Letter From the Executive Director for July 2026: Hard Work Pays Off
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The last year, we’ve given our all to fight rent control, and it has paid off! For now, Massachusetts is free of the seemingly obvious but surprisingly bad idea that rent control is part of the solution to the housing crisis.
What will fix the housing crisis? Short-term, we need rental assistance. Long-term, we need both market and public construction. In and among all this, we need education, labor, materials, zoning reform and alternatives to car dependency. And we need to do it all with zero emissions.
The folks who failed to enact rent control have failed to understand the complexity of the world we share, the need to work together to solve shared problems, and the importance of good legal drafting. But in general, folks on both sides of this lied and dissembled in an attempt to advance their interests. Let’s not repeat this.
I stand ready to listen to anyone, to meet with anyone, and to have a candid and respectful conversation about where we can agree and what we may try to do together. It’s not zero-sum. The pie can be bigger. We can all thrive. Mistrust stops us from trying. Let’s listen to one another? Let’s be candid and inclusive?
There is a lot of work going on besides our opposition to rent control. We have connected half a dozen members with researchers from Princeton and MIT considering writing a paper on how landlords select renters. The City of Boston signed an agreement for judgment with MassLandlords admitting noncompliance with the public records law; we are working through enforcement. Our spin-off conservancy got a grant. We made a major site speed-up for existing members. We continue to migrate members off of legacy billing systems.
It sounds like we’re doing amazing! But I’ll be honest: We are underfunded. We punch far above our weight. Join as a member, or if you are already a member, become a property rights supporter and increase your level of support. I know you don’t have enough for all the projects you want to do, but imagine what rent control would have cost you! Invest a little of that savings back in us.
Together we’re creating better rental housing, and we have a lot more work to do. Fund us to do it.
Sincerely,
Doug
Executive Director
MassLandlords, Inc.
