Letter from the President: It’s Time to Mobilize
Dear SPOA Members and Supporters,
We’d like to extend gratitude to our constituency for your continued support, both financially and through your participation.
We have several updates for you.
On the Boston Rent Control front, Boston’s mayoral administration will soon release the recommendations of their “Rent Stabilization” board. Meanwhile, we anticipate that the city will likely go to the Massachusetts Legislature for a home rule petition. In legislative speak, this means they won’t wait for a state-wide ballot initiative. Boston will essentially seek to override state law in order to implement Rent Control unilaterally.
We also expect a statewide ballot initiative in 2024, essentially relying on heightened urban turn out during the year of a presidential election to overturn the current law on the books, banning Rent Control. This would make Rent Control, or the ability for communities to opt in, state law.
That means that decisions impacting Rent Control will be made legislatively at the state level. It is important to note that any vote supporting Rent Control in Boston is a vote supporting Rent Control statewide. We must resist this move actively, and we encourage all of our fellow housing providers and supporters to mobilize for a protracted fight on this issue in the months and years to come.
We can also anticipate the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), or tenant right of first refusal, being reintroduced during the next legislative session in January 2023.
SPOA views TOPA as a detrimental housing policy. For those of you who are not familiar with TOPA, what does it mean?
TOPA means that you are required by law to offer your property to your tenants before you can sell. The government inserts itself into the sale process, forming laws that restrict owners from transacting directly on the free market. It adds in excess of 200 days to a sale. Anyone who is familiar with real estate transactions understands how damaging this is. In the past 200 days, how many interest rate hikes have we experienced? How many tenants are actually qualified buyers? We are required to release sensitive financial information to our tenants during the process. A predatory development industry has exploited this law in Washington D.C., where it is current law. Every aspect of this proposed TOPA legislation is problematic.
In response to these challenges facing housing providers, SPOA has formed an Affordable Housing Task Force. No one doubts the housing crisis, even though small landlords are being penalized for it. However, SPOA believes that the answer is production, production, and more production of housing without suppressing the rights of housing providers. Our task force is working to generate constructive solutions to create more affordable housing, both in Boston and throughout Massachusetts.
Punitive legislation is not the answer.
We anticipate a difficult winter with energy costs dramatically escalated. Many of us include heat and hot water in our rents; these costs will need to be absorbed somehow. As property owners well know, these expenditures are not just doubling or tripling, they are quintupling or beyond.
In addition, market conditions look uncertain - a recession seems imminent.
SPOA wishes we could paint a rosier picture.
Unfortunately, our job to be up front with our members about the grim landscape. Without small landlords, the housing industry will become mostly large corporations like Blackrock. Big companies will be the only buyers willing and able to wait out legislative roadblocks.
Whether or not proposed housing policies are well-intended, they certainly have damaging implications. Please familiarize yourself with these talking points and voice them to your representatives in the Massachusetts legislature. They are the decision makers.
SPOA is comprised exclusively of volunteers. Our efforts depend on donations like yours. Please consider making a monthly contribution to SPOA — $100, $500, $1,000, or more! As we mobilize for the fight ahead of us, funding will be essential. We need your support to continue the battle for the rights of small housing providers.
Wishing you Happy Holidays!
Sincerely,
Allison Drescher
SPOA President
P.S. Again, please donate $100, $500, $1,000, or more. Funding is essential to prevail in our cause. Donate online, or send checks to “SPOA, Inc.” at 840 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02127.
