GREENFIELD — City councilors will weigh in on a resolution to support statewide rent control initiatives at their meeting on Wednesday evening.
The resolution, put forth by At-Large City Councilor Sara Brown, is being recommended to the full council following a 3-0 vote by the Community Relations Committee on Monday, with one abstention. It states that the city has seen “an explosive rise in housing costs” over the past decade, and to protect tenants, city officials are in favor of efforts to limit rent increases through two bills before the state Legislature and a ballot petition.
“An Act Enabling Cities and Towns to Stabilize Rents and Protect Tenants” (S.1447/H.2328) would repeal the 1994 ban on rent control, and allow cities and towns to opt into rent control. Rent increases, per the legislation, “shall not exceed the annual change in the Consumer Price Index for the applicable area or 5%, whichever is lower.” There would be a series of exempt properties, including dwelling units in owner-occupied buildings that have four or fewer apartments.
The resolution also supports the Keep Massachusetts Home coalition’s effort to get an “Initiative Petition to Protect Tenants by Limiting Rent Increases” on the November ballot. The petition places the same cap on increases to not exceed the CPI, or 5%, whichever is lower; however, unlike the state bill, which requires municipalities to opt in to rent control, the ballot petition would place a statewide rent control cap on all municipalities, with exemptions including condos, owner-occupied properties and new construction.
“I think rent control is a tool that’s part of an ecosystem. It’s an anti-displacement tool. It’s not to say that other things aren’t needed — a rental registry helps with repairs, having loan funds helps with repairs,” Brown said. “If landlords are treating housing as a business, they should be able to use the collateral and take out a loan against the property. There are systems in place. So to leave rent as completely unregulated and unfettered greed is cruel and inhumane, and results in evictions and results in homelessness.
“We need a whole spectrum of housing justice tools, and rent control is not gonna solve housing repairs, it’s not going to solve supply,” Brown continued. “It’s a specific tool to solve a specific problem and it needs to be in combination with a whole set of tools.”
Precinct 3 Councilor Ann Dillemuth described herself as a “rent control skeptic” and said that, based on her research, rent control can ease the short-term burden on tenants but has negative long-term impacts, such as apartments being converted into condos and sold.
“Even though, in the short term, rent control reduces renter costs, it tends to have long-term consequences that are overall negative for the larger housing market,” Dillemuth said. “Studies in Cambridge and San Francisco, those are two cities that had rent control, and then they stopped it and were able to look at the impacts of that change, and they found that rent control disincentivizes rental units because landlords weren’t able to get very much revenue out of the property.”
At-Large Councilor Maisie Sibbison-Alves said there is a lot of mixed research, with studies showing both pros and cons of rent control. She added that tenants should not be solely responsible for the soaring costs, and that a 5% rent increase cap should still allow landlords to cover their costs without being burdened.
According to the 2024 Greenfield Housing Plan, “more than half of both renters and homeowners with incomes up to 60% AMI [area median income] spend over 30% of their income on housing costs.” In 2022, the AMI for Greenfield was $53,149, and the average rent for a one-bedroom apartment at the time was $1,406 per month (32% of monthly median income).
According to Zillow data, as of May 2026, the average rent across units of all sizes is now $1,700 in Greenfield.
“Everything is getting more expensive. Real estate is getting more expensive, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, so we’re seeing these things, in specific ways, affecting property or people that own property. But I don’t think that this means that the tenants should be expected to absorb these costs at a disproportionate rate,” Sibbison-Alves said. “I’ve heard stories locally of landlords raising rent 30% overnight.”
Greenfield residents Stephanie Duclos and Ryan Whitney voiced their opposition to the resolution during Monday’s meeting, and said City Council should not vote on a resolution that does not reflect the will and beliefs of the entire city. Duclos added that rent control puts strain on the ability of landlords to make repairs and maintain properties.
“I’m wondering how you guys are vetting the endorsement of an entire city on a resolution. Do we have any other opinions that have been presented contrary to the resolution?” Duclos said. “In working in housing, I understand what the limitations are. … When we’re tapped on the other end, it really puts strain on maintenance departments because they don’t take it from the CDOs (collateralized debt obligations) or management. When they start squeezing budgets, they underfund maintenance departments, which then leads to poor quality of life for the tenants.”
She encouraged councilors to speak to landlords and maintenance departments for larger housing complexes before voting on the resolution.
The Community Relations Committee continued discussions, and considered the value of supporting state legislation allowing municipalities to opt in and choose what works for their community over a blanket ballot petition. Members ultimately voted to recommend the resolution as is, with support for both the state legislation and ballot petition.
The full City Council will hear the recommendation of the Community Relations Committee, and discuss and vote on the rent control resolution during the meeting set for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the John Zon Community Center.
