Rent Increase Hearing Brings No Decision

Over 300 Cambridge tenants and landlords turned out at Rindge Auditorium last night to advise Philip M. Cronin, Interim Rent Control administrator, on the question of an across-the-board rent increase.

The increase would be added to the March rollback level effected by the new rent-control law.

With landlords advocating a ten per cent increase and tenants calling for a further decrease, Cronin concluded the four-hour hearing by saying he would take their opinions under advisement and make some response by next Monday.

The chairman of the Cambridge Board of Assessors presented figures favoring an across-the-board rent increase of five per cent to account for the 20 per cent 1970 property tax increase.

If Cronin announces any upward adjustment of rents, it is likely that it will be at or near the five per cent figure.

At one point in the hearing, Cronin demanded that members of the Cambridge Tenants Organizing Committee (CTOC)-who were carrying signs and chanting-leave the auditorium. They refused to leave but stopped chanting, and the hearing continued.

Organizing Committee-member Robert Pearlman said, "We would consider any increase in rents a direct attack on the CTOC. There is no reason for any increase and there are many reasons for a decrease."