Housing Study Urges Fewer Controls

The Chamber's report concludes that the conversion of rental units into condominiums provides the most "affordable" method for tenants to become homeowners. Rather than restricting condominium conversion, the city should attempt to redistribute its benefits from landlords to tenants, the study suggests.

"The greatest protection that can possibly be offered to tenants is to help possibly be offered to tenants is to help them become homeowners," the report states adding that while the city could create special rights" for elderly and low-income tenants. it should allow "a healthy program of condominium conversion" in other cases.

The few supporters of rent control who had seen advance copies of the study yesterday sharply criticized its principal recommendations as well as what they called its lack of "sub-stantial new research."

"The conclusions were predictable and not very convincing," councillor David Sullivan, one of the strongest supporters of rent control and restrictions on condo conversion, said.

Sullivan added that many of the report's policy suggestions, including a program of cash subsidies for tenants that would replace existing rent ceilings, "would cause substantial suffering among current Cambridge residents."

The city should try to take advantage of the "fundamental market forces," including rent control restrictions, which have sparked condominium conversion in Cambridge, the report states.

Cooperation between public and private sectors in the form of a "non-profit quasi-governmental organization" that would issue permits for condominium conversion might be the "most promising" method of easing the city's bans on condo conversion, adopted in 1979.

Current city ordinances prohibit the removal from the housing market of rent-controlled apartments for conversion to other uses without removal permits, granted by the rent control board.

Most tenants "adjust fairly readily to the conversion process," the study finds. "Most are able to find replacement housing within two month, and the majority report that their new accommodations are actually superior to their old units," the report states, adding, however, that "elderly and low-income tenants clearly have special needs."

In other major conclusions, the study states that rent control has shifted between $5 million and $10 million in property taxes annually towards owners of uncontrolled rental housing. The rent control board's system for projecting future operating costs results in reducing landlords' net operating returns by up to 30 per cent below the level designated as fair by the board, the report finds.

The City's chances of completing its state-mandated 100 per cent property reassessment this year are rapidly growing slimmer, state and local officials agreed yesterday.

For the past few weeks Cambridge assessors have been awaiting state approval for their "estimated tax plan," which is based on completing the property revaluation by Feb. 1. But state revenue officials and city administrators said yesterday that Cambridge may instead be forced to postpone the reassessment for one year and rely on current property values for calculating this year's property tax bill.

Finishing 100 per cent revaluation by February "can't be done unless the Cambridge assessors get a lot more assistance" with additional field workers and a supplementary budget appropriation. Jane H. Malme, director of the Bureau of Local Assessment, said.

Under the estimated tax plan, homeowners would be required this winter to pay half of last year's property tax bill and in the spring be ordered to pay the remainder of the current total, based on 100 per cent revaluation.