Committee May Sanction Rent Hikes in Cambridge

The Rent Control Committee of the Cambridge City Council will consider tonight three changes in rent control administration, one of which would urge the Cambridge Rent Control Board to stop across-the-board rent increases in Cambridge expected later this year.

The Rent Control Board, appointed by City Manager James L. Sullivan to administer rent control in Cambridge, decided on a 4 to 7 per cent general increase to save the administrative headaches of too many landlords asking for individual adjustments.

David I. Sullivan, a spokesman for the Alliance of Cambridge Tenants, said yesterday, "The general adjustment grants a windfall to landlords that is not fair, nor legal."

City Councilor Saundra Graham said yesterday the 6 to 10 per cent return landlords are now getting on their investments seems fair, and she doesn't know if it should be increased.

"If we start to change things, the tenants are going to get screwed even more than the price of inflation," she said.

Joan Lorentz, a tenant and member of the Mid-Cambridge Tenants Association, said yesterday she hopes the reforms will improve fundamental problems with the way the rent control committee functions.

"Under the present laws there probably are conditions under which a just rise in rent is possible," she said, adding, "The rent control board seems to be unable to exercise options."

Lorentz said people who have small investments in one or two buildings are not motivated to keep up their property because they are denied just raises.

"The rent control law needs to prevent owners of large buildings from gouging their tenants," she said.

The proposals also include provisions allowing landlords to convert their apartments to condominiums if 35 per cent of their tenants want to buy their apartments or if the city vacancy rate climbs above 4 per cent. This change should decrease "condo-conversion," City Councilor Mary Ellen Preusser said yesterday.

Graham last December filed a similar bill with the state legislature, but it did not include overall vacancy rate provision.

A third proposal would allow Rent Control Board inspectors as well as health inspectors to cite violations of the sanitary code.

Preusser said yesterday she thinks the health department can already deputize Rent Control Board inspectors, and if that is the case the proposal is unnecessary.