Cambridge Homeowners Coalition

Cambridge Homeowners Coalition (CHC) is comprised of Cambridge residents and property owners who are concerned over the prospect of the return to well-intentioned but failed rent control policies. The latest attempt to reinstate rent control proposed via a ballot question is a more drastic version than the one the majority of voters repealed in 1994.

We range from condo owners to professional property managers. We are a diverse group, some of us are young professionals, some of us are senior citizens, some first-generation immigrants, some of us are new to Cambridge, and others have roots in this city going back many generations. Our ranks span all ethnicities and the socio-economic spectrum.

What binds us together is our pride in membership and preservation of the Cambridge community, and our pride in our property. We believe that the predominant majority of landlords and tenants are honorable and that the symbiotic relationship must be mutually beneficial to be successful.

Most of us have invested most of our life savings into our property and work hard to maintain that property. Those of us who rent out our property are committed to providing clean, safe and well-tended housing. We provide a needed service at a fair price.

Through our taxes, we Cantabrigians have contributed approximately $9 million a year to affordable housing.  Over the past 9 years, the city has spent over $200 million to increase the inventory of affordable housing; hundreds of permanently affordable units have been added to the housing supply.

Those of us who are fortunate enough to develop multi-unit properties since 1995 have contributed at least 15% of those units to affordable housing.

A host of housing initiatives, coupled with inclusionary zoning, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and the Community Preservation Act means that next year, Cambridge is positioned to increase its affordable housing stock even more.

Today tenants have the widest selection of apartments to choose from in many decades, and the quality of our housing stock has never been better or safer.

We want to defeat the Rent Control Initiative on November 4th to ensure that our valuable older housing is preserved from deterioration, that the city’s tax base is maintained along with the city services we all enjoy, and that more new rental housing units will be created in the future.

We encourage everyone to read the full text of the proposed law very carefully (full text of the Initiative Petition to Regulate Rents and Evictions). We're sure you'll find that once you get past the legalese, you'll find the proposal to be seriously flawed.