Advocates flocked to the State House, July 29, amid a renewed push to eliminate the statewide ban that prohibits cities and towns in Massachusetts from creating local rent control measures.

In a five-hour-long hearing before the Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government, legislators heard from advocates speaking in support and opposition to the rent control bill, as well as other pieces of proposed legislation that would shift municipal approaches to housing, including proposed changes to the long-contentious MBTA Communities Act.

A new push to bring back rent control

Since the mid-1990s, rent control has been prohibited in Massachusetts.

The proposed legislation, if passed, would not directly implement rent control across Massachusetts, but would remove a 1994 ban for

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