Attorney General Maura Healey suggested she wouldn’t sign a statewide rent control bill as governor

Attorney General Maura Healey prompt Friday she would not indication a hire command invoice if it arrived at her desk as governor but later clarified by way of a marketing campaign spokesperson that she supports municipal level hire stabilization and not a statewide plan.

Lease manage has been championed by politicians like Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, whose town is experiencing skyrocketing housing and condominium costs, as a way to continue to keep tenants in their houses. But it has been fulfilled with criticism from landlords and other community officials who say the plan would restrict housing supply and harm home tax revenues.

Healey, speaking at the Boston General public Library all through a GBH Information “Boston Community Radio” interview, claimed lease regulate is not the solution to climbing housing charges, and as a substitute pointed to rental aid as a way to enable citizens.

“I’m a big believer in making guaranteed that these needing rental support have guidance. But I believe the way you get there, the overall photo, it is not through hire stabilization,” the Democratic gubernatorial applicant mentioned. “It’s through the production of far more housing. We need to have additional housing. We need additional affordable housing throughout earnings degrees and we want to search to make this statewide.”

A marketing campaign spokesperson for Healey clarified the attorney general’s place following the GBH job interview.

“Maura supports the proper of communities to implement their individual insurance policies on hire stabilization,” the spokesperson mentioned. “She does not think that a blanket statewide coverage demanding rent regulate is the answer to our housing affordability disaster.

Wu ran for mayor of Boston on a system that involved lifting a ban on rent control that was set into place by means of a 1994 ballot dilemma. In March 2020, she established a committee to research rent stabilization and inevitably create a proposal to send to the Legislature subsequent session.

In a assertion at the time, Wu said metropolitan areas throughout the United States use lease stabilization as a device “to safeguard tenants and hold households in their homes.”

“If we are not willing to choose on the lease increases that are driving families out of Boston, then we are not assembly the requires of our neighborhoods,” Wu mentioned.

Healey stated transportation investments could also assistance folks locate additional inexpensive housing.

“South Coastline rail, East-West rail, creating out and greater supporting our regional transit authorities — all of this is definitely, seriously important,” Healey explained.

Gov. Charlie Baker has earlier mentioned he would “probably not” sign a law bringing again rent regulate if it were being to make it to his desk, the State House Information Assistance claimed.

All through a Tumble 2021 interview on GBH, Baker explained one particular concern with rent control “is in essence it did not address all people the same and your earnings experienced nothing at all to do with no matter if or not you had a rent-controlled apartment.”

“I’m heading to depart the doorway open up a small bit due to the fact probably there’s anything that could be completed to deal with this,” Baker mentioned.