Letter from the Executive Director for July 2024: Waiting for the Senate Shoe to Drop

In order to meet print deadlines, I have to write this letter at a time when the House has passed the tenant right of first refusal, before knowing whether the Senate has as well. In a very real sense, this decision will change everything, and there is nothing much I can write here. But in another sense, it's a good time to recap the problems we are facing in general terms. If you are already familiar with the tenant right of first refusal or "tenant opportunity to purchase act" (TOPA), this letter still contains likely new information and is worth reading.

One major problem in Massachusetts politics and in the U.S. more broadly is inadequate expertise in policy making. What I mean is, the world is so complicated that it's inconceivable that any one set of legislators should know enough to do their job. When we have asked legislators to make decisions on healthcare, transportation, housing, civil rights and more, the general trend has been to listen to people who look expert and defer details to agencies. "These people say we should do XYZ. We'll pass the law and let the regulators fill in the gap." Well, this hardly works if the law itself is aimed badly. And it should surprise no one: People who ask the legislature to do something have motivations that don't necessarily align with public interest.

The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act would delay closings for multifamilies by hundreds of days. This is advocated for by community development corporations, who need this long to compete. They are expert in financing nonprofit construction. When they talk to the legislature, it seems they are all the expertise needed. Yet they are not all that is needed. Delaying closings affects the for-profit market, which is by far bigger and more important to understand. Many of us have expertise in the housing market. Did anyone ask for our expert market opinion? Hardly.

One of our members challenged their representative on why they voted for TOPA. The representative told him, paraphrased, "It doesn't have any delay in it, what are you talking about?" They were not lying; they were ignorant about what they had done. They also said the law had been corrected to prevent a Washington, D.C., style debacle. In D.C., renters sell their rights at extortionate prices. Well, I intervened with bad news for this rep: The version of the law the House passed has no such protection. A prior version did. They voted for the wrong one.

It's tempting to declare the legislature a bunch of rank idiots. But we put them there. We are all idiots in this complex world. Only a few of us have any expertise at all, and none of us has all the expertise we need.

TOPA is alive in the House, and through an unprecedented alignment of the real estate industry, should now be dead in the Senate. Call your representative and senator opposed to TOPA. Also, on a matter I haven't discussed here, the eviction sealing mistake is hanging in the balance, as well, but the other way:  dead in the House but alive in the Senate as the HOMES Act (193 H.4356) and the Housing Bond Bill (193 H.4138). Call your representative and senator opposed to eviction sealing. The conference committee that will Frankenstein this bond bill into life could add either of these or even rent control. Help them hear your expertise in providing rental housing.

Thank you for supporting our mission to create better rental housing. We've got your back only because you've got ours. Please join as a member, encourage others to join, become a property rights supporter or increase your level of support. We aim to hire both a full-time educator and policy advocate.

Sincerely,

Douglas Quattrochi

Executive Director

MassLandlords, Inc.