Mattapan woman leading push for ballot measure to combat rising rent prices in Mass.

At years old Annie Gordon was facing eviction from the Mattapan Square apartment she called home for years She raised her family there and was settling into retirement when a new owner purchased the Fairlawn Apartments in and according to Gordon started raising rents by as much as for specific tenants Having been here for years in this society there was no place else to go she commented I just didn t want to leave so I decided I was gonna stay and fight To keep up with the rising rent Gordon was forced out of retirement to make ends meet But she also turned to a different kind of work rallying tenants together to push back against rent increases Then her landlord Bismarck Street Owner LLC sent her an eviction notice citing an irreconcilable breakdown in the landlord tenant relationship caused by Gordon s communications and conduct Specific days it was tears specific days anxiety Gordon explained I can t imagine how people in shelters or people living on the street feel They have to feel so much worse because I know that was just very heartbreaking for me In Gordon won her eviction fight in Eastern Housing Court and was allowed to stay in her apartment A year later a new developer Related Biele purchased the property and pledged to keep all units affordable supported by a million grant from the city to offset costs But Gordon says her advocacy work is far from over Now she s supporting a ballot proposal that would bring rent control back to Massachusetts Organizers with Keep Massachusetts Home and Homes for All Massachusetts say they ve collected signatures clearing a major hurdle in the process to make it on the November ballot The measure would cap annual rent increases at either the rate of inflation or -percent whichever is lower We need to make sure tenants are able to stay in their homes stay in our communities build roots and have predictable stable rent increases reported Carolyn Chou executive director of Homes for All Massachusetts We feel like it s a critical piece of solving the housing dilemma but one of a large number of pieces The proposal includes exemptions for newly constructed buildings for the first ten years and for owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units But landlord advocates argue those carve-outs are insufficient and could harm the very renters the measure aims to protect Doug Quattrochi executive director of the contract association MassLandlords Inc says the owner-occupied exemption covers only a small share of housing providers and warns rent caps could cause more people to lose their homes There are going to be lots of instances where landlords who are subjected to rent control are unable to keep their building up to snuff and will sell out to a developer who is going to evict all the renters he commented They re going to demolish the building and they re going to build new luxury housing Massachusetts voters banned rent control in after landlords argued it discouraged new housing financing Under the current law municipalities can only implement rent caps if they compensate property owners for the difference between the region rates and the controlled rents The new ballot measure now goes before the state legislature early next year If lawmakers decline to act another round of signature gathering will start in the spring before the proposal reaches the ballot Meanwhile state lawmakers are also considering a separate bill that would lift the state s rent control ban instead of implementing a statewide mandate State Rep Mike Connolly the bill s author says the Tenant Protection Act is designed to give local governments more flexibility We are facing an ongoing housing emergency Connolly reported We ve done a large number of things to address it but one of the things we still need to do is enable municipalities to protect tenants from egregious rent increases Connolly says he supports both efforts but anticipates a tough fight in the legislature and at the ballot box He says owner-occupant landlords in Cambridge and Somerville patronage selected type of rent control but believes larger developers pose the strongest opposition MassLandlords which represents mom and pop landlords says it has not been consulted by lawmakers or ballot organizers Quattrochi believes solving the housing dilemma requires addressing a key issue supply He s also pushing for a better safety net for people struggling to make rental payments now The state has a safety net that requires you to prove your worthiness You have to submit an application you have to pass someone s screen he reported That s exactly the opposite of what a safety net should be It should be the kind of thing where if we re falling we re caught Gordon says although her occurrence is over she can t shake the faces of people waiting outside housing court fighting to hang on to their homes She hopes the rent control initiative will provide immediate relief to the people who desperately need it There are still seniors like myself living on fixed incomes as well as families or just working class people working two jobs that can t keep up with the rent she mentioned Something requirements to happen that s going to even the playing field