Healy Prepares Attack Against Rent Control

Preparing for a possible abolition of rent control, City Manager Robert W. Healy last week submitted a three part plan to moderate the impact of ending rent control.

Healy's report, issued last Monday, details legislative and legal strategies the city could take if voters approve Question 9, which would kill rent control after 24 years in Cambridge. The issue will be decided in a state-wide referendum on November 8.

In the most drastic section of the plan, the council would petition the state to completely reinstate rent control in its present form in effect undoing the state referendum. About 16,000 housing units in Cambridge are covered by rent control.

Healy's plan also calls for "vacancy decontrol," which would remove an apartment's sent-control status only after its occupant had left, not on January 1, when Question 9 would take effect.

Healy's final proposal would reinstate the existing rent-control system with major modifications. Among other changes, the modifications would shorten the processing time of rent-control law suits.

If passed by the council, the petition would take effect only if approved by the Massachusetts State Legislature and Gov. William F. Weld '66.

Healy said the city would have to choose one of the three plans based on what is most likely to be passed by the legislature.

He said the council might ask the state legislature to delay the starting date of Question 9, if it is approved by the voters, to allow consideration of home-rule petitions from Cambridge, Boston and Brookline.

Cambridge might also pursue legal action to block the abolition of rent control, the report said. The city may seek a court injunction to temporarily prevent the act from taking effect.

But the Supreme Judicial Court struck down a constitutional challenge to Question 9 this summer, signaling that it might not look favorably upon other attempts to block the legislation if passed.

The rent control issue has generated furious debate since Jon R. Maddox, a Cambridge landowner, introduced the proposed Massachusetts Rent Control Prohibition Act in August 1993.

And the city manager's proposals have sparked emotional reactions at the last two City Council meetings.

"You must do everything you can to make sure Question 9 is defeated, first and foremost" said Nell Rohr, a member of Save Our Communities Coalition, which supports rent control.

Lenore M. Schloming '59, a director of the Small Property Owners Association (SPOA), which has led the fight against rent control, disagreed.

"What bothers me the most about Healy's report is the thought of re-imposing the present rent-control system," she told the council last night.

If they must do something, vacancy decontrol would be the least damaging to the city," Schloming said.