Hundreds in favor of rent control march on the Boston Common
Hundreds of people marched from the Boston Common to the State House Wednesday demanding a higher minimum wage and rent control.
“Folks are not able to live, work, have a family, here in Massachusetts,” said Carolyn Chou, Executive Director, Homes For All.
Homes For All is an organization fighting for rent control and preventing eviction.
Kimberly Landaverde was born and raised in East Boston and lives with her parents.
“My mom has worked three jobs along with my dad multiple jobs to be able to make ends meet,” said Landaverde, “No one can live a decent life when they’re paying their whole salary to rent.”
Brendan Golding, realtor said some landlords depend on rent as their only income.
“Landlords are people like us who have to cover their mortgages,” said Golding.
Doug Quattrochi, Executive Director of the Mass Landlords Association said there just aren’t enough apartments.
“We have a need of between 200-300 thousand units and that’s just for latent demand if you built those tonight they’d be full tomorrow,” said Quattrochi.
He said he thinks rent control comes with unintended consequences.
“Landlords increase application difficulty until basically they’re only taking the very best renters because those folks are likely to pay whatever rent is allowed and not damage the place,” he said.
Quattrochi said in order to control prices the rent control boards have to control renovations.
“So landlords had to grovel for permission to install new water heaters, updated kitchen, buy new fridges,” he said.
Some marchers said they want to allow cities and towns to create their own local ordinances that limit rent increases.
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