City Nixes Rent Control Aid

In the absence of pro-tenant Councillor Francis H. Duehay '55, the City Council last night defeated a home rule petition designed to aid enforcement of the city's rent control ordinance.

At a special council session called by Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci, the council voted 4-3 not to send the petition to the state legislature. If passed by the both the council and the legislature, the measure would reinstate a 1981 law struck down last month by the Supreme Judicial Court.

But the measure will likely come up for reconsideration at next Monday's regular meeting, according to Councillor David E. Sullivan, the petition's sponsor. Although Vellucci abstained from last night's vote, he generally supports the rent control system. If joined by Vellucci and Duehay, Sullivan and the measure's supporters would have the five votes needed to send the petition to the State House.

The home rule petition, if passed by the city council and the state legislature, would circumvent the court ruling by giving Cambridge the jurisdiction to ban the sale of individual apartments from a block of housing.

Several councillors said that under the 1981 law, this power has been a critical factor preventing landlords from illegally removing apartments from rent control.

"It had been effective for eight and a half years and it had worked well," said Sullivan. "It had forced illegal condominium conversion to a halt."

Sullivan said conversion of rent-controlled apartments benefited college students from out of town, but harmed low- and moderate-income city residents.

Vice Mayor Alice K. Wolf said that passage of the petition would prevent "cheating" by property owners, which she said would result in the illegal conversion of thousands of rent-controlled units.

"The need for this ordinance is that people had violated the 1979 ban on condominium conversion," said Wolf.

But the petition faced stiff opposition from members of the Small Property Owners Association (SPOA), who said they should be allowed to sell individual rent-controlled apartments as they pleased. Several said that they were offended by Wolf's reference to "cheating."

"Our hands are tied, our feet are tied," said one SPOA representative. "We're on the ground and you people are still kicking us."

Several SPOA members also said that the petition should be rejected because it would prevent property owners from selling units to their children.

The council postponed action on a measure that would have partially addressed this problem by asking City Manager Robert W. Healy and the Rent Control Board to draft new regulatory language allowing landlords to bequeath individual units to their surviving heirs.