Sign the petition for a rent control ballot initiative
Support a statewide ballot measure that would limit rent increases to the inflation rate determined by the Consumer Price Index or 5%, whichever is lower. If passed, this would affect residential buildings in Massachusetts, with some exceptions.
This ballot measure would help protect many working class people facing growing housing costs, displacement, evictions, and homelessness. It would lift the statewide ban on rent control that the real estate corporations, big landlords, and the state legislature pushed through in the 1990s.
Massachusetts residents have the second-highest cost of living in the country and the highest average rents. Boston has the highest average monthly rents in the U.S and the second-highest rate of homelessness. In 2024, state eviction filings averaged 3,000 a month. Households in the Boston area need to earn $180,000 a year in order to afford the average apartment (not spending over 30% of their income on rent). The housing crisis in Massachusetts reflects a nationwide emergency of explosive rent increases, 35.4% over the last five years, with home prices soaring by 47%. An estimated 3.6 million households face eviction every day.
The Independent Socialist Group (ISG) is helping collect signatures for this ballot measure. 75,000 valid signatures are needed by November 19, 2025. We urge people to sign the petition, join the campaign for statewide rent control, and help bring friends, family, community groups, unions, and progressive and left organizations into the effort as well.
This ballot measure is a good step towards controlling rent hikes. ISG supports this initiative, but we believe more is necessary. The 5% limit to rent increases is still too high, especially for the 29% percent in MA who were making minimum wage in 2023. The ballot initiative’s exemption for housing less than 10 years old means that “new” housing will still be allowed to jack up rents as high as the landlords want.
Both corporate political parties, Republican and Democrat, set up today’s housing crisis. They’ve based housing policy on the interests of corporate landlords, real estate developers, private equity corporations, etc. Massachusetts did have rent control and it was widely popular in cities where it existed (including in Boston, Brookline, and Cambridge). The state legislature, controlled by the Democratic Party, made rent control illegal throughout the state in 1994. Predictably, rents and evictions have skyrocketed.
ISG supports lifting the ban on rent control in Massachusetts. We also raise the need for a socialist program to tackle the housing emergency nationwide. This should involve renters, tenant unions, and labor unions organizing on a mass basis with the occupation of empty properties, rent strikes, and protests for:
- Nationwide rent control
- A freeze on rents nationwide
- Mass building of new, quality public housing built with union labor
- Taxing real estate corporations, rich landlords, and wealthy universities to fund public housing
- A $30/hr federal min wage
- A workers’ party to fight for housing for all and against the Democratic and Republican parties who defend corporate landlords, real estate developers, private equity, and the capitalist class
The Independent Socialist Group is organizing public meetings on the rent control ballot initiative and socialist solutions to the housing crisis. Join us to discuss the fight to win quality housing for all!
Upcoming:
- Thursday, October 16
7pm
Boston MA
Beacon Hill Friends House (6 Chestnut St, Boston MA 02108)
near both the Park St and Charles/MGH MBTA stations
Stay tuned for additional public meetings
Independent Socialist Group 