SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you,13292 counselor Keenan toolbar. Roy
[DUBOIS (SBCD):] My name is Jeanne Dubois. I am the executive director of13303 Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation, used to13306 be the head of Dorchester Bay EDC in13308 Uphams13308 Corner for13309 20 years before that. Um what what we're13314 seeing in Southwest is as Councillor Arroyo says a lot of refugees from other neighborhoods are coming into Hyde Park in Rosendale. Um and that's good. We're glad to see people staying in the city. Um I go to a13330 little church in Hyde Park13331 where it's 75% people of color and African and Haitian and a lot13338 of their families are moving out and that's13340 a big problem13341 for them. But I want to talk about what our CDC has been13345 doing in just the last three years when I got there, we had 35 apartments.13349
Eight on American legion and we13352 built a new 27 unit building at the Fairmont train station. And what13358 we've done I think is one of13360 the tools people should all start using more it's called the acquisition and opportunity program. We've been buying, we bought 56 units in seven different buildings in the last three years, little by little keeping the tenants in their homes13376 except13377 one was a three-decker than13378 the four decker then a six family then a 2613381 unit13381 building. And now recently we have a13385 transitional homeless group, six units there, another three-decker and then another 12 units. Um so13392 little by little what's happening is13395 we are working on both alternative sources of research money and the city is supporting13401 us with their AOP loan products and that way nobody has to leave.
Everybody13408 likes it because they're already13410 there. The neighborhoods are already mixed and13413 you never hear a peep of opposition and nobody can believe13419 they don't have13420 to move. So I, we we are shopping, we want to buy more and more and13425 more apartments and13426 hell I13427 ain't no Spring chicken, but we, we have a lot to do and I well I've still got13433 energy and I13434 want us to keep doing this stuff. So13436 now let me just say what we did. We bought all these properties13440 right in time for Covid. So you know, a good13444 third of our tenants couldn't pay rent there in front line jobs and we did help them um with Covid supports and other programs like13455 that and PPP for businesses in the local area. But the most valuable was the13461 raft payments we've been getting from the feds to13464 support the tenants that couldn't pay rent. So, you know,13470 here we are buying all these properties, we still have mortgages and yet13473 we couldn't pay, they couldn't pay their rents.
So raft subsidies and13479 and from the13480 BHA and Metro housing were a lifesaver for them and for us now we're only down to about 52,000 that's owed13486 to us. So I'm still bold and ready to keep going this13491 way and I think we've got to do13493 this all over the city and we can work on just cause13496 eviction. There are other large landowners that13498 we'd like to talk with and are13501 starting to negotiate with. And I've seen city life bond to do some good13505 work. So those are some of the tools that are actually13508 working and I'd rather13509 just work13510 on what's working and13511 then support the home rule petition. Let13513 Boston figure this13514 out the 13.13515 I forget13516 my numbers here 1378 and 4208. We're also if we buy a larger project we'd be happy to13526 sell one of the buildings to13528 the tenants. I think a lot of people want homeownership. So.
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thank you. Okay, great13533 appreciate your testimony and then we have somebody who is going to speak from13540 the Georgetown Holmes
We don't have a name for the person but13544 it's a13545 the person who13546 participate in the panel present.
Okay, we'll move. And13554 then13554 the next is panel number nine Randolph tenants group john Mchugh, paul FSU's joe heresy asia Stanley13562 and Gladys Mclean And I just want to remind people of the 10 minute13568 cap on the panels. Hi. Yeah, we we have a13572 little amendment to our13573 border there. There's13574 only three of us.
[FOOS (TENANT):] My name is Paul Foos, I'm an organizer, I'm here with13583 organizers and tenants from13584 the Rosemont Square Tenant Association in Randolph South Shore Democratic Socialists of America and other tenants and activists working in13593 Randolph Massachusetts. We're also part of a national campaign of the Democratic Socialists of America which13599 has established tenant unions13601 across the nation, including several in Massachusetts. Our small group of South Shore organizers has worked13608 during this pandemic organizing tenants to work13612 on their own behalf13613 fighting evictions, dangerous and unhealthy conditions. Our group supports any action by the legislature extending13621 local control over13622 housing and13623 state enforcement of existing laws.13626
I feel first realized the vastness of the work to13631 be done for tenants and I13632 was disseminating anti-eviction information in a south shore town. In an apartment13637 house, I detected a serious gas leak on the first13641 floor on the second-floor attendant was storing13643 several tanks of medical-grade oxygen in the hallway. So an appeal to the local13649 health department resulted13650 in a call to the landlord who told13652 them everything was fine. So why the disaster that happened13656 in New York13657 City this week doesn't happen every day in Massachusetts is purely happenstance. The town of Randolph has several large apartment complexes owned by national and multinational13667 corporations. Thousands13668 of tenants in the town of Randolph, mainly black,13673 brown and immigrant people13674 face poor conditions and arbitrary rent increases.
Under13678 the law these people really don't even owe13682 it the existing rents. In fact, landlords owe them for placing13685 them in unhealthy and dangerous conditions13687 if you took it to the courts, the town housing authority, you the legislature, the13693 Attorney General,13694 our congressional13695 delegation all have have turned deaf13698 ears to the desperate13700 calls of citizens to simply implement existing laws. Yet rents continue to spiral higher during this pandemic. Rosemont13707 Square and Randolph is owned by13711 the multibillion-dollar Waterton Corporation13712 in Chicago, which13713 is particularly contemptuous13715 of the health and well being of13718 their renters. Tenants at Rosemount have fought over much of the last year to remedy dangerous and degrading conditions such as rodents, insects,13725 toxic mold, overflowing trash, no lighting and other threats to health13732 and security.
They have fought and won improvements in conditions that13736 have13737 a long way to go. They have13739 battled back against a wave of evictions13741 including 27 in the13742 last week alone for non-payment of rent, But13746 because of the laws in the Commonwealth, they can't13749 fight locally against rents that are going up 25-50%13752 and arbitrary13753 implementations13753 by landlords against individuals. Every apartment complex in the commonwealth, every building needs to get organised, allow tenants to act as citizens in their own communities. Only an active and organized citizenry will make this legislature do the job13773 he was elected to do and we are working on it by13776 expanding the politically active population. So far, this esteemed13779 body has a long way to go13783 to not be an obstacle to tenants' rights13785 act on the tenant protection act and related13788 legislation without delay. Thank you.
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Thank you. I don't13792 know who else is is available through the panel, john13798 mchugh joe heresy asia Stanley Gladys Mclean,
Gladys is here.
Gladys Mclean, I see her. She's got a hand raised.
She is presently on mute.
13818 Can13818 you hear me? Yes,13819 we can. Gladys. Thank you. Hi,13821 good
[MCCLAIN (TENANT):] Good afternoon! Um My name is Gladys McClain.13828 I am one of the leaders of13831 the Rosemont Square13833 Tenants Association and a tenant13835 at Rosemont Square in Randolph. It is unfair that Rosemont is still allowed13842 to raise the rent during a pandemic13846 due to covid.13847 Many people have lost their jobs. Rosemont has continued to raise13853 their rents with no remorse for13857 the current conditions. Rosemont is clearly not going broke.13863 There are 503 units at Rose mart13868 at a base of 2000 per union unit. They would make13874 more than one million13876 a month. They are13880 infested of mices, roaches and ants trash,13884 piles up around the complex. In my building, there was a robbery that ended in someone being stabbed and blood being all over the13897 first floor in entryway.
I called management many times to have someone clean it up.13906 They never did. My god sister and I cleaned the blood up ourselves.13913 As tenants were not asking for much. We're asking for compassion and respect. Being a leader is painful13925 seeing13925 residents in my community going through this just like the management team at Rosemont have a job I have a job to be an advocate for the people in my community. I13941 signed up to be a leader to speak up for the residents in my community for their fear of retaliation. We want change and we want it now. We need a rent control law and we need enforcement of existing laws to protect tenants. Thank you all. Have a blessed day.
13968 SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank you Gladys, Thank you for your13971 testimony today for the work you do on behalf of your tenants. I appreciate it. Thank you. Any any other members of that panel.
[HEROSY:] Joe Herosy from Quincy.13982 I'm also a member of South Shore DSA and hi13987 and organizing with13988 the13988 Rosemont Tenant Association. I13989 want to thank Gladys for sticking it out for 3.513995 hours on13996 this meeting when you're not13997 in great health and13998 you're getting ready to take a break when it14002 was finally our turn. After listening to14005 politician upon politicians14006 talk about how hard it is out there. You14009 know, we the tenants14011 don't need to hear that.14013 They need to hear that you're actually going to do something. And um, I want to push back about a few of the narratives that I've heard about. There's been an awful14023 outside talk about small landlords. I'm actually one myself. I have one.14026 Um,14027 I have14028 one tenant do the uh,14030 long story, I didn't really14032 plan it14033 that way, but it's not14035 about small landlords, it's about huge corporate landlords like the Waterton Corporation that owns Rosemont14041 Square where14042 Gladys lives and there are14044 50014044 units there and they pull in with those14048 50014049 units.
They put in close to $1 million dollars a month in revenue and they're terrorizing people in those units, threatening them with with eviction, sending them fines for14060 not disposing of their trash properly when there's no place to put the trash because they don't empty the dumpsters and they did that14070 after we started organizing14071 in retaliation because we finally got the town of Randolph to14075 find them14077 a few $10014079 for not doing their14080 jobs. And now tenants are getting $10014082 fines. So and and this14084 is not just an isolated incident all over the place in14089 Quincy, you look around at all these new14091 buildings, there are huge buildings owned by corporate landlords14093 with billions and assets. So we need to, that's why we're speaking out in favor of lifting the ban on rent control as one small14103 measure to make sure that tenants have something behind them with at least they just can't get their rent randomly hyped up.
Like another tenant I know14113 in Randolph at Taunton Drive who as soon as she organized and complained suddenly got a rent increase of close to $1,000 and the town is saying, oh14123 we can't do14124 anything about14126 it. It's a state law that you're14128 you're not supposed to um retaliate14129 against tenants and so we're having to14131 fight that now. So we need every every all of14136 the legislation that this committee14138 is, is looking at14140 right now is great. We are specific specific specifically looking at the14144 lifting the ban on rent control, but it's an emergency out there. So thank you14151 for your time.
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Thank you Mr heresy charm. Eq Or14154 asia Stanley Mhm. Okay, those folks are not14160 here. Okay, great, thank you. We will move on14166 now to the next panel of Lillian worth14169 Lee Farris14170 and uh and no
[LILLIAN:] [HB1378]14174 [HB1440] Hi everyone. I'm Lillian. I will speak first on behalf of Hang who was unable to stay for this. Um, uh, the rest of the testimony so these will be Hang's words. Um, my name is Hang Nido. I am a Somerville homeowner of a three-family house and a landlord for the two units. My family and I don't live in professionally I'm a clinical psychologist specialising in working with children, families and adults from marginalized backgrounds, primarily immigrants, people of color and LGBTQ Identified people. I'm here to support bills 1378 and 1440. My family and I left Vietnam as refugees in the 1980s and we're lucky enough14219 to rent my aunt's second-floor apartment in her two family home in Chelsea. My family was able to benefit from this rent-stable housing situation.
So my parents could work their multiple minimum wage jobs to support me and my three siblings enabling us to graduate from college as 1st gen college students and my mom saved up enough money14237 more than 20 years after our arrival to the us to buy a house in Maldon. I know firsthand how rent stabilization makes it possible for children and families to thrive, particularly low-income families, families of color and refugee and immigrant families Because of rent stabilization. My family has been able to break intergenerational poverty. My partner and I14254 were only able to buy a three-family home in Somerville in 2017 because of financial help from his parents who are also immigrants and were able to save as much money as they can by living in cities and states that had rent-controlled policies in place.
As a clinical psychologist I see how children and families suffer in all areas of health when they don't have safe and stable housing. There is a ton of research on how unstable housing has long-term effects on brain development as it contributes to toxic stress and developmental trauma as landlords. We have tenants who have struggled with securing safe and affordable housing in the past, my partner and I both work and our rental income helps a lot with our mortgage. We have not raised the rent in the past five years as landlords. In fact, we reduced the rent for one of our units considering the circumstances of our tenant there, we don't need to increase rent to make our ends meet everyone deserves safe, affordable, accessible housing. And I want cities to have all the options possible to try solutions that would benefit their communities.
We are in a housing emergency right now, particularly with the pandemic while we wait for rent control and tenant protections, we need to immediately pass the covid 19 housing equity bill, House Bill 1434 to prevent more people from losing their homes passing these bills is simply the socially just thing to do. Um, and again, those were the words of Hang Ingo, who is also a Somerville homeowner and landlord. Um, I'll also share my own testimony. I'm here to speak strongly in favor of House Bill 1378 and 1440. My name is Lilian14339 Worth. I'm a resident of Somerville as well as a homeowner. My housemates and I bought a house together after renting for several years and we're also landlords in that we share a house with tenants who don't also come on with us.
Um, when we were renters, we experienced stress and uncertainty every year when rent inevitably went up even as the property condition deteriorated. Um, so as new homeowners in a position of incredible luck and incredible privilege, I'm here to support these bills, which represent crucial first steps in mitigating displacement and protecting tenants. We're in a housing crisis. It's been said many times, but it bears repeating and we really need to use every tool possible in our toolbox to help people attain housing stability. So these bills are an important first step in repealing the ban on rent control to enable cities and towns to create their own local policies. The status quo is just not working in my community, a city of around two-thirds renters, more and more of my neighbors are being priced out or evicted for property flipping.
It was only by a great deal of luck that we were able to buy a home and we could have been next and I hate to think how it would be for people more vulnerable in my experience owning a house, rental income helps us pay for the mortgage and for improvements, but we're not dependent on it. We do most maintenance and renovation stuff ourselves to keep costs down and we don't raise rent, it's just not worth it. And it's frankly not okay to keep charging more and making the end goal to maximize profits. If we decided to raise the rent by just a few $100 a month, it wouldn't really gain us all that much profit, relatively speaking, but that could be completely destabilizing to someone on a low income who might just have to move out. Although I personally hope for a future where rent stabilization and tenant protections are standardised across all properties.
It's important to note that these bills carve out exemptions for small landlords and owner-occupants. Nevertheless, this legislation as proposed would bring enormous benefit to lower-income and housing vulnerable renters. It's our responsibility to look after our community, especially those most vulnerable by supporting this legislation instead of propping up outdated policies which are making inequality worse. It's simply unsustainable and unconscionable to continue to prioritize real estate profits over people's right to a safe and stable home. Thank you.
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Thank you. Is Lee ferris Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can.
[FARRIS (CRA):] [HB1378] [HB1440] Hello, My name is Lee Farris. I live in Cambridge and I'm president of the Cambridge Residents Alliance. I'm speaking in favour of H1378 and H1440 which would end the statewide ban on rent control and rent stabilization. And I also want to encourage you to favorably report out the local option transfer fee bills to provide more funds for affordable housing. Uh back when rent control ended, I was an income-qualified tenant. I then became the owner of a two-family. I fought against the end of rent control because rent control had been key to me staying in Cambridge. I14512 did not earn a lot and as an income-qualified tenant, my rent took only 30% of my income, which was a huge help. Over the years, I saved enough to be able to make a down payment on a fixer-upper in my lower-income neighborhood. Back when prices were not yet crazy, I became a landlord who offered below-market rents.
I feel very lucky that owning my home stabilizes my housing costs which enables me to stay in Cambridge and rent control helped me own my home. The impact of14545 the end of rent control in Cambridge was severe. I watched as my neighbors in the port were forced out by rising rents. That census showed thousands of moderate-income families with children were leaving Cambridge. Many were people of color. I watched as my neighborhood became wider and wealthier and I saw far fewer children. Schools closed. If there's no limit on real estate profit. More working-class communities, especially communities of color, will be further undermined and displaced. So passing rent control now can help stop further destruction.
I'm able to maintain my property and make ends meet without huge annual rent increases. So I don't see why rent control would negatively impact landlords. The rent that I charge has increased14593 about 4%14594 a year. I've even been able to improve the property with solar panels. I know many, many small landlords in Cambridge join me in supporting rent control or stabilisation and SPOA does not speak for us. Rent control can include many different forms of rent regulation and just cause eviction. Um I urge you to favorably advance these rent control bills now so that Cambridge can discuss and decide what works for our own community. And then lastly because we are in a pandemic,14628 I ask that we that you immediately pass the COVID-19 housing equity bill age 1434 to prevent even more people from losing their homes due to the pandemic. Thank you.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Mhm. Thank you. Lee appreciate the testimony. Any questions of any member of the panel we also have testifying next jim wrecked if I pronounce that correctly.
Yes, thanks, thank
[RECHT:] [HB1378] [HB4057] [HB4148] [SB889] Thank you for accepting my statement. I apologize for not having been present when I was first called. I'm speaking in support of bills H1378 and H4057 and 4148 sponsored by Rep Connolly and also in support of bill S889 sponsored by Senator Jehlen. I'm a Somerville resident and homeowner and have been a full-time community psychiatrist an addiction specialist in the Boston area since the early 1990s. So my medical career has coincided with the end of rent control and its consequences. But I want to speak here to one pretty specific issue and that is the widespread myth14717 that people become homeless because of substance abuse or because of mental health problems.
I think one reason this myth is so popular is that it allows us maybe unconsciously to blame unhoused people for their terrible circumstances. The reality is a lot more complicated and it includes the fact that many people develop serious problems with addiction or mental illness only after becoming homeless. There are a number of clinical studies that look at actual timelines in individual lives and these revealed that for many people, homelessness precedes serious substance use and mental health problems. So we can say that in many cases the diagnosis is not just post-traumatic stress disorder or schizophrenia or methamphetamine or opioid dependence. The underlying diagnosis is homelessness and many of my medical colleagues agree that the best medicine we could prescribe strong medicine is safe and stable housing.
It doesn't replace counselling psychiatric treatment were appropriate or recovery services of course, but it needs to be their first housing needs to14807 be their first. Thank you for accepting my comments.
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Mhm.
Thank you. Thank you doctor for your testimony. I just want to mention that we are now at about the halfway mark. Um we're well four hours into the hearing and have gotten through just about half of those who have signed up to testify. So we appreciate the patience of everybody who has waited to this point. So I want to thank everybody for their time and remind everyone who just joined that again. We're trying to keep people to three minutes uh into the panels to no more than 10 minutes and we would really appreciate the cooperation going forward. It's now 3:17 and we probably have another 3 to 4 hours to go. So with that we'll move right on to the next panel on the list. This is Beatrice Green, David, norman Ed Burleigh and Michael Kane Excuse me, I'm on that panel edits not. My name is Quentin Davis from the Forbes building. That is correct Chairman. Okay, so Quentin Davis is speaking in instead of Edb early ed will be on a if we get to it would be on a later panel14880 of community supporters. Okay, go ahead. Rosemary Jones I thought I was supposed to be on that panel also although I could drain myself from gabbing if that's a nigger a second panel. Rosemary there's a separate panel for Okay, sorry, by Okay, so just so I've got to get Beatrice screen. David norman Quentin Davis and Michael Kane thank you14904 And remind folks of the 10 minutes. Thank you.
You want me to go ahead.
[DAVIS (FBTA):] Um my name is Quentin Davis and I'm on the steering committee of the Forbes Building Tenant Association and a member of the Massachusetts Alliance Hud tenants, I want to talk a little bit about the Forbes building. I hear other people referring to the Forbes building like it's a, it's a good idea in itself. Um we've had a very good tenant organization prior to the pandemic. When the tenant association called a meeting, the whole conference room would be full of tenants all asking good questions and becoming educated in the intricacies of some of these um bills and things. Um at the time of the pandemic, suddenly the landlord didn't want to talk to us, nothing much was happening.
So in order to get his attention um, we got two petition campaigns going one among the tenants, we have 147 units and more than 110 people signed this petition. These people petitioning their landlord when they're already worried about their apartment, very brave and we delivered those to him. Then we decided to have a community-wide petition of people who live in Jamaica Plan who just want to um see the Forbes building continue and we've got more than 1000 signatures on that and we got the endorsement on that of the Jamaica Plain neighborhood council,15005 the Jamaica Plan Association, JP Progressives and we also have a potential person who would help us find another owner that would keep the building affordable.
And just remember when you have an affordable building that doesn't mean the landlords losing money it means the government will subsidize beyond15025 what we can pay. Um and I think when you're talking about the Forbes building as sort of an institution, I just want to talk a little bit about what our country is. People are always talking in this last year since January six about how divided the country is and how everything's going downhill. They forget that a year before that millions of people went in the streets to protest the murder of15050 George Floyd. So I think we have to see that there is an anti-racist component and the population that's kind of getting ignored and the thing about the Forbes building that's so great is that it's actually a diverse the disabled people, abled people um racially very very well integrated and if the city of Boston really is serious about affordable housing and15078 all these commissions and chiefs and and departments and everything for um inclusion and diversity.
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I think we just have to say with the Forbes building if it's not broken, don't fix it. We have a community that's15093 really strong and really interracial
and great thank you Quentin for that testimony. Beatrice Green.
[GREENE (TENANT):] [HB4229] [HB1378] Yeah my name is Beatrice Greene and I live in the Forbes building. Um and I'm a member of the Forbes Building Tenants Association and the Mas Alliance of Hud tenants. The Forbes building is a 40 T building that is set to expire on March 1st 2022 that's in about six weeks. There are over 100 units that would be impacted by then when rents can be raised to whatever the landlord chooses, passing Boston home rule petition H49 4229 and the tenant protection act H1378 therefore is of extreme urgency. Another 37 units will be subject to unregulated rental increases in November 2023 because of the uncertainty of what will happen with the building the stress on tenants is enormous with physical and emotional harm.
The landlord promised on two occasions publicly that he would keep the building affordable but then refused to sign the contract with the city that would have made that possible and did not submit paperwork to receive money for the preservation of the building. Already we are seeing market-rate tenants move into the building. This building has offered me a safe home as a musician I have access to nearby practice space, access to grocery store, library parks to exercise. Prior to living in the Forbes, I went from friends of friends couches and living spaces as affordable spaces for seniors were rarely available. Shelters are dangerous for me as I have asthma and other underlying health issues.
I applied to list after list every list you can think of finding a home at the Forbes building was therefore a tremendous relief15239 thanks to Vivian Goldberg, the former property manager and other community leaders working together on my behalf. Uh there's a community field here. It's not just a building. People are concerned about each other, helping through each other through difficulties, sharing food and swapping stories as seniors and disabled folks this presents a great deal of stimulation and mental health benefit to counteract the isolation that often occurs in these populations. Seniors are 23% of the Boston population, 40% of the extremely low renters in Massachusetts are seniors and 20% of extremely low-income renters are disabled.
In Boston and across the state therefore there are not nearly enough affordable units for more for low-income people. We simply need more spaces more affordable spaces and can ill afford to displace people who have contributed to the fabric of15308 Boston. Where will we go? We are still very much in the15315 middle of a pandemic, increasing the stress of a move to God knows where, where will I go? What will happen15325 to us? To me, the thought is terrifying. Thank you to the Legislatures who sponsored this bill. I appreciate the listening time of the legislators, especially during these times and hope they will move ahead on our behalf. Thank you.
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Thank you Beatrice David norman.
[NOLLMAN:] [HB4229] [HB1378] Um I would just like to every that the two speakers before me for my building, which is the Forbes building. Uh I have said very articulately, a lot of what I have to say, which kind of makes my job easy. Um I want to say, first of all how proud I am of the steering committee within our organization, two of whom you have heard from today, I often say I look at our building uh is a building not of uh um senior citizens and um and disabled people which who were the first tenants in the building, but a group of organizers um and you've seen the result of that, the other thing that I want to say, which I did not plan to say, but after watching this hearing um I would like to make a request of the of the representatives and senators on this committee to um as long as it is to look at this tape again.
I have had goosebumps um listening to the the landlords who are speaking in favour of um rent control of the mayor from Somerville, who if you didn't have any case that would that could be made better was the median rental cost for people in that city. Somerville used to be a very beautiful but affordable city and now they're even they are not. So so in conclusion, I'd just like to say that the the Forbes building is an expiring use building, therefore I'm speaking in support of um mostly in support of H4229 but also in favour of H1378 and house 1440 um rent control uh in our and I would also like to thank Nika Elugardo who has worked well representatives are supposed to work directly on our behalf by acting as an intermediary with our landlord to try and resolve this problem.
Unfortunately, we still haven't resolved it and there are awful lot of very very frightened people as you've already heard within this building who most of whom are elderly and disabled and and low income, although that's changing because the landlord is bringing in tenants at will to fill vacant apartments um and bringing most of them or maybe all of them we don't know at market rate. So it was kind of shades of things to come, we would like to keep this building uh an affordable building as15527 it always is as as it has been for 40 years before this um and as um Beatrice said in March of this year that contract plus the 40 T provision at the end of that contract which allows us to stay an additional three years ends and there are an awful15549 lot of people in this building who are scared to death that they're going to be out in the street.
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Thank you, thank you very much for your testimony and the panel has no time up. Mr Kane can I see that could be one of our later panels we had to drop out if I I'd like to substitute for around Sure if you could keep it brief that would be wait till then. You want to wait till then. Yeah. You know what panel that was? It's the expiring. Use one with David Reno and Rhonda Jackson. Okay, thank you appreciate that. Our next counsellor Selena raise Lawrence C counselor.
[CLLR REYES:] Hello everyone. Thank you for the opportunity. I'm Selena Reyes from Lawrence Massachusetts I am the city councilor. I I want to say thank you everybody to talking in favor to promote rent control because it's really important to our community. I working to my community very hard and I saw the challenges uh the struggling everyday our present in our15621 community, I have my own family childcare and also I15626 very close to the time bring the child to my business. But I saw how struggle they are to complete the basic medical. Uh it's really hard to hear about when they told me oh I don't15642 know what I need to do because uh my friend has increased $300, $400, $500.
And when I refer to apply to the different program to work program or CDBG program they are not eligible because uh they're not behind in the rent but they cannot affordable the amount increase. I'm asking for your support for promoting this bill because it's really important for our community for our registering for our families for our family and also for our children because when the parents don't have enough to supply the basic need the challenges is reflecting in our Children. Thank you so much for your patience and for this opportunity.
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Thank you. Council, you mentioned your business my guess is your business as a child educator. Yes, yes, thank you for doing that. Thank you for your testimony, appreciate it. Um Next Senator Sonia chang Diaz,
[SEN CHANG-DIAZ:] [SB866] Thank you mr Chair. It's good to see you. It's good to see you chair Arciero Thank you for your long service today uh and then taking all of this um important and heartfelt testimony. Um I know you have heard quite a bit15718 of testimony today on H1378 and also Senator Jehlen's uh parallel bill on removing the ban on rent stabilization. I want to add my migraine assault to the scales here in support of of removing the ban on rent stabilization. Uh and just underscore the testimony that you've heard from15742 so many of my brother and sister15745 legislators uh and local officials across the state. I won't repeat, you know, or belabor it, but just want to uh add my name to that list of folks that hope that you will report out favorably uh one or both of those bills.
I also come before you today in support of a bill that I've filed the homes for all bill on a uh overlapping topic. Uh This is Senate 866. What this bill seeks to do is quite simply um just extend the employment discrimination or nondiscrimination reforms um that we as a legislature passed in 201015785 to the arena of housing. So uh folks may recall that in 2010, the legislature enacted ban the box15793 legislation um to allow people with criminal records a fair opportunity to obtain employment, and it simply um required that employers, no longer have a checkbox, you know, on their sort of first layer of employment screening right on that paper application that I would ask people used to ask people about their criminal records.
Um we took the step in 2010 of saying, you know, banning the box of saying that's not permitted on the15819 first stage of uh of employment screening and that, you know, later on in the process when employers are interviewing somebody and have, you know, can get a more full sense of their of their story of all of the, you know, their pros and cons as a prospective employee, um may they ask about potential criminal records, we want to apply that same standard, which has been very successful in the employment context of helping people reintegrate um and doing so15847 safely into society um to the housing arena. Um so this bill would simply um provide that landlords while they may not ask about criminal record information in an initial housing application um that similar to the employment context that they could do15865 so uh you know, later in the process, once they've given, you know, a more well-rounded look at a potential applicant.
Um we know that the 2010 law has been successful, it has increased economic opportunities for formerly incarcerated people, uh and by extension for their families and their communities. Uh and the homes for all bill is merely an extension of that into the housing context. It's one that promotes public safety. We know that stable housing, I know that you, you know, chairs know this better than most, right, that stable housing um reduces recidivism in our communities. Um the lack of stable housing can often lead to re-offense and recidivism. Uh and the lack of housing in and of itself is often a technical violation of parole or supervision, um that can, you know, end up15913 resulting in re-incarceration uh for folks simply because they have not been able to find um stable housing.
And we know that homelessness can also lead to other, you know, minor criminal offenses out of survival, um such as, you know, um uh, you know, occupying a public sidewalk, urinating in public, things like that, that are totally preventable. If we can help people15937 get stably housed. We also know that housing increases opportunities for self-sufficiency, uh you know, with housing formerly incarcerated individuals can have greater access to health care, um secure stable employment connects us, um other key services and programming, um and without that, you know, homelessness cuts people off from the very services that they need to be self-sufficient and productive. Um so for all of these reasons, I hope that the committee will report this bill out favorably in addition um, to the neighborhood and rent stabilization legislation.
I'll just leave it15974 there but please know that, that I'm here, you know, both now and any15977 time after this hearing, uh, for any questions that you may have to the chairs ormembers of the committee.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Great! Thank you senator, appreciate the testimony. Have almost almost evening. Have a great afternoon still. We're getting there. Thank you. Next is our panel 13 Kathleen Williams and Duane calendar.
Kathleen Williams and Duane calendar.
Yes. Okay.
Next We will go to panel 14, Rhonda Jackson, David, Reno and Michael Kane
This is Michael, caine, Rhonda Jackson is not16024 here. Um but I am. Uh and uh also Lauren Honan Human. Maybe joining in a second. So, David, do you want to go first,
David? You want me to go first? Can you hear me? Okay.
How many minutes do I have? No more than 3? three minutes.
[RENO:] I'd like to say well I'm in the gallery. I am in the piano factory. We had a very good alternative to rent control. We had a program in which we certified our rent every year, we paid one-quarter of our income if16066 your income went up,16067 you paid more if you went down, you paid less and it stayed the same and stayed the same. The landlord managed to get a stable managed to get the difference by the Mas Housing Finance Agency. Now that's an alternative direct control. Let's consider all the16082 possibilities. The fact of the matter is unfortunately government doesn't act. It reacts. We have a housing crisis, we have Cas and Mas which is the result of the property as a result of housing. This is government now reacts to it. There you are.
I would also like to say that the projects that people live in, we're supposed to be redone temporarily for 10, 20 years after World War Two until people are able to buy homes. They now are they now are older than I am and I am considered a senior citizen. Also government should be able to individual cities and towns should have their right to do what they deemed best. What's good for Boston may not be good for Boxborough what's good for Cambridge may not work in Shakopee. I am not so brilliant as to make one rule for every city and town in the entire commonwealth of Massachusetts. I'm not that intelligent. Nonetheless, each individual town should have an ability to look at a variety of different solutions and let's consider solutions that we haven't had before.
The reason we're in this situation,16156 it's a very good book by Leonard Downie JR called Mortgage on America in the seventies, they decided to build housing so that people had, people could get breaks with expiring use what happened in 20 years the Congress didn't think of, well the 20 years16172 are open are over. And as far as subsidizing housing, the federal government has subsidized housing. They subsidized a huge housing business. It's called prisons. I think we should take that money and get affordable housing for people. I think my three minutes grew up.
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Great, thank you very much. We appreciate the testimony. Michael King. I'll go next.
[KANE:] [HB1378] [SB886] Thank you so much. Chairman for your patience. I hope you all are surviving Well from this foUr our hearing so far, my name is Michael Kane I am the director of the Mas Alliance of Hud tenants were a statewide tenant coalition of groups in privately owned subsidized housing, Piano Factory, Forbes building, Babcock Towers, Georgetown that you've heard from today. We're here in strong support of H1378 and S886 as well as the Boston home rule petition, which we sponsored That the city council house 4229 they would give the tools to save these buildings and keep them affordable. Um, at in particular, Forbes and Babcock Towers are very much at risk Now they're facing $1500 a month rent increases in March in Babcock uh 1000 or more at the Forbes building.
Uh and that's why there's an urgency to this um, the Forbes, they're trying to negotiate a deal with the owner. But if that deal isn't finalized or with the state in March, there's no reason there's nothing to prevent the landlord from raising rents to market rents. So that would mean displacement and in particular the loss of affordable housing um, at Georgetown. Uh, the crisis, there has been around mass evictions. Unfortunately, the tenants from the group are unable to make it today to the hearing, but they were here but had to drop out. But the issue there is strengthening eviction protections to make sure that the just cause provisions can be amended if the city has the ability to do that to require owners to adopt non-punitive non-payment eviction strategies such as the wind plan.
The tenants are trying to negotiate the win plan At Georgetown, but16311 if that doesn't work, there are another 150 families right now at Georgetown, three months behind in rent, they could begin the evictions all over again and we could be right back to where we were in the string. However, passage of these bills because the city tools to strengthen those protections. Um so I want to mention first, I want to thank Councillor Consalvo Representative Consalvo who was a strong supporter and the sponsor of the Boston home rule petition when he was on the Boston city council and the council Representative, we're hoping that you can support the bill and committee and help us get a pass finally at the state level. Um We also are supporting the statewide version of the 1378 that gives cities the opportunity to preserve um and adapt whatever protections work for their communities to deal with the very chaotic markets that are going on right now.
Cities should be able to put it put together a package that works for them. Uh and uh, and have that authority and that's what that bill will do, will give maximum flexibility. It will lift the ban and give maximum flexibility for localities. I want to point out you do not have to support rent control. I know some members of the committee may feel uncomfortable about supporting rent control, but in16406 order to support giving localities the ability to do what they want. You can support the giving flexibility. Uh let the cities decide what they want to do. You don't have to personally support rent control. I just want to point that out in case some of your committee members have16423 those reservations.
Um, I also the last point chairman Honan did report the 1378 version out two years ago, favorably we'll hope the committee does that again. And Lauren Friedman is here to take the last portion of this panel. Thank you.
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Okay,
Lauren Rhonda is not here, but Lauren Honan Igman is
[HONIGMAN:] hi good afternoon, thank you for this opportunity. I'll try to make this brief. My name is Lauren Honigman. I'm an attorney with Home-Start at greater Boston legal services. Um I am supporting the local actions for tenant protections bill and the Westin um home refusal petitions to save our homes I'm also working in tandem with the mas alliance for16476 hud tenants um as Michael Kane had16479 mentioned to assist and advocate for tenants at Babcock Towers expiring use building. Um Babcock Towers is a 23 story privately owned building16487 in the middle of the BU campus. Approximately 160 units are for affordable housing and a large portion of these units are occupied by elderly, low-income and severely disabled folks.
Um Some of these tenants have been living in their apartment for decades. In in this coming March, the 42 protections will end and at that time many of these low-income tenants will face rent increases Of approximately $1500.16512 We're hoping that these folks will receive vouchers from the city of Boston, but ultimately it is up to the landlord to decide whether or not to accept those vouchers. Many of these tenants that we have been working with who are elderly and disabled have continued to receive threatening notices from the landlord. Um We believe these tactics are an attempt to force them out so that their units can be rented at a higher rate which would then be unaffordable to them. Um just as a quick example of what these low-income vulnerable elderly folks are enduring um in a situation like Badcock tenants, one of my clients under a 42 protection is a 95-year-old holocaust survivor.
Um he called management twice when his fire alarm was beeping um in return they sent to him a final notice of lease violation for excessive harassment Um because the 42 protections are set to expire in just a matter of weeks. Um so many of these low-income folks will be rendered helpless and at the mercy of management. And truly the only solution16572 for folks in16573 expiring use buildings like Babcock is to regulate the rent at the end of the mortgage and force the landlord to accept the housing vouchers. We cannot allow the cycle16583 of displacement and segregation to occur without any sort of policy intervention. These bills are effective tools to keep folks in their home and keep them from being pushed into and out of neighborhoods by economic forces which they have no say in. Um thank you for your time. I appreciate the opportunity.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Thank thank you for your testimony. Next we will go16608 on to theatre theodora Marie scotus scotus
Theodore here.
Mhm Theodora. Okay, move16622 on. Now let's go to channel 12 amy Ott mike Tanzanian and Kyle potter Mhm.
And then and also dan Albright and Caribou lang Geisbert
in those folks here. Jamiat mike canyon, kylie potter dan Albright Mirabeau lang Geisbert,
I'm on Feinberg tenants union. I could probably read their statements.
Okay, who is this, This is Rose Cohen okay. Um so you will be testifying on behalf of all of them,
I could I'll start by testifying on behalf of myself and then I'll see how much I can get through the others. The the other thing you can do is you can if you have their statements in writing, you can submit them to us by email and we'll make sure that it becomes part of the record that would be preferable. Yeah, that might make it easier16696 for you. And so go ahead please. Okay,
so my name is Rose Cohen. I'm a student at Berklee College of Music and I'm speaking in favour of H 1440, H 1378 S 86 essay 84 and S 89.
I've witnessed a lot of housing difficulties in. Quite a few of my peers, including myself who spent the first month of last semester between hotels simply because I I couldn't find any housing at a reasonable price. However, I would like to keep this testimony focused on the story of a close friend of mine because I believe that there are a useful example for how the housing crisis is affecting the middle class. So they signed a one year lease at the start of 2020 for a one bedroom apartment that they were sharing with someone else. And by the time the pandemic hit, there were just no job opportunities for them. So they had to make some difficult decisions. one it wasn't possible for them to pay for both rent and then other expenses including food, laundry. And if they had a medical issue which they didn't, but if they did, it would have been devastating. So they tried to sublet the apartment and after months and months on the market, nobody wanted to buy it. So because it wasn't possible for them to afford both run and daily expenses, they were actually forced to move out of their apartment in boston and in with their parents out of state. So they started to work night16796 shifts out of state so they could pay for the apartment that they weren't living in. And I think that their story is most unfortunate, but it's it's only one of many similar stories when when someone can't afford to live in their unit. It's clear it's a clear sign that rent is too high, especially if that person is middle class. And I believe there's, there's Jonathan paz who said earlier today who touched upon it that16825 none of us are immune to this housing crisis, not not even our very own representatives. So only wealthy corporate landlords are benefiting from the crisis while everyone else suffers. And it doesn't have to be that way municipalities deserve a chance to make decisions on rent control and housing stability. That makes sense and provide a safe environment for their community members. I endorsed this bill as a step in the right direction and I hope that you'll support it to
thank you for your testimony Rose and the other testimony may be submitted in writing by email16860 that we appreciate that. Okay, moving on then to the next panel, mike is here from Feinberg. Mhm. Like Canyon by saying that correctly,
Mike,
I'm here, yep. Okay.
Yes you are. Okay. So I've been a resident here in my apartment for 18 years since 2000 and four, I'm going to be brief and direct uh in 2017. Uh close to december, I received an16899 eviction notice to be out of my apartment five days before christmas uh it was a with false eviction which was entirely false and I'm a voucher holder and a long time boston resident, I had to file a16915 fair housing commission complaint even to get this apartment back in 2004 because I had already been denied by five landlords across the city, making it very scary for me because I was leaving one home and I couldn't find another and the one that I got. Now I had to file a fair housing commission complaint To get this apartment and low and behold 14 years16934 later they saw an opportunity to try to get rid of one of their section eight16937 Voucher Holders and they took it and they tried to evict me and they wanted me out. Five days before christmas, I was horrified by this. I have pTSD, I was suicidal, this is just horrific the links, they will go through to get rid of a long term tenant. Five days before christmas I thought I was going to be out in the cold without a home and I was horrified because I have PTSD I was represented by the lawyers clearinghouse in chokehold Stuart law firm and the eviction was subsequently dropped. I was never contacted16969 by management about the accusations on the16972 victim by email, phone, text or any other reason. They just took it as a football to16976 try to literally scare me out of my apartment. I knew then they were after me. I knew that they were willing to do anything to get rid of me even though they had dropped this eviction months later they tried to evict me again on a retaliatory eviction, no cause no fault. Again, lawyers clearinghouse again biggest law firms in boston representing the ropes ropes and gray because they saw there was total merit in the discrimination that I was receiving. Mind you, I've lived here for 15 years before this we sued them for discrimination in housing court, they settled, they dropped the case and I'm still living in my home now because I had to fight for it every year new tenants, nobody sticks around. There's no community. We created community with Feinberg tenants union when when other members finally decided to fight back against the egregious rate increases when the pandemic was going on, they were releasing new apartments to new tenants were signing for $1600 for a one bedroom. Meanwhile, the people that were trying to re sign and we were trying to advocate to get the same rate for the people trying to resign their leases for the next year, who already live here and they wouldn't give it to them, they wouldn't give them the same rate that they were giving new17051 tenants. There's incredible discrimination and bias in the system here in boston. There's incredible rampant abuse by landlords who use every dirty tactic in the in the book to get rid of section eight tenants, immigrants and anybody who's just unfortunately not smart enough to know their rights. And I've worked in tenants rights with, with Feinberg tenants, Union City, uh, city like theater Urbana helping educate immigrants. And I am horrified of what I've seen and the level of people that are being thrown into the street and the social ills that it creates are horrifying. The only reason I have my home is because I have the stability of my voucher. But again, I had to fight for it. You know, twice of three times just to get the house. And then later when they tried to evict me when there was no fault and then later for the no fault. It's pure harassment. No one should be living in fear that they're going to lose their home. We need rent control. We've always needed rent control. Like corporations like huge corporations are going to regulate themselves against making more money. That's an asean proposition. I'm mad. Um and this needs to happen. Great but we thank you for sharing your experiences, we appreciate the testimony. Thank you. Thank you. Okay um Amy Art and Kylie potters are going to submit their17134 testimony in writing as is Dannon Marivaux. So we're going to move on now to panel 18 Dr Andy Hyatt, Dr Manasseh Mandela and dr D Paavo energy
talk to Andy Hyatt. Hi I'm dr Montigny and I'm actually going to start first Chairman. Keenan Chairman Arciero and members of the joint committee. Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify today. Um My name is dr marisa Bangla. Um and I'm a third year psychiatry resident at boston Medical Center and a member of the union Cr and I'm here today to testify in support of H 1440 S 889 and H 1378 S 886 and ask you to report them favorably since the beginning of my residency at boston Medical Center 2.5 years ago I've seen countless patients who are struggling with rent and facing eviction my patients and the community I serve are in desperate need of action to address the housing crisis. As I was preparing my testimony for today, I struggled with which stories to share with you, not because I only had a few but because I have so many that truly show the need for rental reform and just cause eviction. I wanted to tell you a story of a patient I have recently been seeing, she has suffered with addiction for most of her life and is now in the early stages of sobriety, she was in a very abusive relationship and when she left her home, she could not afford to rent a place on her own. This left her with no option but to live in a shelter. Unfortunately,17234 this only shelter that she could find is a wet shelter, which means that there's rampant drug use both inside the shelter um and outside the shelter as well. Um This is clearly very triggering for her and not optimal for her health, that's her doctor, I worry for her, we need rent control. So patients like this can afford to live in a safe and healthy housing and they don't have to choose between their physical well being and their mental health, rental costs and the fear eviction are ever present with our patients. We know that17266 the stress of housing insecurity is damaging to one's physical17269 and mental health. I had a patient whose husband had recently been deported and she had limited supports in the area. She has a very young child who was diagnosed with a PhD and they're being threatened with eviction because the landlord has claimed that the small child is running and jumping too much at night. My patient is so worried about being evicted that she's had to stop working evenings so she can be at home to monitor that her daughter isn't jumping and running, she's losing income. And as a non english speaker has been struggling to navigate the system. If she's evicted, she will not be able to afford rent in her current neighborhood and if she is forced to leave this neighborhood, she will no longer be near BMC and will lose access to much of her only supports and care when rents continue to rise unchecked and communities are forced out. The consequences are resounding. My colleagues and I regularly care for patients who are in crisis and would17324 benefit from longer, more intensive psychiatric care. But oftentimes they forego treatment telling us that they can't afford to take the additional time off because missing work means they won't be able to pay their rent and would face the threatened trauma of eviction. As doctors, this is a difficult issue to grapple with. We see the crisis are in our most vulnerable patients and face those same crises at the same time. While we ourselves are struggling with rental costs when I moved to boston 2.5 years ago to start my residency, I could not believe the cost of rent in order to secure apartment. I had to pay over $12,000 upfront. Residents on average have $250,000 of student debt. I personally have over $400,000 of student debt. I do not have a spare $12,000 in my bank account for rent. I was only able to secure an apartment because of my partner and their savings. It is not uncommon for residents to move every year in search of cheaper rent as residents.17384 We worked 60 to 80 hours or more per week. So living close17388 to our hospitals is crucial. But many of us cannot afford to do this. It was only during the height of Covid when prices plummeted that some of us, including me, were finally able to move closer to the hospital. Thank you very much appreciate the testimony had to cut you short. But um I want to move through so thank you. I don't know if Dr Andy Hyatt17408 dr d bravo energy is here. Yeah. Hi, this is dr hi,17412 I'm sorry there was a fire alarm from the hospital. I just got back inside. Yeah, yeah, calls out there. Yes, I'll go. So. Chairman Keenan Chairman Arciero Members of the joint committee. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I'm dr Andrew Hyatt. I'm 1/4 year psychiatry resident. The Cambridge health alliance as well as the massachusetts Regional vice president for our union committee of interns and Residents. S. E I. U. I'm here to testify in favor of age 14 40 age 13 78 housing security is central to one's physical and mental health. Let me see that every day in our clinics and hospitals. Studies have shown that unstable and poor quality housing is consistently associated with poor health outcomes, including depression, to asthma, to missing necessary medication. Eviction during pregnancy has been shown to have negative health effects on the health of both the mother and newborn infants and displacement of school aged Children results in worsening behavioral and academic outcomes. CR members across massachusetts here in boston as well as at U Mass and Worcester to the human impact of rising rents and evictions every day as we provide care for patients suffering acute mental health care crisis due to eviction, threats to patients for growing medications or appearance. The human crosses real as a one patient recently was very high risk who illustrates the effects of displacement and uncontrolled17489 rent increases on health. She carries the diagnosis of schizophrenia and has only recently found the right medications to help stabilize. She had been previously working full time and living in Medford. However, her landlord almost doubled her rent when she went to renew and she was unable to find housing close by. I didn't hear from her for weeks and when she resurfaced, I found out she was17508 temporarily staying two hours away in Western massachusetts and she could not find anywhere affordable to live in her homework or family. As a result, she is now out of a job. She's disconnected from her social supports disconnected from her doctors and her therapists and unable to engage in care in a way that would help her stay stable, I worry that17526 she may run out of medications be hospitalised or worse during residencies. Minahasa talked about many of us even find ourselves being forced to relocate due to rising rents were forced to become the gentrified Ayers that are displacing our patients as we are left with fewer and fewer options that we can afford within a reasonable distance of our hospitals and clinics we want to serve and he'll our patients and their community has not displaced them. The union family firmly stands behind giving municipalities the tools they need to address the displacement crisis. It's good for public health and allows us to do our job dispositions without fearing displacement ourselves or losing sleep over our patients being coming homeless17560 due to unaffordable rent increases. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Dr Hyatt and Doctor of Energy. Hi, my name is dr Deepak chopra17571 Energy in the first year psychiatry resident here at the mass and Worcester I am a member of the Committee of Internal Residents. So Chairman, Keenan Chairman. Arciero and members of the joint committee. Thank you for the opportunity to17581 testify. I'm here today to testify in support of House 14 40 89 house 13 78 86 I ask you to report them favorably. So as my fellow cr our members have testified to17595 many resident positions and our patients are truly struggling with rising rental costs. I moved to Worcester from Chicago to start my residency just earlier this year. And I was shocked by the cost of rent with incredibly long resident working hours. I needed to rent close to the hospital. I rented an area close to the U. Mass. Campus with the majority of med students and residents live Um after graduating Med School and being Laden with over $500,000 of debt and the cost of applying for residency,17619 I cannot afford to pay rent at the start of my residency, fortunately with my privilege, I was able to have a wife who was working and able to pay the rent for me for the first couple of months. I don't know how I would have managed if I were single. Um and the excuse me,17634 in the areas that are convenient for med students and residents, we routinely see rents to rise at the start of the academic year when we have no choice but to move and take up new apartments. It is hard for us to express our own struggles with rental costs because we know that we are speaking from a place of privilege as doctors. But the truth is we are struggling as we see so many do recently. I saw a patient in need of surgery and due to covid the procedure was postponed and without the surgery the patient was unable to continue working and without this income, they couldn't pay their rent. And they were convicted. The patient ended up coming to the emergency department and complained of suicidal ideation. The patient was suffering a mental health crisis and we had to put them in involuntary hold for their safety. As a physician, it was heartbreaking to see them in crisis and as a result of the social determinants having this crisis. It is sadly not uncommon for us that we see patients with Worcester who are struggling with rental costs and facing eviction for them myself and for my fellow residents and healthcare workers, I asked you to take action to address the housing crisis by reporting favourably on age17694 14 40 S. 89 h 13 78 S 86. Thank you. Thank you17700 dr and thank you to the panel. Is17703 there any questions from the committee um to the panel? Okay, Seeing none, thank you for your testimony and your patients. Uh we now have panel 19. The mass housing coalition.
I A. Rohde Sean Hope. Peggy pratt Cali and Janice. E. Mhm.
Yeah.
Mass Housing Coalition.
Yes. Good afternoon afternoon. Um my name is Peggy Pratt. Uh and I'm a landlord. Thank you for giving me this opportunity this afternoon again. My name is Peggy fried Callie. I'm a landlord. I grew up in the Fenway, went to school, Roxbury kindergarten through 12th grade, My entire extended family and my mother and I all lived in section eight apartments on Peterborough Street But little by little one family at a time, we all bought our own homes and moved out early on. I was taught that home ownership meant responsibility, but it also meant pride so much so that I purchased my own to family at 21 years of age in revere Massachusetts. As the years went on through very hard work, I was able to purchase more17775 multi families being a Latina and through the great recession where the latin x community was hardest hit and lost most of their wealth. I can't say it was easy tenants damage units, tenants sometimes don't pay water bills, taxes and utilities increase yearly and things do break at one a.m.
Then came out on electricity on water on and continue with maintenance. While some tenants didn't pay through Covid, we were able to witness Hispanic families worked very hard everyday and service fields and helped carry America through Covid the same Hispanic families remember lost two thirds of their overall household wealth during the real estate crash of 2000 and 7, 2000 and eight. So how are we alone through all of the hard work and hardships. Yet when we can finally afford some security in our lives, the local government wants to now oversee it with rent control. I am the landlord that was the tenant. I'm not a hedge fund group. As you guys mentioned earlier, a great corporation. I'm not any of that. I'm a small landlord. That without a trust fund without formal education and without a father has clawed her way through to make a more successful and financial future for myself and my family. So please consider me an example. Consider me a resource, but do not consider passing this rent control legislation. Rent control will erase the wealth that Hispanic and other immigrant communities have built. It will set our communities back another decade and only continue the financial hardship that we've experienced rent control will create poor living conditions because many landlords will not be able to make the monthly total expenses. Therefore, surely not having additional disposable funds to make repairs or renovations, tenants will then be stuck in marginal and substandard units with very little choices for moving up into renovated units. Rent control is not the solution to more housing in massachusetts. It's a step backward. We cannot afford to be given an opportunity to build wealth for our community, only to have it taken away by rent control. I believe more housing should be our primary focus to preserve the wealth building opportunities17897 for immigrant families like my own. And we should not focus on one policy like rent control. We must do so much more to help reduce the cost of home ownership by eliminating restrictive zoning measures and updating our zoning codes to allow for more inclusionary housing in every neighborhood of the commonwealth. I hope this committee will oppose these bills. And I want to thank you for the work that you do in creating more homes for people in the commonwealth. Again, Peggy pride, Cali landlord MHC
thank you Peggy. There's other members of the panel we wish to speak now to Rohde sean Hope and Genesee um Janice E. I'm going to I'm going to present now. So my name is Janice E. And I was born in mainland china in sixties when government controlled everything. So farmer, they could only sell their produce to the government at the price set by government and the knife. Life necessities were extremely street control, like everyone received exactly the same amount of rice, meat and cooking oil every month. I remember that each person had only half pound of meat and a half pound of cooking oil every month. So my family of four had a £2 of meat and a £2 of cooking oil for the whole month. And the food price was very low because everything is in control. But it did not matter because even with your money you cannot buy food anyway. Um And when you use up your quota for the month, I remember one time that I broke one bottle of cooking oil on the way back from the store and which made me very upset because half of the whole month.17993 Supply was gone. Housing was provided by government to at the very low price, but with family of four squeezed in only one room at about 150-12 ft we shared a common bathroom and the kitchen with another six family. The productivity was extremely low and the people had no passion to work or increased productivity productivity. So my husband and I came to us for graduate school with almost no money in 1919 90s and we lived on my husband's $650 every month, research assistantship And $400 a month paid to tuition and only 250 left for18035 rental rental and food, which was not enough. So to make ends meet, I arranged my classes to be on Monday Wednesday and Friday so I could work in restaurants and the Laundromat on Tuesday Thursday and Saturday. I made about $4 an hour And at the restaurant I work 13 hours a day all on my feet. I remember every night at home, you know and every night when I went to sleep I had to level my legs because they're also swollen. So even we lived like that.18067 We were very happy because our future was bright. After graduation we found the jobs in texas, we bought a house and raised two Children. We were not rich but we made enough to live a decent life. We reached our american dream Life in Texas was comfortable. But my family would like to move to New England because I believe18089 that it would provide more opportunity for my Children, especially when they were about to apply for college. So in 2010 my family moved to Boston. Our friends in texas warned us living expenses so much higher in massachusetts compared to taxes. You will not be able to survive there. Especially when they heard that I decided to quit my job to18113 stay home with my daughter. It was truly scary for us when we went from two income to one income And only could by older housing, but at a much higher price compared to taxes. So we took money out of our three retirement accounts, $50,000 from each to buy as a down payment to buy a three family building at the Boston. The owner of the building was a 90 year old man lived18140 in Hawaii. The building was managed very poorly for years and it was in terrible condition, rent was low and it was hard to rent. I remember one unit was vacant because nobody wanted to live in their and this unit was like a junkyard bags of trash everywhere and it smelled horrible and we completely renovated building, added bathrooms and laundries in each unit. We lived in one unit and rented the other two. Now the18167 building is in decent condition and very easy to rent, tenants are happy to rent my house and they take good care of the property. Both rent and the property value increased, but I have happier and more responsible tenants.
And my husband and I came to us with the believing that this is a country with freedom and the personal property is protected by law, you will get rewarded if you work hard. But the rental control policy does not align with such, believing shorter housing short of housing is an issue needs to be solved. But there are better ways like building more affordable housing. So all the residents will have a decent place to18210 live like what happened in Singapore. I do not understand why we want to pressure and force private privacy owner to provide provider to provide affordable housing at the cost of property owner. For example, I bought a building in Cambridge last year at the market price, which is very high. And I expect to to collect market rent to cover all my expenses so I can hold the property. But with rent control I might only collect half of the market rent. How am I going to cover all my expenses expenses? So property tax and insurance went up every year. Construction material tripled or more in the last couple of years, maintenance costs went up every year. Government never agreed18257 that we could pay less property tax. I want to be able to maintain the building in good condition because,18263 you know, I want to18265 be able to keep up the balance after paying all market expenses. If this continues sooner or later, I will have to abandon the building and let the bank or lender to take over. So for people here here who support rental control. If you are renter Yes. You believe rent control is good for you. But it's a short sighted thinking in rent control. There will be no new development and the landlord won't be able to improve the existing building. The whole area will be going downhill like Cambridge was when it's under rent control. Both food and housing are life necessities. We have noticed food price went up a lot. Nobody thought about asking the merchants to control food price of food rent quickly running out of time. Ok, I don't agree with rent control because it will not allow my family to continue our dream here in America. I'm a good landlord and I treat my landlord as well. I would like to ask the18325 committee to oppose these bills. Thank you. Thank you. Um Do we do we have IA and Sean here. We almost have like no time on your panel. But if you'd like to make a statement or or or furnish the committee with the testimony that would be appropriate at this time to make sure we get everybody in.
Okay, well, I guess I'll move on to the next panel then. Thank you for your testament. There any questions for the particular panel from members of the committee
Hearing and seeing none. Thank you for your testimony today. Really appreciate your patience. We are now moving on to panel 20 Justice for housing. The first person under that panel is Jose laurean's. Oh,
Jose Yeah, it's Jose Lorenzo, thank you.
Um, yes, how are you doing? Uh, gentlemen, everybody who's listening, uh, you know, I don't want to go off a large list of people to, to thank you for the opportunity to listen. Um, I'm formerly incarcerated. I'm here in support of the bill. I'm sorry, I'm out of breath. I just ran downstairs. Uh, so I'm here in support of homes for all Bill S 866. And uh, the reason why is because um, there's a correlation to our homelessness that is due to will greatly due to recidivism rates, um, as somebody who served nine years and and has done time prior to that. Um, there's one factor that has always been, uh, a major problem for me, which is homelessness. I've never had somewhere to stay. I've always had to stay with someone who can uh kick me out or who had a situation where I just couldn't stay there because landlords would threaten them, you know, family want to take me in to give me the opportunity to say from the beginning, but that's never made because the landlord would threaten to raise their rent once they find out, I'm staying there temporarily or what have you. And uh in my own pursuit of, of, of just trying to obtain my own housing, not only for myself, but for my child in foster care, uh in which I need housing in order to get out of foster care. Um, You know, uh reentry was not there for me, there was nothing in place to help me in these matters. Um,18479 you know, without a tenant history, you know, when you're being screened, you really don't have anything to go off of. But how do you explain 10 years, a decade missing from your life? Um, Credit history, even with a little bit of credit, you build up every time they have to look at your credit. I mean, that's dropping it right back down. Um and so these are the things you're not prepared for and you can't prepare for when you re entering society. Um and that's that's how you end up with recidivism. The frustration of trying to find shelter, trying to find stability um, to sustain it. You know,18517 I truly believe that people would not revert back to the crime if they had a place of their own. Um, and and without bills18527 like this, without organizations like Justice for18530 housing, I wouldn't be even a step closer to obtain and housing. I've been home going on almost three years now and I'm still bouncing around from place to place. And the only reason I'm this close to getting my son back to obtaining peace of mind to obtaining stability is because an organization that was not referred to me through18553 the state that was not even listed as somewhere you can help, I had to stumble onto it, whereas all the other organizations or state funded programs,
um they're the only ones that got me this close. Um and I would like to pass this on. Thank you for your time. I thank you. Uh thank you for your patience today. Um on the panel, I also have a Leslie cradle. Mhm. Yeah, I have Tasha Crawford speak first please.
Hi, I'm Latasha Crawford. Uh Good afternoon and Happy New Year. Um I'm very grateful to be able to speak with you guys today on this piano. Um I am actually uh an offender um formerly incarcerated woman in a returning citizen um to massachusetts. Um I was I was Arrested back in 1991 for the murder of my then abusive boyfriend. And um I've been home 22 years um since this has happened and I I just want to say that um uh Senate 866 is so important to to people just like me who have been formally incarcerated and are trying to become productive members of society um to no avail, I have still yet been able to attain housing um due to my record and and other um situations um with mental health issues and PTSD and I'm going to shelter the shelter and um reentry programs and uh in residential programs and I have done everything um in order to um remain a productive member of society in order to achieve and attain housing and yet to no avail. Um There's so many of us who are suffering um from homelessness and um and it's sad to see so many who are suffering mentally um and also re occurring and crime cynicism is not being uh forced for us. We are going through so many barriers just to obtain a job, let alone to be able to obtain housing. Um If it weren't for justice for housing, I will not be able to achieve some kind of Some kind of support in trying to find housing for myself. Um I'm so grateful that now my son is a grown man. However, um when I came home from prison, he was only a 13 year old child. Um I must say that You know the S866 would be a very great asset for for people in my position in Jose's position and I hope that you will pass this bill with flying colors with within hopes that people will finally find a way to become productive members of society. Thank you. Thank you18754 with Tasha for your testimony. Um and Leslie, um you're next. Not a ton of time, but do the best you can. Sure. I just want to thank the two advocates for their brave testimony today, my name is Leslie credo, I'm the executive director of justice for housing. I'm also the bill filer uh an act relative to homes for all. Ah18777 Our bill sponsor is Senator chang Diaz restricting housing for justice involved individuals is more than18787 economic and housing justice issue.18790 It is also a racial justice issue. 50% of Massachusetts incarcerated population are people of color Despite people of colour making up only 17% of the Commonwealth population. This is a criminal justice and public safety issue. Um It is a no effect that lack of access to sustainable housing for those returning to the community after incarceration drives recidivism and destabilizes our communities. It is an issue of keeping families together. Our current policies keep returning citizens from returning to their households, living with their loved ones. It forces families to make impossible decisions, especially18839 during the covid pandemic. It's not a matter of public health Members of the committee, you can look at the crisis on mass and passed both a direct consequence of the commonwealth restrictive housing policies. Just one example of the scale of massachusetts housing prices passing this bill amended uh, to reduce the carve outs is the best opportunity massachusetts has to stop the cycles of recidivism, reduce mass incarceration and bolster social economic inequalities and take a clear step towards racial justice as we fight through another winter of bitter temperatures, enraging pandemic. We urge the committee to act now and in cycles of deed or housing discrimination that disproportionate disproportionality
keeps people of color who are justice involved, individuals far from home action is needed now as soon as possible. I respectfully urge you to report S866 favorably out of committee very soon. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony and thank you to the panel. Thanks for your patience. I know it's a long Day Is there any questions for the panel from the committee? Seeing none? I thank you very much. Um I'm not gonna have Daniel Allen on. Thank you18934 so much. Chair Arciero and thank you Chair Keenan Thank you to all of you know, it has been a long day, but this is such an important issue. I'm Danielle Allen, I'm a longtime nonprofit leader and democracy advocate, I'm also running18948 for governor and as a part of my campaign, I spent the first half of the year january through june running a listening tour around the commonwealth, going from community to community, hearing about the problems people are facing. The biggest takeaway was that housing is the biggest issue in the commonwealth today. Sometimes people think it's just a city issue, but there are folks living in tent encampments in Western mass on the Cape on Martha's vineyard. It18973 really is our biggest shared challenge. It's no secret and I'm glad now18978 that the word is out, the work is getting done. Its commonwealth wide. We have a huge job to make affordable housing abundant and we have a huge job to do to protect people who are renting their income. So I am testifying today urgently in support of the tenant protection acts and the related acts sponsored by representatives, Connolly of Cambridge and Elugardo of boston and Springfield, Senator Adam Gomez, representative Rogers and Senator Jehlen. What's so great about these bills is that as much as housing is a commonwealth wide issue, the needs and context of each community are distinct. So we do need to support municipalities in building solutions and this bill will make it possible these bills for municipalities to implement rent stabilization. Also, the bills will help municipal officials bring everyone to the table, including renters, homeowners and landlords alike to consider tenant protections. That makes sense. On the local level, You know, the picture, one in four Massachusetts renter households can only manage to keep a roof over their heads by spending more than 50% of their income on19042 rent. This is unacceptable. No one should be paying more than half of their income on rent. No one should get automatically evicted even if they can't afford a lawyer or if there's a landlord decides to sell the apartment building just because someone doesn't own their own home doesn't mean that they don't deserve stability and we all know the pandemic has exacerbated all of this. This is just one piece of the puzzle to push to make sure that people across massachusetts have the housing that they need. We have a big problem needing to get cost of living down quality of life up in order to support healthy communities, healthy democracy, healthy climate as well in this commonwealth. And at the end of the day, everything is anchored by housing. It is the core building block people need for security and opportunity. So we've got to come together build solutions and start seeing ourselves as one commonwealth. That's the beauty of these bills. They tackle one of our hardest problems as one commonwealth. So I urgently urge you to move them out of committee. Thank you so much for giving me this time. Thank you for testimony. Dr Alan, is there any questions um for Dr Alan from the members of the committee, Seeing none. Thank you very much for patients in your testimony. Now we are moved onto the massachusetts Association of19119 Realtors. I have nelly soto and Theresa Halton. Yes. Hi, good afternoon, it's Theresa Hatton. I am the Ceo of the massachusetts Association of Realtors. Thank you to the chairs and members of the committee19133 For this um, hearing this afternoon, Massachusetts, I'm here representing our over 27,000 members from across the Commonwealth and opposition to several bills before you that seek to create rent control policies in Massachusetts. We've outlined the bills in our written testimony for your reference Massachusetts is in the midst of a longstanding housing crisis, articulated by almost every person that spoke today um that's been caused by two main drivers. First, drastically insufficient housing development means we are not adding enough units to meet the demands of the state. That continues to increase jobs and population. Furthermore, The state's existing housing stock is old, requiring expensive upkeep Second wages, especially at the lower end of the economy, have not kept up with the cost of many basic needs from cars, gas, paper19184 towels, consumer goods and including housing rent control, however, does nothing to address either of these underlying issues. To the contrary, it will exacerbate them rent control does not increase the number of housing units rent control does not update the housing stock. In fact, at the disincentivize, is owners from re investing in their properties and finally, rent control does not bolster incomes. It provides benefits to certain residents, regardless of needs rent control is simply a19216 shift of government
rent control is simply a shift of government responsibilities on the housing providers through an unfunded mandate that subverts the ability of the market to provide19228 the desperately needed solution which is more housing. It is also a shift of power to the municipalities, many of which have struggled with nimbyism to be able to make the zoning regulations needed to provide multi unit housing. This crisis needs statewide leadership and we applaud the Legislature for enacting recent policies that focused on increasing the overall supply of housing, such as housing choice zoning reform. The new multi family zoning requirement for MBT. A communities and the doubling of the low income housing tax credit cap from 20 million to 40 million. This tax credit is responsible for hundreds of units of affordable housing across the commonwealth. And the recent expansion has already led to the planning and groundbreaking of affordable renting rental housing projects across massachusetts. We're excited to see these new housing units um come into the market and we're looking forward to more production in the future. With that, I'd like to introduce nelly soto to provide information about how these policies are going to be impacted. Thank you. Um Good evening, thank you for your time today. Well, hello, my name is Natalie Soter and I am a realtor with century 21 Northeast. I practice mostly in communities like Lawrence Harrell, Methuen and Lowell from multi family owners, tenants and voucher recipients. But before I speak about solutions, I want to tell you a little bit about where I come from. I'm from Lawrence massachusetts, I'm hispanic, I grew up in subsidized housing and also held a section eight voucher. I have lived and owned multi family properties for many in my community. Multi family properties provide an incredible opportunity to break the cycle of poverty, create familial wealth and access the american dream of homeownership. I like many others, worked hard and saved up to buy a multi family home rent control will start will hurt people like me and the people I serve in my community, it will limit a key means for many in my community to build wealth for themselves and their families Take my mother, for example,19350 she had lived in rent control unit. She likely would have remained there to this day. Instead, she had the opportunity to build wealth through purchasing a multi family property. She started with one property and worked her way up building equity along the way until she was able to afford a single family home19366 and pay for my education and my sisters furthermore, because of our housing stock, much19372 of it 100 years old or more maintenance costs will eat away at capped and and already shrinking margins if passed, I fear a multi family home ownership will no longer be a means to a better community and tenants will face Lesser living conditions, an increased risk of mould property damage or even fire. I tell you all this, to highlight my experience, working with to the important solutions that unlike rent control will help balance rents and help those who need assistance. First, as Theresa mentioned, we need to make it easier and therefore less expensive to build apartments in massachusetts. When an area has an adequate supply of housing units, competition for tenants drives down rents. Additionally, when there are enough units and supply, it increases the vacancy rate, which means tenants facing unreasonable or unaffordable rent increases will have options on where to live in their community. 2nd, we must bolster our rent, our rental voucher programs for low income individuals. These programs, unlike rent control, assist those families and individuals in need rental voucher programs work because they assist those that need support. It is also important to note that because the voucher pay a market rate, property owners are able to reinvest in the units and provide homes that are in good condition. I want19453 to thank you for the opportunity for to testify today and my experience is helpful for you to make a decision. Thank you. Thank you Natalie. Um Is there any questions from the members of the committee to the panel?
Seeing none. Thank you for your19468 time and your patience and your testimony today. Um we're moving on to panel 22, Anna Rosen and19475 Chris Jenkins.
Hi, thank you. Can you guys hear me? Sure. Yes. Uh Sorry, let me just pull up my thing.19485 Well, first of all, I want to say thank you for letting me speak today and I also19489 want to thank all the previous people who spoke um and support of these bills and sharing their stories. Um I'm going to share a story about why I support these bills. Um It's something that happened to me and many of my neighbors last year during the pandemic. So um as I said, my name is Anna Rosen. I'm a post doctoral fellow at Harvard and Astrophysics. I've been here. I have lived out here since 2017. I moved out here from work for California
and I chose to speak here today to offer my support for rent stabilization tenants rights and transparency was selling tenant occupied housing. And I want to do this by discussing my recent experience um where I was displaced from my previous rental due to huge brand increase. So from August 2019 to July 20, I was a tenant at 19 Central Street in Somerville is located in the Spring Hill area of Somerville. This is a 30 unit apartment building that was previously owned by a family since the 1970s and the rents were reasonable. Uh in December 2019 our apartment building was sold for $13.275 million dollars to Lakeview Capital. It was a wealth management from in Michigan19558 which is tied to Alixpartners, a multibillion dollar consulting company. 2nd to Mackenzie. They have also acquired multiple rental units in the Cambridge and Somerville area in the last few years as tenants of this building. We were not given any information that the previous owners were selling and only received a letter drop off at our doorsteps when the sale was finalized. When our leases were up, my lease was up in May was up in August and I got a notice in May. Um I received a notification that my rent would be increased from 1950 to 2500. That's a 30% increase. I could not afford that in order to negotiate these rent increases and avoid displacement, especially during a pandemic where I literally locked myself inside to protect myself and others as we were, you know told to do um my neighbors and I started a tenants association which I lead, I had help from the Somerville city council and nonprofits19613 like City Life Urban A and the Somerville community corporation, regardless of landlords did not negotiate with us at all. They did not respond to our emails, they did not care and instead forced many of us to move out during the pandemic. What I learned from this experience is that tenants have little to no rights or negotiating power.19632 You know, 30 units were kind of big but we're actually very small. The only right that we have was basically squat and during with the eviction moratorium and I had no idea how long that would be possible for and you know, wait to be evicted. Um and if19649 that were to happen it would have been near impossible for me to get another rental if I was evicted even if it was just19656 filed. Um and nothing happened. The only right. Uh So so basically what I learned is that these greedy rent increases with complete disregard to the tenants um will either lead tenants to be displaced,19669 including the financial burden of moving, which in Somerville and Cambridge area and many other areas in massachusetts is very19675 expensive, especially with the realtor cities of which is the equivalent to one month's right. Um and moving fees. So for example, it cost me about19683 $3,000 to just move into this place and less than a year later I had to pay a similar amount to move again. Um Anyways. Um And so giving these consequences. I and many of my neighbors had, we moved out in the summer of 2020 mostly by ourselves because during these the pandemic we couldn't ask friends or family to help us move. Um After I learned to that my apartment was basically empty for a year. So they lost, they chose to lose money than to talk to me and my neighbors. Um And then also given the financial capital of the owners, they didn't care, we were irrelevant to them. Um But for for us it was a financially burdensome task and it was emotionally difficult given the state of the pandemic.
Um recently I also just discovered that they sold the building for $15 million. So they barely owned the building for two years and they started this process again which will probably lead the current 10ants to deal with the same situation and then he will likely be displaced. And as we Know uh in Somerville 2/3 of the residents of tenants and we have very little rights or protections. They like to say that we do, but I learned the hard way we really don't.19765 Um Like I said the only way is to try to fight it and face eviction and many of us if we have the privilege of being the savings account and being able to move, we can do that and I did that. Um but I recognize that I am in a privileged situation and as we heard from many people today, many people are not in that privileged situation. This is a huge financial burden for many, many people. Um and these apartment owners would rather let their units sit empty than accommodate our livelihoods. Um I feel that enacting rent stabilization will protect the constituents and change the housing market for the goods. Rent control is not keeping prices at the same level for the, for the foreseeable future, there are slight increase. Uh just we've gone if chris can opportunity we can try to get okay. So I'll just yeah, I'll just finish with that and I just want to say that this process made me realize that greedy landlords see tenants as disposal disposable and replaceable and rent control will give a little bit of power back to the tenants and have it be a mutually beneficial relationship for both the renters and the landlords. Thank you. Thank you very much for your testimony and chris Jenkins. Hi, I'm Chris Jenkins previously was and his neighbor at 19th Central Street. Um I also moved out because my rent has increased a significant amount in uh In 2020 there. So I don't have much to19862 add besides what I was saying, but I mean they say the rent must go up and everything else that happens is just kind of treated as an abstraction. Um and the rent increase that was imposed19877 on us was kind of sort of fictional when it came down to it because come around a few months later after basically the whole building left to wherever it is that they ended up um they were offering those units for one month, two months, three months for free. Rounding out to about what they were charging The earlier 10ants. So there's only this sort of psychic increase in wealth for the owners and that they were nominally charging this higher rent even if they didn't collect it, even if they did at some point there's only so much of people's incomes19911 that you're able to appropriate in this way at some point buck steps we'd all like19917 to or maybe they would like to think that there's no limit to how much you can squeeze people but supporting
and control, support, recognizing some sort of limit and Mhm Well, thank you for your testimony. Uh Ok. Great. Well, I appreciate it. Chris is there any questions for for the panel from the members of the committee? Seeing19942 none. Thank you for your patience and thank you for your testimony today. Uh Just to reiterate to folks, we we have to stick to a three minutes or and sometimes the panels are over now. So three minute testimony if we can to get everybody in at a reasonable time. So I really, I know it's a long day. It's, it's a long day for everybody. I just wanna make sure everyone's heard. So I'm gonna go to individual testimony. Now. The first person I have on the list is jean, trans stammer, jean.
19974 Okay,19974 I'm gonna go right down the list. Marisa Kwiatkowski,
Marissa,
19985 Okay.19985 Dave Baron Dave
Mass. Senior19991 Action Council.
Yeah,
linda Freeman. Yes. Okay, good, good afternoon. Closer to Good evening now, thank you. Committee chairs and members. My name is linda Freeman. I am a resident of boston and a state board officer of the massachusetts. Senior Senior Action Council. We are a statewide organization led by Seniors. We have six chapters across the state. We worked collectively to improve the lives of seniors and our communities across the commonwealth. I am here today to ask to share with20037 you real life experiences of massachusetts, seniors and residents In 2019 New Mass Study reported six in 10 Massachusetts. Seniors do not have the income to make ends meet massachusetts ranks 50th20056 for senior economic Security. This means we are at the bottom of the barrel. The entire other 49 states created policies to ease the burden for seniors. While Massachusetts continues to widen the economic gap for elders. One of the main causes of this disparity is the cost of housing. I do not have to tell you affordable housing is needed. We know of seniors who have been on a waiting list for an affordable apartment for years20093 in each and every community we are organized. This is not just20099 metro boston problem. When we speak to our state elected officials in each of our chapter areas. The common responses are city, town has done enough. Let other communities build low income housing. The problem with this opinion is that the housing crisis, the crisis is in just about every neighborhood across the commonwealth.
We have stories of seniors being priced out of their apartments because20127 the owner took advantage of the housing market And the new owner jacked up the rent 3, 4 and even six times what the senior had been paying. Let's start in boston.
Grace lin retired from mass General with a small pension. Her income was $1400 per month, Her rent was $700,
it was tight, but Graceland was making it work. Her landlord sold the building and20159 Grace lin received a notice. Her rent would now be 1250 dollars, Leaving her with $150 to pay for electricity, food and her t pass. Graceland looked and applied for housing, but the clock was ticking and she was terrified of being homeless. She did get a voucher, but she had to move the Tewksbury to use it. Tewksbury for a senior dependent on public transportation was a big change
linda, your your your your time limit if you can finish up your thought, I would really appreciate it. And so would the folks that are that are here to testify as well the best you can. Grayson and left her friends, her church in the community and with limited public transportation. There was also surely from Lynn retired as a teacher's aide, She lived in her apartment for 27 years, paid her rent on time, never complained.
Um the new Landlord announced her rent would go up from 900 to 20 100 not knowing where to go. She put her name in for senior housing and what I was told that once she is a victim, she may go up on the waiting list. It was a five year waiting list. The landlords charging this kind of rent, do it because they can, this is not a limit. There is not a limit to the amount of money they want to make. I ask you to be bold, take the courageous step and provide relief to seniors like Graceland and Shirley and others please support H 1378
And s. 886 age 14 40 S. 889. Thank you. Thank you for your patience and testimony linda, I appreciate it. Um We now have any questions for linda from members of20277 the committee. Seeing none. Thank you again linda Pamela Edwards. Mass senior action as well,
Pamela. Okay, Miles Howard
There are miles Howard here.
Seeing none john Lamonte
john
okay Nathaniel Malaki. Okay, thank you very much. I'm thank you for this opportunity. I'll keep it brief um and and thank you for this chance to talk because I'm the only member so far today who is speaking from the north shore of our state, we've heard from Springfield from Worcester from all around boston. But the north shore is also facing a housing crisis. Um the housing crisis is affecting Rockport Gloucester, Essex and Manchester by the sea in a way that is unique to our specific region. Um in our public schools of a single digit percentage of the teachers are now able to live in our communities uh even lower uh, for the policeman in our communities. Um the fishermen that are part of the core of our communities, uh I can't afford to live here even though their families have been here for generations and the seniors who have also been here for generations are being forced out because of huge rent increases. Um the consequences of these rapid changes means we are seeing a change and forced eviction of our communities That has not happened since the urban renewal of the 1960s. Um with20382 the ever higher rents in this area and fewer and fewer families being able to afford to move here. It means we have even fewer families coming to our schools and we risk losing our school systems because there aren't enough people having Children who can stay here. My family and I moved here 12 years ago And we could afford to do so because we took a risk and bought a house that didn't even have a certificate of occupation and fixed it up now 12 years later, we could not even afford to do that if we wanted to. Um our neighborhood, which was at one time filled with families we've seen because of the Airbnb trends, forced evictions of many of our neighbors and in the wintertime you walk through the streets here and all the houses are empty. These are houses that could be housing families, these are houses that should be housing the people who have been here for generations. And I stand in20434 support of all housing rights, especially those who are on the train lines. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much Nathaniel. Um, is there any questions from Nathaniel from the committee?
Seeing none. Thank you for your testimony. You're patient sir. Um now I have, the next person who signed up is Gina via Geneva. I'm sorry, it's just a, it's a one word sign up, one name signed up. So, uh, if you're out there, I totally mispronounced that I apologize, but if you're here, we'd love to hear from, that's okay. I'm here. Good afternoon. My name is jesse give to Vieira and I'm the community organizer at watch cities in waltham. I'm here on behalf of my community to strongly support all bills, especially the ones that leave the ban on trend control. Age 1378, s 886, age 1440, S 889. And the covid 19 housing equity bill. Age 1434 is a 91 For over 33 years. Watch has helped tenants with landlord tenant negotiations20503 programs20504 to pay20505 rents, educational housing law and providing Walton families with a problem of housing lawyers for fair representation. But all these programs with the high rent increases do not guarantee any protections for tenants anymore. Watch CDC ambitions, a community in which no family or individual has to live in fear because of the constant rate increases, trends in Walton, regardless of the effects of the pandemic continue to increase at astronomic rates. We are seeing rent increases of thousands of dollars such as the case of a colonial one of the world. Time tenants testifying today. A colonial rent went from $4,000 last year. 2021 to $6,000 this year, which represents $72,000 a year. He doesn't not, he doesn't live in a luxury apartment. On the contrary. His apartment after inspections by the Walton Board of Health was cited for many building code violations.
Trent takes an overwhelming portion of income and with the constant heights and rents, families will go hungry when they must save money from other parts of their budgets to to avoid homelessness for the law income and the working class population that makes up a large portion of renters. The slightest rent increases have devastating effects when the rent increases quickly outpace any increase that they might have an income. The increases are severely affecting the most vulnerable, the low income and the underserved populations. The time is now leave the ban on rent control. It is imperative to start working to end the root causes of20622 the madness of the rent increases. Landlords greed is decaying the health of our communities. Our Children are growing in unhealthy environments, sharing one bathroom, one kitchen with many other families or individuals because a family cannot afford to rent on their own. We need to stop these inequities through the impact. Housing law reform and policy advocacy. Welcome, tenants cannot afford any more rent increases, Even a slight increase in rents can have a devastating impact on half of the population. Genevieve, If you can have your last thought, that would be great about the impact of rent increases in my Walton community At this moment we are in a state of emergency with the pandemic. We need the legislature to move as quickly as possible on rent control and tenant protections. And we need for you to immediately pass the COVID-19 housing equity bill to prevent even more people from losing their homes due to the pandemic. Thank you. Thank you Jenna viva. Is any questions for Genoveva from the, from the members of the committee. Seeing none. Thank you for your patience and testimony today, I now have Jonathan Jonathan Cohn from progressive massachusetts. Yes, thank you. Thank you. Chair Arciero chair, Keenan members of the Joint Committee on Housing and for being here, especially as this continues to go longer. Uh My name is Jonathan Cohn, policy Director, Ferguson massachusetts statewide grassroots grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable justice and democratic and sustainable commonwealth. We urged favorable report for S 886 H 13 78 an act enabling local options for tenant protections. So massachusetts has a lot to offer, but that does little people can't afford to live here in the U. S. News and World reports. Annual State rankings put massachusetts at number 48 affordability across states Uh and a worker earning minimum wage in Massachusetts would have to work 83 hours a week to afford a modest one bedroom rental homes at market rate 202 hours for a modest two bedroom. Clearly, our20753 state has an affordable housing crisis um and which has led to greater economic inequality, increased homelessness and damage to our economy. As talented workers often leave the state for less expensive regions solving this affordable housing crisis, as many folks have noted requires us to use every tool in the toolbox that requires zoning for reform. That encourages the creation of walkable, sustainable inclusive20773 communities, requires public investment and it requires strong tenant protections to ensure that communities can remain affordable, inclusive and stable. However, municipalities across the commonwealth are blocked from taking the necessary steps to address the housing crisis. The misguided state would have been on rent stabilization policies on a stringent home rule system that prevents municipalities from passing their own laws to govern the basic aspects of civil affairs, hamstrings municipalities. Uh these bills would provide the appropriate redress by repealing the outdated uh statewide ban on rent stabilization policies enabling cities and towns to also pass, kind of consider a suite of other important tenant protections. We cannot, as others have noted, we cannot build our way out of the crisis alone, because the people at the highest risk for displacement will already be pushed out before they can20824 benefit from any medium to long term reduction in rents. Um as well, the pandemic we've been living through for almost two years, as many have highlighted, has underscored the essential role of housing stability to public house. We cannot ask people to stay at home when they are sick or exposed if they do not have a home to go back to. Mhm. Additionally, there's a lot of fear mongering around rent control, but I also want to make a simple point as one of my final remarks that if if you don't if we don't think the landlord should be able to double or triple someone's rented year after doing no work on the property, then we then you believe in rent control and the question is just a matter of percentages and exceptions and20862 the tenant protection act will enable us to have that discussion of what that would be. Um Last remark because that on too many issues that Massachusetts is haunted by the ghosts of biele advised ballot20874 initiatives passed its 2022 and we do need to act like that and we approach policy so again, there's no silver bullet to solving our affordable housing crisis. But if we have already have a chance of solving it, we must empower municipalities to take action. So again, accessing support for S86 and H 1378 and thank you again and the others on the committee who have been20895 here for quite a long hearing. Thank you again. Thank you very much for your testimony, Jonathan, your patients for for certainly a long a long hearing. Um Any questions for20906 Jonathan from members of the committee Seeing none. Thank you again Jonathan. Um we now have 40 Rosa Acevedo.
That's correct, yeah, thank you. The chairman and the committee for allowing me to speak my name is sarah suspended and minority immigrants came here with nothing. A small landlord in boston and I posed, I opposed reinstatement of rent control. My husband and I have provided private non government sponsored affordable housing by charging the amounts that we have for the past 10 years. Generally we would not increase rents throughout the tenants stay with us and instead up to increase20940 it some sometime between the tendencies to account for increases over the years of the tenancy and taxes, utilities and insurance. Our property taxes alone went up 30% in a single year last year. If20954 the legislators are serious about enabling housing affordability and stability, they need to pass a bill that would require the city's to freeze property taxes taxes on rentals, which would allow landlords charge lower rents. If bill reinstate and rent control has passed, small landlords like us will be forced to increase the rents every single year by the maximum allowed percentage to keep up with increasing taxes, insurance and maintenance expenses as we wouldn't be able to increase it by more than a set percentage between the tenants. Another section of this bill that I disagree with is the section that stays Alistair may not recover possession of a dwelling units until certain situations occur. This bill has to avoid contract law by requiring landlords to renew, but continuing to allow a tenant to move after their least term for any reason, imagine if it was the other way around and there was a bill requiring that a tenant stayed until certain situations like a military service secure. And even in those situations having to provide written documentation in the six months notice shown why they're choosing not giving you as well as three months in red on top of their regular rent and then having to wait to see if the landlord would agree to that. The idea sounds absurd. So why, then that the reverse considered acceptable as the owner. I'm the one responsible to upkeep the property and even21035 shoveled the public sidewalks during winter. But yet this proposed law wouldn't allow me to decide not to renew released. So perhaps a relative or a friend of mine could move into my property. We're not talking about landlords seeking to break places but simply not renewing. These measures only consider21052 the tenant with no regard to small landlords like me. The state of massachusetts may consider themselves responsible for providing21059 affordable housing, but it should not be on the backs of small landlords. The state should not be making it increasingly difficult to own and maintain property for small landlords. By continuing to proposed regulations and laws that caused many small landlords to feel their only and best way forward is to sell to large21076 developers who are protected from this legislation because they can just build a new building which would be exempt from rent control. It's becoming increasingly difficult to try to navigate an ever increasingly difficult litany of laws that could cause thousands and penalties and thus an entire year or more in profit for some owners. The very best way of preserving affordable housing options in this state is not21098 simply by increasing the percentage of required affordable housing in new developments, but instead to try to preserve ownership of rental units by small landlords like myself, that without government intervention or assistance have chosen to keep rental rates comparatively low. And in many cases this um with the same tenants, your continued push to regulate private property is making the decision to keep my property personally difficult, final thought. Okay, yeah, I'm finishing up is making the decision to make my property and personally difficult. Why shouldn't be in but what it should be in everyone's interest to preserve affordable housing by supporting small landlords. Thank you. Thank you for your patience and your testimony. Is there any questions for Parisella from the committee? Seeing none. Thank you again for your patience. I now have laura, Curiel,
laura
laura going once. Okay. Sandra, Middleton,
Sandra. Okay. Jack. Terrific. Yeah, thank you. Thank
you. Thank you very much. Chairman and thank you so much. Chairman. Keenan it's been a very long day and I really appreciate you all sitting and taking this much into the members of the committee who are here for testimony. Um I'm a resident of Somerville. Um I live with my grandmother in some Somerville and we rent um I what I want to see more than anything is more affordable housing built and my biggest concern is I think that Senate Bill 89 will be the largest impairment to doing that. Um It's very, very different from the House bill 13 78 for one, it's not several at all, which is hugely concerning to me. Um the just eviction criteria are not separable from rent control means that if a municipality wants to have just eviction protocols, they have to enact rent control under Senate bill 889. It's not the case under the House bill. For some reason, I assume that's an oversight will be corrected, but it's completely inseparable um which would force communities into enacting rent control even if they didn't want them to enact housing protections, which to me was a very bizarre set up also in the Senate in the Senate bill, the increases capped at 5% and it's done so without looking at inflation. So in a year like this year where we have, where inflation was 6.8% and you have a 5% cap on the rent increase. Your mandating not only a housing rental freeze, your mandating that the real price of that rental goes down everywhere that's covered under the ordinance. That would be a huge issue under the Senate bill. Um I would say that definitely under the House bill, you don't have that that issue, but also it doesn't specify max at all the only state in the entire nation that has rent control Oregon says 7% Plus inflation and allows that formula to change. Neither of these bills has a formula for change like that, which is deeply concerning because it really means that it's not versatile. Um and you know, looking back at these ballot questions right? Question nine back in 94 was was approved meaning banning rent control in a lot of areas. And so I think, you know, seeing that this would have to get approval from a local authority is really important because you know, in Somerville we rejected rent control again narrowly back back in the nineties uh and so enacting a bill that would allow a municipality to put up any percent of rent control regardless of what the inflation rate has been. Um and under the Senate bill, it's capped at five anyways, so a municipality could in fact be requiring that real rent costs are decreasing all the buildings covered. Um you know, I really want to see more housing development built in Somerville, I live in a development that was only very recently built because my grandmother has mobility issues, we needed somewhere that has elevator access, buildings like that are not going to be built21333 if we have a 5% cap because the 5% capital being a defect required decrease in the real rental costs. Um I want to see21341 rental costs go down, we do that by building more housing. Um I'm very concerned that the Senate bill is going to really be an attack on affordable housing more than it is going to encourage it at all. Um I also think, you know, putting a period of years where we say that we're not going to apply this to new buildings like was done in almost every21358 municipality that's enacted rent control, that 15 years of standard some go to 25 Oregon21363 has done 15. Um this neither of these bills has any requirement and so I would really like to see some sort of a number of years21370 that we exempt places otherwise there won't be an incentive to build because doing two years later we might have a citizen initiated referendums where we decided to apply it to new buildings. So I really want to make sure that we see that in affordable housing. Um I think Senator jehlen might have a question for me. Thank you and early to hopefully give some more time. Well, general Jack, thank you for your testimony. I'm certainly going to open up to the committee if they have any questions for you would like to entertain that21396 now. He's my constituents. So I'll talk to him directly. If he would send me an email I will, I will point out to him something's and express interest in what he's had to say. Thank you. So thank you very much, Senator. Okay, moving on, we have Juliet low flurry
Juliette mhm.
Okay, Henry. Weird Henry.
Okay, Miriam Studios Sokolowski,
Miriam. Okay, Nicola Williams21437
I am here. Can you hear me? Okay, great. Um Good afternoon long Day um my name is Nicole21447 Williams I live in Cambridge massachusetts. Um uh
excuse me. Oh yeah, I'm in a car. I, you know I started in my office but I had to get out to do errands but we have an affordability crisis and have not been able to um put substantial policies in place or substantive policies in place um to change that and you know housing is a human right and we have a responsibility as a community, as a legislator, um, legislative body to make sure that we provide the best chance to house people with in massachusetts who um, and and retain that housing. Um, I am my story that I am a homeowner and a landlord and due to rent control, I became um a landlord when21503 rent control went away, I was at risk and my whole entire family lived in the same building, we were in two different units. Um, and we were at risk of being displacement displaced. Um, so I did the math and I realized my rent went up by 50%. That's why um, I did the math and I realized that it was actually cheaper to own. And so I21526 organized my building and we were able to convince the landlord who is a reasonable guy um to sell our units to us. So I became a homeowner and my mom lived next door and she is now retired and so today her unit is rented. Um, uh, and my tenants are paying below market rents. So as a landlord, I am, I am paying it forward. Um And I we do need to lift, I believe we need to lift the ban on rent control to allow cities uh to come up with their own solutions based on the needs of their own specific communities. Um uh In Cambridge, the african american community has been displaced faster than any other demographic. Um and uh and that's that's a serious concern and due to rising rents, lack of home ownership and not being able to to stay even if their income increases slightly, um they can't stay because we've become today a city of rich and poor. I would like the same opportunity for low moderate and middle income neighbors like myself the right to purchase where they're living. Um We need rent stabilization policies. Have you heard the last few testimonies that engages the landlords as well? Um and they have to be part of the solution, We need to think about tax incentives, tax breaks that um that each city can offer and or vouchers, whatever the city can do. Um New york has done a really good job um in in terms of enacting rent stabilization program where it has engaged our landlords. Um The work has to be done on a regional basis. Cambridge. Um Somerville21638 boston can't do it on its own and other cities, we need to work together, especially Cambridge Somerville and boston together because we want to be able21647 to have some policies that are consistent that we're not21650 harming each city, but we're supporting and uplifting each city as we put together good policies in place to support and tackle21658 our affordability crisis. Um, so I look forward to the opportunity for this being passed and we don't have all the details, but I think each city can come up with it, but I encourage um the cities to work together to come up with a plan that also engages the landlords and prioritizes are tenants and make sure that we're looking for opportunities to transition people as as their income increases as well and and more opportunities for homeownership for stability. But we have to do something to tackle this crisis. And and so now is the time. So let's do it. Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Nicola, is there any questions Jones for Nicola from the members of the committee.
Seeing none. Thank you again for your patience, Kathryn Hoffman, thank you. Thank you. You can hear me. I certainly can, wow, this is kind of a marathon.21719 But I guess it really just shows some of the importance of this. Um,21724 thank you for hearing my testimony on this freezing21727 day when I'm glad for remote testimony21730 actually and that I have a home from which to be remote. My name is Kathy Hoffman. I bought a five family home in Cambridge port in 1978 where I still reside. My home was both under rent control provisions and then removed from them. Perhaps the benefits of rent control for tenants then were obvious in terms of basic regulated protections, the chance that a semi affordable21755 apartment which you could control room to change apartments within the city and perhaps even to buy. But the benefits to me as a landlord more importantly and more importantly as a Cambridge home dweller21767 were equally powerful. Market regulated housing, Sorry, market regulated housing enabled me to purchase the home for $70,000, invest that much in it several times21780 over and to still charge rents affordable to the activists. Artists, friends of all incomes, including low income and families who have lived in these units over the years. While some suggested that rent control lessened the value of my home, I wasn't buying the property to sell and make big bucks. The value of my home was the ability to live in it and make it possible for others as well. Rent stabilization also controlled housing prices. If you couldn't charge astronomical amounts of rent, you couldn't sell a house for millions of dollars and vice versa, regulating market prices enabled families and individuals to purchase homes in Cambridge and to keep some semblance of affordability rolling to tenants and future homeowners. It also kept my neighbors and families around me in the city when rent control was taken from Cantor britian's by a deceitful statewide campaign. The situation changed overnight. The challenges in the seventies and eighties, which I have been part of were mostly big landlords trying to maximize gains and minimize spending universities, squeezing out neighborhood residents and concerns about students piling into apartments and impacting the access of families. Those seem like dream problems now, because the opponents were at least people and many you could meet with the lid removed on rents, housing has gone from being places to live, to develop her opportunities to investments, to international commodities in Cambridge. When we lost21871 rent control, I lost neighbors and friends and saw the increased insecurity of so many more. We also lost the most effective way of21880 dealing with affordable housing. Since then21883 strategies like inclusionary units or Lincoln chafee's21886 all come with the price of Moore development and market rate read luxury in Cambridge building. I support H 13 78 and others to put rent stabilization back on the table,
but it's also late in the game. One more sentence um at a time where democracy is being shredded at the national level racial and gender disparities are intensifying incarceration, outstrips education and climate change is tangibly altering our way of life. We have serious work to do to create communities where all including the earth can thrive. This is one small piece of that effort. Thank you, thank you21925 for your patience and your testimony Kathy, is there any questions from the committee for Kathy seeing none, thank you again, I'm going down the list now I have Duncan Kennedy
Duncan Kennedy
seeing none Brittany Sandoval Sandoval
richie.
Okay, keith Bernard Keefe I'm here, can you hear me? The floor is yours. Thank you. Um uh thank you to the chairs and all the members of the joint Committee on Housing. Um It's been a long day uh and I appreciate you taking the time to listen to all of us. Um I want to also go and thank everyone who testified, say my fellow elected officials and fellow activists and renters in massachusetts that have already have already testified. My name is21980 keith Bernard, a newly elected member of the Mountain School Committee and I'm here to support state, my support for H21987 1378, Senate bill 86
H 1440 Senate bill 889
in support of rent stabilization. Um I live in Maldon. Mauldin is the fifth most diverse community in the state and our high schools, the most diverse in this in our high school is the most diverse in the state. We speak over 60 different languages under our school systems. We also have a large Population that do not own their home, but they go on their rent. 55% of our housing of the housing in our city is rental properties and our rental rates have nearly doubled in the last 10 years and it's getting more difficult for our working families here to stay here in Maldon um Being a member of the school community can think of nothing more disruptive to a child's education than22038 an unexpected move because of a large increase in rent. I know a lot of22042 the families that live around me do not want to go and move and they don't want to go and be evicted. They don't want to go into and and be forced to have to uh to not go and pay their landlords what they signed up to go and pay, but to rent, sudden rent increase makes it impossible for them. They will go and seek to be honorable and to go and find a new place to live. Um, that is disruptive for those Children though, for those families, um, at the very least, if they're lucky and they can find housing in Maldon,
they can stay in the school systems, but that's very unlikely. Um, when a student leaves us, that22081 means that that family needs to go through the stress of re enrollment, uh, they need to go22086 and acclimate to a new school system into a new community. And if that child has an I. E. P. Or other attached services, the family needs to go and do the follow up, which is more stress on them trying to go and normalize that child's experience, Finally, there's an emotional impact that comes with a child being uprooted from their friends and neighborhood that not only affects the child, but the Children around them. If your neighbors, that the Children that you've been playing with suddenly have to go away that affects
how the neighborhood goes and and acts as a living as a living being. On a personal note have been volunteering with many of the mutual aid community groups that rose up22126 during these last two years during the pandemic. There is nothing22129 more heartbreaking than finding out of neighboring family. But I had an opportunity to help had to move because of an unexpected rise of housing costs.
Most of the families I know in which I'm included, we're not looking for a handout but a hand up. We're looking to you the members of this community to allow municipalities to sculpt solutions that work for their community. What works for boston does22153 not necessarily work from Maldon or Medford, Worcester Pittsfield or any of the community members that we've gone and heard from. I asked the committee, please keep these thoughts in mind when considering implementing rent control by stabilizing by stabilizing the cost of rentals, We stabilize those families, we keep our Children safe and we protect our communities and by implementing these bills we allow the people who know best our local cities and towns and the people that we elect their to implement the best solutions for our individual towns and cities. I strongly encourage the committee to support and endorse passage of H 1378 and S 88622189 and H 1440 S 889, thank you for your time. I hope I kept it under the three minutes and uh thank you again for letting me speak. You did keep it to three minutes. Masterful keith, thank you. And um any questions from the committee for keith this seeing none. Thank you for your testimony and your patients. Today Jessica. Anders
Jessica.
Leonard Olson,
thank you so much for the committee. Can you all hear me okay? Alright great. So my name is Leonard Olson. I go by leo I use pronouns and I am one of the coordinators with mutual aid Eesti We are a mutual aid network connecting neighbors to neighbors by building safe, welcoming resilient community spaces where residents and organizations live in solidarity with one another. Um Today I'm going to be sharing my experiences both as a coordinator with mutually beastie but also as an east boston neighbor and tenant. Um So firstly I want to urgently and emphatically call for a lift on the ban on rank control in our commonwealth and to give municipalities local control on rent control measures measures. Excuse me. And to do that, I'd like to share the stories of to east boston families and members of our mutual aid network to paint a picture of the gravity of east boston displacement crisis and dire need for local rank control measures. I'll just be speaking of them in initials for privacy's sake. Um so when the pandemic broke out in March 2020 and mutual aid, Eastleigh was formed a began to Cook Tamales for members of our network urgently in need of food. Her husband who had lost his job, he worked at a restaurant, helped drive around the food uh to the folks who needed that. So and her family loved East boston and wanted to stay but they could no longer pay a rent that have continuously risen on them in previous years without any control and rent increases. And like countless other families a and her family could not withstand to pay that rent22304 after a couple of months out of work. Their situation was that fragile and with nowhere else to go, they had to22309 relocate all the way to the rural midwest with other family members and that's where they are currently. On the other hand, l our second story had done community work and was a leader, a local leader in social justice movements in east boston for years. Shortly before the pandemic began, he successfully fought to save his one family home from being raised. Unfortunately on the other hand, that didn't solve the fact that his landlord had recently raised the rent and he simply couldn't pay it. Three of his kids were part of the many who were ripped right out of the boston public school system here and displaced in places far away from their families or far away from their friends where their families could find cheaper rent. Uh and personal I'll never forget um seeing them pack up their moving van and his oldest daughter in high school crying in the backseat as they drove away. Uh and they haven't returned to east boston since. Um22353 so22354 my question to you all today is does massachusetts value people over profit or will its inaction22359 on the rank control ban continue ripping family after family away from our community? Um If we had a local rent control measure a wouldn't be halfway across the country and els kids would have been pulled suddenly out of the BPS system overnight. How many more families are going to lose their homes? Our east boston community says loudly people over profit lift the ban and once more for the committee. People over profit. Thank you. Thank you leo for your testimony. Is there any questions for leo from the committee
seeing none. Thank you again for your patience in testimony with you. Next we will move on to Angela chang
enjoy chain.
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Uh Good afternoon, my name is Gabriela Ferreira. I'm the spanish interpreter for um is testimony. I'm gonna tell you really fast what she said, thank you for having us. Um good afternoon, my name is Naomi Rodrigues I've been living during 14 years in the state of massachusetts. I'm an organizer, community organizer with Green routes. I'm a mother of three killed Children, two of them with medical conditions. I'm here to testify that I have been one of the victims of the rental increases and because of my um vulnerability to pay those high rents, I'm confronting my third eviction. This is really bad and frustrating because this is affecting not only our economy but also our emotional health. We have, we are suffering depression, were suffering a stress anxiety and it also had negative effects in our Children in this at this time. Uh, the rents are too high in the cost to move out are also to hide over $11,000 to get to a new apartment and that makes us vulnerable to live in conditions that we shouldn't be living in. I'm not against the progress if you have a consensus that involves us in the in a an acceptable package where the am I is real and that we really have um affordable houses for the families of low income in our communities. We cannot live in such bad conditions with rats and roaches infestations in our apartments that are never taken care of and we are trying to execute our rights and when we do that we are evicted, we need housing. Uh, that that is really affordable. Thank you. Thank you appreciate the testimony. Any questions seeing none next person is emilie coster
and nearly cost her.
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how about Mike Libya, yep, I'm here everyone. My name is open, my name is22782 Michlewitz and I'm a co executive director of City Life. Vieira Bana and a resident of boston. Thank you all for the patience of 6.5 hours of testimony. It's been a long morning and afternoon, but this is really important. I think. Um, I think it's important to just kind of re focus us on, this is not a universal rent control bill. This is a local option bill. Um, and as a local option bill, it's more of actually a bill related to democracy and democratic process and on housing. Um, so what we're asking you for is not a universal rent control bill, although I would certainly support that just to be transparent, we're asking you to let the democratic process do its job. Um, today we've heard testimony from, I don't know, 2030 municipal elected officials from across the Commonwealth, I lost count. Um, and this bill provides the flexibility for local elected officials to choose what to regulate how much to regulate it and under what circumstances are timeline, you know, some people say rent regulation doesn't work. And to that I say, let's look at what we lost when the statewide ban was enacted Between 1991 and 2001 median rents for a two-bedroom apartments doubled and homelessness nearly doubled, Ransom, gentrifying neighborhoods increased 50-150%.
And although every real estate group and many landlords on this call keeps saying that ending rent control increases housing production. Actually, that's not true based on the data, I can give you a whole list of studies that show that vacancy actually dropped from 4% under rent control to 2.9% in the four years after it was abolished. Um, I think most importantly though, rent regulation allows wages to catch up with rent Between 2001 and 2015, Um every, you know, rents went up 50%. Yet incomes have remained flat in places like Massachusetts where wages have22905 increased rents have dramatically outpaced wage growth renters have very little savings to fall back on in case of emergencies. The median savings of a cost burden renter is only $10. We've heard the The wealth gap statistic named you know, $88 for a for a black family in Massachusetts in Boston. My guess is that that's very closely related to how much, how many people of color are cost burdened renters, 80% of renters in Boston are in the private market rent control as a market regulation puts money back in the pockets of low and middle income workers, especially when combined with living wages Nationally. If if no renters paid more than 30% of their income on housing, they would have an extra $124 billion dollars annually, Over $6,000 per household. If I were telling you legislators, you can make every family have a $6,200 stimulus payment at no cost to the taxpayers. You know, you you you would think I'm a little crazy. This is actually possible with rent regulation. And then if I said you can do it every single year with no penny, you know, costing no penny to taxpayers. Uh, it's very true.22982 Um, this is, I'll just wrap up, this is the second legislative session that city life. Our members and friends have been here to testify in favor of the Connolly Elugardo local options bill. The legislation passed through this committee last session and I hope I hope we're able to do it again here today. There are significant costs of not doing anything. So please report H 1378 favorably. Thanks thank you for your23007 testimony. Thanks for your patience. Next is a polonia. Just I have one name I know. First or last Apple O'neill
a colonial will be submitting his testimony via email. Can another tenant multitask go in front.
Who is that? It's mota's mut Az
That's fine. He's on the list. Sure, go ahead. Go ahead. Thank you for giving me the opportunity today. I don't want to be too late or take your time the last one. But I would like to share my experience and why I am here. Actually I came last year in boston. I am living in waltham And I have many difficulties, especially financial23069 difficulties. I am a student. I have my23072 parents, I have to support them in the same time when I came here it was COVID-19. So all of these factors
trying to ask the landlord to just to stay with the same same price of the rent. But he tried to say that we will not accept that all23101 the prices of the rent and in waltham it's increased. So he increased the at rent. At the same time he pushed me to just to sign the contract. He called23116 me every day that your contract will be expired and you have to to renew your contract. And he he pushed me to except the new rate. And when I asked him why you do that, the reasons is inflation. I believe all of us that have the same issue. And I have, when I told him I can cannot move or I cannot leave my home, he told me it's not my business is not my issue, it's your issue. So I thought I have, my wife is pregnant, I have my father, he's 78 years old. And you told me before three months you have to renew and and when you want to run you you have to increase more than 10% or 15% of the rent contract. So
he was trying to put all of us in in in one pool and deal with all of the community in garden inquest in the same way. And I believe that we can make change and that's really affect my mentality, health, my family, health and my education and career paths because every day before I am sleeping I am thinking how I will next week bring the money and pay my rent. I go borrow money from my my brother, his in Canada or or asked to take some money from23213 my friends Just to uh to cover the rent to rent payments. And at the same time if if you let like 10 days or 15 days you will see in the statement uh penalty charges, penalty charges every month, penalty charges because you let 15 days. But he don't know how These 15 days, how these 15 days come to me 15 days. I called my friend, I called my parents that I need the money to pay my rent. Thank you when I just when I, when I trying to explain for them, I will pay that without the charges, penalty charges. They will reject that and it will be in my account statement, appreciate your understanding and listening. Thank you so much. Thank you very much for your testimony. Good evening. And next is Haynes,
Kit Haynes. Okay,
Okay, so kid, okay move on to Nouriel ease to use us. Thank you23288 It's late. I'm sorry Nouri al Nouri Elise everybody got the first name right? Hello
Hello there. Hi, neorealist neorealist. Great, good evening, good evening. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. Um again, my name is Noralis de jesus. I am the director of policy and organizing at la cooperativa In the 14 years of community organizing that I've dedicated to the city of Chelsea. Through my work, I've23320 witnessed the housing crisis continued to peake families living under numerous conditions of code violations, tenants receiving constant rent increases, Children being uprooted and bounced around from home to home in Chelsea, Revere Everett in east boston due to the overwhelming number of illegal evictions that happened in our communities. When covid hit our community, it was clear to us all the inequity in our low income gateway communities of color. These communities demonstrated higher rates of covid and lead the charts as ethics centers due to the fact that these families are in these overcrowded apartments in order to keep the rent low23359 and in order to keep their families under a roof. This new reality of our families not being able to afford a private home, not sharing their home with strangers. It's inhumane in our office. We see the consequences of having to share your home with subleases and stay in in in order to stay off the streets. The number of cases, my staff in the housing23383 department and la cooperativa see on a weekly basis of Children sexually assaulted in these overcrowded apartments or mothers submitting themselves to the continued violence of domestic. It's all very heartbreaking and our very own case. Workers have a hard time even sleeping at night knowing that this is the reality in our community. We need to lift the ban on rent control23406 at the state level. So communities like Chelsea can make the changes necessary to ensure our families and Children can go back to living in decent and safe. Holmes housing must be seen once again as a human right. I respectfully ask that you support the bill to lift the ban on rent control, H 1378 and S 886 and H 1440 S 889. Thank you, thank you very much for your testimony and questions seeing none. Next is christian Kennedy
christian Kennedy okay,
okay, moving on Gabriella cartagena.
Hello everyone, good evening. And I just wanted to start23460 by thinking the housing committee chair senator Keenan and representative Arciero for holding this hearing and staying on throughout these hours. Um so I live in east boston. I'm a daughter of homeowners and I'm testifying in support of lifting the ban on rent control and I'm also an advocate with housing justice and immigration reform movement with Louisiana and movement. Um just a little background. My parents23483 arrived to the US specifically boston23485 in the nineties after the salvadoran civil war and have lived in boston. Since then, we would not have been able to stay in this neighborhood that has been historically a majority foreign born and that is not one of the fastest gentrifying neighborhoods in the city of boston Neighborhood where a place where I've heard neighbors and testimonies from friends and their single mothers who faced $3,000 rent increases have been forced out via no fault evictions along with hundreds more have been priced out and evicted While the numbers of no fault evictions have sharply risen since the start of 2021. Once the state moratorium lifted. My parents dream when it came to this country and even before it was to own a home, which is a popular dream and run control of the 90s gives them the opportunity to start building their equity early With their first minimum wage jobs which built over which built over time to allowing them to buy their first and only home in the early 2000s. Now, Massachusetts, residents, citizens and immigrants barely have enough to pay their rent. Yet alone rent increases on top of the basic needs like their entire groceries, list medicines, school supplies and much more owning a home like I said, is an american dream. And rent control gave my parents the opportunity to purchase um way before flipping lands and buildings away before flipping land and buildings became a market trend. Um, which is now that trend is now causing these rents to rise across the state and as more buildings and lands are being flipped and sold for more money right? We're seeing the sensitization of corporate landlords wanting to maximize as much profit as possible rather than making humble profit to cover their basic mortgage and basic expenses run control will stabilize the housing market and prevent corporate landlords from flipping buildings and land and from practically just maximizing the profit as much as they can And putting the maximization of the profit before the right the human right to housing. Please lift the ban on rent23607 control now and reconsider passing the COVID-19 housing equity bill as we face one of the biggest COVID-19 surges in the state that would protect not only tenants,23616 but also homeowners from preventable evictions and foreclosures along with Topol, which would support renters approaches the home with the support of nonprofits, Thank you so much and have a great evening. Great23626 thank you to appreciate23627 the testimony, christian Kennedy
Hi, thanks for having me speak. Um I'm23635 in support of all the housing and tenants rights bills and rent control bills currently in front of the House and Senate. I'm just going to direct my testimony23644 to address some of the falsehoods and statements that were being pushed earlier by a National Departmental Association massachusetts Realtors Association, a small property owners association. So first I'm going to address talk of deprivation of property rights. This is categorically false under a classical liberal framework, which is where property rights are originally conceived from. Uh no classical liberal and all site to hear Adam smith and jean Jaques Rousseau ever conceived of landlord ng as23677 being all right. In fact, Adam smith will quote directly now said, landlords rights had their origin and robbery and jean jaques Rousseau said, the fruits of the earth belongs to us all the earth itself to nobody. I'll also speak some studies to uh pushback on some false so it's pushed about rent control. Studies from David Simms in 2007 and 2014, study from David Autor, Christopher, Palmer and Prague Pethokoukis looked at the end of rent control in Massachusetts. They found it had little effect on the construction of new housing, but it was effective in limiting rent increases and increased ten-year times, which contributed to neighborhood stability, Eliminating rent control, actually triggered price increases even in areas that were not subject to price controls. A 2007 study by John Gilder Bloom and Linear found rent control laws in New Jersey actually increased the supply of rental housing. A 2018 study by Rebecca Diamonds, Tim McCabe and Franklin Kian looked at the effect of mid 1990s changes in rent control rules in San Francisco, they found that effectively limited23751 rent increases and had no effect on new construction. The main issue is rent control can lead to condo conversions. However, this logically doesn't matter if a rentals are available, but the price out of affordability. The solution therefore is not to forego rent control but to similar, simply limit condo conversions. There's also a point brought up about distortion of markets. This is categorically false. All markets arise Through the state's anyway, currencies are actually created by states to compensate standing harmonies for more information about that. You can look at the late David Neighbours get the 1st 5000 years. Uh there was also a complaint waged about a long time to push tenants out. This is also false according to mass landlords.net.
The court duration of evictions excluding to the time before and after court is roughly 30 days max amount of time a tenant can receive for a hardship assuming they're not disabled are over 60 is six months. So the statistic which had no citation behind it about 6-9 months is also categorically false. There was a falsehood levied about 10 minutes being bad bad actors. This is uh false to the point of being insulting. According to a study by the Regional Plan Association titled the high cost of bad landlords from 2013, the mid-2015, of eviction cases filed in new york city where for housing units23836 and buildings with repeated patterns of evictions and violations, harassment neglect by landlords contributed to about 100,000 eviction cases and 10,000 evictions in a city that has a total of 200,000 cases into 20,000 evictions yearly. The minimum cost taxpayers was estimated at $307.1 million annually. You can also consult W bur dot org. Article mass renters in the South Coast can't 18 12. Um your over the time that if if you want to send those studies to us by email, that would be great. We'll make sure they get on the record and take a look at those. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good evening. Next is Terrence Kidney,
Can you hear me? Yes. Good evening. Good evening. And thank you to the committee for the opportunity for citizens to testify over the course of what has been a very long day. My name is Terrence Company and I'm running for massachusetts. State Senate in23895 the first essex and Middlesex district to be a part of this legislature for those unfamiliar with the political geography. My district encompasses much of the North shore and central Inland essex County. I'm so glad to see many other speakers have chosen today to passionately bring up affordable housing, which government has often recognizes the necessary intervention in the relationship between tenants and landlords, as reflected in several of the bills before the committee today. In my district, affordable housing is exceedingly difficult to come by and we remain far away from fulfilling the state mandate for all communities to have a minimum of 10% of their housing stock, be affordable to middle and lower income households, as I believe, Representative Connolly mentioned earlier, this body made an important stride last year broadening housing choice and mandating that each community served by the MBT A like mine have at least one zoning district of quote reasonable size unquote in which multi family housing is permitted quote as of right unquote. But we must go further to assure that we can equitably house the disabled elderly veterans and workforces of our communities as well as all the relevant intersections of those communities And with a new minimum wage of only $14.25 per hour this year in the state, which amounts to right around 30,000 a year, it's important that we work to assure affordable housing is truly affordable as Representative Elugardo and many citizens speakers have alluded to today if we use the commonly accepted standard that only 30% of one's gross income should go to housing. We need to be clear eyed about how many people are burdened by the cost of housing that we label as affordable and adjust policy accordingly. And on a day23988 where the low temperature this morning was just six degrees here in Gloucester where I live, we must recognize the importance of assuring HVAC and electricity is affordable as well. So more people can be not just housed but comfortable and healthy, healthy in their homes. With all this in mind, we need more major fiscal support to build affordable24006 housing and to develop infrastructure to fill vacant housing in an affordable way, including supportive housing initiatives where necessary, as a resident of an apartment building in Gloucester with affordable housing units. I would also note that it's vital to cultivate a culture in our state that welcomes affordable housing seekers and residents into our communities for24025 what they are, our neighbors and our friends. In any case it is my fervent hope that this body will make affordable housing a larger priority in legislation going forward for the good of all Bay Staters and thank the Joint Committee on Housing for the opportunity to speak on this important matter. Thank you. Thank you Jones for your testimony. Seeing no questions. We'll move on to Betty Lewis
Betty Lewis Children.
How about Andy Salzburg Andrew Salzberg
Andy Salzburg,
Amy Delgado.
Amy are you with us? Amy Delgado
Diego low,
Diego low. I think we're being preempted by dinnertime and Diego low. Okay, how about Joanne paul,
Joanne Puppolo
Kathy paul,
William Berman? Yes, I'm here. Great, how are you?
I'm doing fine. Thanks for your patience.
It's been a long evening but it's been an important one and it's a privilege to be a part of it. I'd like to thank the chairs, keenan Arciero and the members of the committee for the opportunity to speak. My name is William Berman, I am a clinical professor of law at Suffolk University law school and I'm the director of Suffolk's housing discrimination testing program. I'm here to testify on behalf of S884
the bill that Senator Eldridge spoke of earlier which limits the landlord's ability to charge upfront cost to two months rent, which will make rental properties more accessible to low and moderate income tenants. The bill also clarifies that all other fees with the exception of the tenancy, with the exception of key costs24168 are illegal. I've been representing low income tenants for over two years, 20 years, I'm sorry with my clinical students um and
low income tenants, particularly those with vouchers, face significant barriers in the rental market and many of our clients run up against what we consider illegal fees and have a difficult time with the upfront cost to the tenancy. Um Also we conducted a study that the boston Foundation funded that showed very high levels of discrimination against With vouchers and based on race. So 86% of the time if you had a voucher you're facing discrimination in the market. So even before you ever get to the point when you are going to be asked to put up a significant amount of money before a tendency you've I had to kind of run a gauntlet and almost nine out of 10 times you will be screened out just because you have a voucher. Um And um
this is a significant burden to put on our most vulnerable tenants and removing at least one month's rent from the calculus when they get to the point where they get it's an opportunity to get an apartment will remove the barrier and will be um allowed many more low income tenants to be able to afford housing anecdotally. We have one client who for example, was told before you can apply, you need to put up what they called Quote unquote refundable security deposit of $1,000. And that really was a holding fee. And I'd like this committee to be aware that many landlords are doing this. Um and they're calling it refundable security deposit, but it's actually having to give it the beginning before they even by and this gentleman couldn't afford that he lost that apartment And he put that money together $1,000 and came back and applied for a different apartment and was told that he was rejected because of his credit. And I know Attorney wu spoke before about credit and the and the issue that was. And so the last thing I would say is just for those who are skeptical of government intervention in a landlord tenant relationship
in the context of government's role in creating segregation and the attendant wealth gap through policies like redlining and restrictive covenants and and the like, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate the village to be able to speak. And I support s a warrant and ask you to report.
Great, thank you very much for your testimony. Next is Carolyn Lomax.
Hello. My name is Carolyn. How you doing? My name is Carolyn Lomax and I am a small business owner. I'm gonna salon and a small landlord The power of systemic racism that big companies like Wells Fargo's mortgage company and other investors who gained wealth flawlessly through manipulating fragile minds during times of difficulty is any name and has never ceased in my life.
I did not cause this pandemic. I didn't steal my own and know that you know it didn't they? This pandemic is of effectiveness. All my tenants were avoiding me, living in fear and afraid to talk to me. I approached each of them in Xy they explained they were in fear of being evicted and they had no place to go. During the pandemic,
I saw a reflection of Caroline me and each person I spoke to. So I looked at myself, my business was shut down to prevent the spread of the virus. I have Children and grandchildren who are home from school working remotely. They need to eat, feel safe from the pandemic. So I said, housing is a human right. I informed them that life is more important. The material things. The thing is that we have to work together against this deadly pandemic. I fell behind in my mortgage payments here. I am in the middle of a modification. So degrading And I realized just November 2021 they are asking badgering me. I'm feeling bamboozled with questions that have already answered several times.
Mhm I'm asking to lift the ban on rent control Governor baker asked Massachusetts to stop drop and roll in March 2020 due to the nonstop and invisible Mark still in the breath of whoever it can regardless of race, sex, nationality, religion. I'm asking the powers to be to do the same. Stop stop rent increases across the board temporarily. Banks should give homeowners forgiveness for the increased Covid debt for small homeowners, supporting tenants still affected by Covid saying drop right now, tennis needs to stay the same rents need to stay the same or be cut temporarily until we can can combat this invisible monster role. We have to recognize our world has had a baby, the name Covid and it's variants when a baby is born, the medical team. Family community services are employed when necessary. We the people need your help. Everything is out of whack. We cannot follow pre covid rules and laws during the state of emergency. My tenants have applied for raft and a couple of times and have been denied several times. This is degrading and mentally debilitating. If it was not for city life better Obama in 2009 where I was empowered with the voice of advocating, learning that it was not my fault, I would be in a different point. But let me say in my clothing. Finally, let us remember how small our differences are in the face. This statement from our former president George Bush says Finally, let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat. In the final analysis. We are not partisan combatants, we are human beings Equally vulnerable and equally one the full in the side of god
we rise with all together and we are determined this will be the greatest form of Gentile identification in history, left the band and that each community decide what is best for them if history didn't show that my community,
thank you very much for your testimony, we appreciate. Um Next is Amy Ott. Really? Let's see. I think this is the Feinberg tenants panel, is that right? Yes. Amy on kylie potter dan Albright, Haribo land Geisbert and Brittany Sandoval. Yes, we um we were on earlier and we've been on all day trying to organize the tenants to speak in favour of the tenant uh local option for rent control. A few of us went earlier, might make the section a tenant. Um Rose Cohen was part of that group. We have a written testimony to share with from Amy and then Brittany is here to share Brittany. Do you want to go first? Yeah, I can start first. So thank you so much for allowing us to speak. Um And I just wanted to share my story. So I moved to boston not having a single support network in august of 2000 and 19. And as a recent college graduate working in cancer biology research, I was earning less than 30 K a year and I soon realised that I will be unable to afford my own apartment in the boston area. Um Working in this field, I realized that other technicians usually live at home, but that was not an option for me. I really wanted to come to boston for the science. Um, I had no support network as I said. And so I struggled to find housing and I actually slept in a random facebook marketplace. Persons living room for my first month. In boston. I eventually found housing in a two bedroom apartment that already had two roommates And they converted the living room into a third bedroom. The rent was $675 for a converted living room in an apartment that had not been renovated in several years had black mould in the bathroom and mice infesting the kitchen. But I managed while living in this union. Our concerns for maintenance were dismissed and peeling tubs, mice issues, creaky windows were never addressed. After living there for a year. I was offered a renewal and our rent had increased by $100 per person a month. I refused to pay $775 for a terrible living conditions and decided not to renew the absurd increase Of money amounts to an additional $1,200 a year to live in a converted living room. That amount of money could be prohibitive to somebody living on a smaller income. I could put that money towards loan repayments towards food, over supporting my family back home in texas. I am currently a member of the Feinberg tenants union and I believe that we should support and pass legislation that supports renter rights. I'm writing this. I am saying my testimony in support of bills H 13 78 and S 886 to increase tenant protections, rent stabilization and anti price gouging protections including this bill would protect protect vulnerable renters like myself and others. They do. All right, thank you Britney, appreciate the testimony and thanks for hanging in there. Uh Next is Kylie potter
is Kylie with us. Sorry. Yeah, Kylie is not um will be submitting the written testimony for a me and Kylie but yeah, so I have I'm the last of the group. Um Yeah, and thank you for your patients who were hoping to get on earlier um trying to get everybody on. Um Yeah, I'm a Brighton renter with the Feinberg tenants union um here supporting the local option for rent control and move into the regulations. Also the tenant opportunity to purchase in Somerville. Um My uh
oh! Um my experience as a renter in seven years in being in boston having moved four times is at least for one bedroom apartments. Um even the cheapest apartments you can get on our market which is on the market, which has always been our market. You can reliably count on it to increase about 100 month, 100 a month each year over the last. So we rented a place right around the corner in um Washington and common Galvin Brighton for 2015, that was 1500 moved to times in that time, different roommate situations. And um in 2019 our rent uh is uh 2000 for the one bedroom 2020. There was a brief very slight retreat in the market values due to the pandemic. But now as other people have mentioned these decreases of totally gone back, they've been wiped away by the market returning to so called normal. Um so you know over those five years that's the 33% increase over the five years, which is like six per 66.6 Percent each year. So you know that may seem small, but it adds up over over the years and um you know that people aren't working, people aren't um seeing an increase in their um and their pay 6.6% over the year. The other thing is um People tenants
rent is coming out of their actual work that they do and is you know they're limited um means um landlords as we've heard some landlords come on here and talk about their income. Landlords income is is totally passive um passed the mortgage that they pay the tax, the maintenance all the rent that is collected after that point is purely profit. And uh the mortgage that they that they but uh you know don't go up each year, it stays the same. Um, and and yet the largest owners among them will and do raise the rent year after year as much as they can um to extract as much wealth as possible. And so um it's just when you see these landlords showing up here and you know, saying that, you know, our are in companies to be prioritized, they own the house that we're actually, we're paying for these, these Holmes and uh um it's, it's just, it's just the dissonance is amazing when, you know, if we struggle to get our people on here, I'm amazed that there's so many tenants that are on here, when the landlords have, you know, from their access access profits to send their paid representatives here today have all the time, you know, for these meetings and they still only have a few people. So I hope that this bill goes through, um, even large landlords like cars, Feinberg management they've owned, they're building for decades, they're likely paid off or nearly paid off on their mortgage. The worst of the worst culprits. Um they're not even putting, you know, with the market, uh, the free market, they're not even putting the increased rents towards repairs or improvements they're doing as little as possible to maintain departments of just barely legal condition. So they're not, you know, putting the money into keep maintaining or improving the units either way, they're trying to just keep it barely legal condition to encourage you to move so they can get in a new tenant to get the highest rent possible and their um you know, by by setting the max rents as the largest landlords which theoretically through economy of scale, should be able to keep the prices low, are actually setting the bar for how much others can charge. Um So you know, as a tenant union, we fought very hard to try to lower rent um and we were and stop evictions, we were able to exert enough pressure to dissuade the landlord from increasing rents. Last year we got several individual rent reductions, But we're only tenants at one slumlord property company in a in a town that is basically run by them. Um all over Austin and brighten the majority of 10 places don't have tenants unions, the prices are going up, that in turn weakens our negotiating leverage because the landlord can just make the case that as a business they shouldn't be offering below market rates. Um and like I said, the largest ones are setting the bar for what everyone can charge. So this whole thing is kind of a big money making scheme for landlords and renters on the other hand of the fixed income, we need to give cities ability to regulate rent because there is a housing crisis. Thank you, thank you for your testimony. Um I think that's a Mirra about lang Geisbert, she was on the panel. Is she going to submit written testimony, is that the idea correct? They will be ok appreciate that. Okay that brings us to the end of those who registered to to speak knowing the interests of this and that there may be some other people as a committee. We have decided to open up for a couple of minutes to allow those who may want to speak to speak one minute each. These are individuals who have not registered. If they're interested in just conveying their position on the bills that would be fine will be capped at a minute each. But so I would open that up if anybody who is still on the call. I see Rosemary Jones I was registered but you're lucky I'm out of energy and so I'm gonna be. Thank you very much. Thank we appreciate your staying with us. I've been there since the beginning. Yes, we noticed that. I don't know how you're doing it. You must have a a secret tuna salad sandwich someplace that you sneak off to. Actually I won't tell you that it was grilled chicken about six hours ago. I have a have a letter from the Jamaica Pond Association concerning the Forbes building. I just want to read one of the paragraphs. We're not jumping on the board of Oh let's beat up all The landlords. So I want to read that and then I want to make one slightly sarcastic comment. That would be fine with. Okay so the paragraph reads, um, we meaning the Jamaica Pond Association hope to come to a better understanding of the aspirations of the building owner. Mr paul Clayton, although one outcome of the appearance of Mr Clayton's representatives at a recent JP, a meeting resulted in an offer from our state representative nick a Elugardo to broker a meeting of city officials, the property owner and the tennis association. All reports indicate that no agreement to continue rental subsidies was reached. So that's that's about as mean as this midwesterner can get. Um, but I just also, my comment is I listened to the folks from the realtors and um, the kind of landlords associations
and there's a severe cognitive distance between the numbers that they give to establish that not much bad is really happening to any tenants versus most of what I've been hearing here today. So, I'm going, do we occupy parallel universes and I'll close with that? Well, thank you. We appreciate your testimony, chris grim. All right, thank you. Mr. Chairman. I was signed up and unfortunately missed my time earlier. So, I do apologize for that. I'm actually not testifying on the rent control bill. So, you guys will have 55 seconds of a completely different issue at the end of the night. I'm representing lease lock and I'm testifying in support of House bill 11 38 and Senate bill 8 69. Uh, this is legislation that would allow property owners to charge in lieu of a security deposit, a deposit waiver feet, as was mentioned in earlier testimony. Moving costs could be incredibly high right rents are going up coming up with first month last month and a security deposit could be incredibly cost prohibitive. Remember when I was younger and got my first apartment in queens? When I lived in new york, I had to empty my bank account to move in. I have like $7 left in my bank account. And the stress of doing that was just terrible. So at least lock does at least lock provides insurance to property owners not to tenants to the property owners. Uh, that insurance is typically more than what they would have from a security deposit, $5,000 to cover lost rent or damage to the unit. And with that coverage, the property owner can then offer the tenant the option. And this bill would ensure that it is strictly optional for both the landlord and the tenant to pay a nominal monthly fee. And I was just $27 nationwide instead of that security deposit. It's a nonrefundable fee. Um, and then the landlord essentially is using that feed to pay their insurance premiums. We look at it as a win win. Um, we talked with a number of stakeholders and the tenant advocates space and submitted an amendment to the committee to try to address some of their concerns. Massachusetts is one of five states, um, where this type of arrangement isn't expressly prohibited in statute, but it is great enough that we are currently not operating in the state, uh, and think this would just be a good option for tenants and landlords. Again to not have to pay a full upfront security deposit. Um, this would just be optional as a way to help overcome that barrier. Just another arrow in the quiver um, to make getting into housing easier. Our books. SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
Great. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, appreciate your uh testimony. Is there anybody else who wishes to testify?
Okay, seeing none. Uh, I want to thank all the members of the committee who have stayed with us throughout the hearing. I want to thank obviously co chair professor who's uh, I've been a great partner during the course of this legislative session. This is the last hearing that this committee will hold. And I want to thank all the members of the co chair, um and obviously the staff who do all the work for us for their work in in planning these hearings and making sure that they go in a way that they did as evidence today was a long hearing and they did a lot of work to make sure that it went. It went well. So we thank all of them and we look forward to working with with everybody as the session moves forward. And as we take action on these on the various bills and if anybody has the additional testimony, we would urge them to send it by email to the committee and we'll we'll entertain that information, will review that information. So thank you to everybody. And with that I entertain a motion. I see Senator Jehlen makes a motion to adjourn this hearing uh 2nd 2nd by representative costs. I see Representative Diggs Representative Hendricks second in that and also Representative Connolly formation motion moved and seconded all those in favor. Say aye opposed I suppose. No, thank you for that. The eyes have it. Uh We are adjourned.
Thank you.
Mhm. Please. Mhm.
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