Public Hearing May Determine Rent Adjustment

After listening to over three hours of tumultuous debate from more than 300 tenants and landlords who packed the City Council chambers last night, the Council passed a motion which will significantly change the current administration procedures for rent control in Cambridge.

The motion was introduced by Joseph A. Spadafora, Executive Director of Rent Control, and Philip M. Cronin, '53, Interim Rent Control Administrator.

Under the new order all temporary adjustments will be eliminated as of January 1. 1971. A public hearing will be held-hopefully next week-to determine whether there should be a general adjustment of maximum rent by percentage to compensate for increases in taxes.

Individual Hearings Postponed

All individual adjustment hearings will be postponed pending this hearing.

The Council also ordered Cronin and Spadafora not to proceed with eviction notices for tenants who did not pay their November rents. Cronin had temporarily adjusted November rents to current levels, instead of rolling them back to the March, 1970 level.

Under this new order Hunneman Realty-which had previously been

granted a temporary adjustment for all properties it manages for Harvard-will lose this adjustment as of January 1.

Spadafora said before the meeting that Hunneman had been granted the adjustment for the Harvard properties because of the problems that would arise in subsequent property tax rebates.

After the public hearing on an across the board increase, the rent control administration will conduct a second public hearing to try to determine guidelines for "fair net income" under the terms of the rent control law.

Much of the debate prior to passage of the order centered on the legality of Cronin's temporary adjustments of 158 buildings to the current rent level. Cronin said "I regard that issue as one of the birth pains of this administration which is now mute."

After the order was passed Robert Pearlman, speaking for the Cambridge Tenants Organizing Committee, said "What Mr. Spadafora has done is the smart way of sabotage. This is an effective way to control rent increases in the city."