Massachusetts voters won’t have the chance to weigh in on a proposed statewide rent control measure this November after the Supreme Judicial Court ruled the ballot question violated constitutional restrictions governing citizen initiatives.
In a decision issued Tuesday, the state’s highest court found that the proposed measure improperly related to religion because it exempted housing units in facilities operated solely for religious purposes. Under the Massachusetts Constitution, ballot initiatives cannot concern certain excluded subjects, including religion and religious institutions.
“The petition … concerns a generally secular subject matter — rent control,” Justice Frank Gaziano wrote for the court. “But, by including an express exemption for facilities operated solely for religious purposes, the petition impermissibly makes religion ‘a factor in [the petition’s] application.’”
The proposed initiative sought to repeal Massachusetts’ longstanding ban on rent control and replace it with a statewide cap limiting annual rent increases to the Consumer Price Index or 5%, whichever was lower.
The court’s ruling prevents the measure from appearing on the November 2026 ballot.
The decision comes as housing affordability remains a major concern across Massachusetts, including Worcester, where rising rents and a limited housing supply have fueled debate over how best to address the state’s housing shortage. According to rental market data compiled by RentCafe, the average apartment rent in Worcester reached $2,085 this month, up 2.2% from a year ago. The data shows average rents of $1,922 for a one-bedroom apartment and $2,169 for a two-bedroom unit.
In an interview with the Worcester Guardian, City Manager Eric Batista said the city’s strategy is centered on increasing the housing supply while also pursuing different types of housing to meet different needs.
“We want to continue to produce more housing in the city,” Batista said. “We want to work with every partner and look at every option available to increase that supply, so we know that increasing the supply impacts the affordability, but we also know that we need to provide different options for that supply, whether it’s home ownership, whether it’s condos, whether it’s senior housing, whether it’s market rate, a little bit of everything.”
Batista said the scale of the housing crisis requires more than one policy or one level of government.
“When you see the issue nationwide, you start to see that it’s not a singular issue, or it’s not a singular solution, for lack of better terms, to resolve the issue,” Batista said. “It requires multiple stakeholders, multiple parties, but it requires our ability to think differently and provide new ideas and ways in which we can increase the supply of housing so that it meets the demands of our community.”
Worcester’s housing production plan calls for approximately 12,000 additional units over the next decade or more, Batista said. Reaching that target would require the city to produce roughly 1,000 units annually.
“Yes, it’s an ambitious number, but I think it’s also a number that, if you think about it, break it down annually, 1,000 annually, I think it could be attainable,” Batista said.
The obstacles, he said, include the cost of labor and materials, interest rates and the difficulty developers face assembling financing for large projects.
“Last year we had over 500 units that we were able to bring online, with many more coming,” Batista said. “But as you know, 500 doesn’t get us to the 1,000. That’s half.”
He said the city is pursuing housing production on several fronts, including working to preserve three-decker housing at affordable rates, supporting smaller developers through the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and using inclusionary zoning policies to retain affordable units as new projects are built.
Batista also pointed to several developments underway or in the pipeline, including residential construction in the Polar Park district, a nearly 200-unit project across the street, redevelopment of the former Table Talk Pies property and the conversion of the former Fallon building downtown into approximately 198 housing units. He also cited 22 affordable condominiums planned downtown and a development of nearly 370 units on Franklin Street.
“We have a number of units, not only downtown, but across the entire city, that are coming online,” Batista said. “Some are in different phases of the project, and our job is to make sure that we facilitate the support as much as possible to get these units open and ready to go.”
In a statement following the court ruling, the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce also argued that increasing housing production remains the most effective solution to the affordability crisis.
“The chamber opposed this rent control ballot measure on multiple fronts because of the significant harm it inflicts on the housing development pipeline across Worcester and Central Mass.,” the organization said.
The chamber noted that roughly 54% of Worcester residents are renters and cited its own housing research showing demand continues to outpace supply.
According to the Chamber, Worcester experienced a shortfall of approximately 650 rental units between 2010 and 2017. The organization also pointed to more than 1,600 housing units currently under construction in the city and another 3,000 units in the development pipeline.
“Our data proves that prioritizing production works,” the Chamber said. “With over 3,800 rental units created in the past 15 years, rents in Worcester are beginning to flatten due to the recent increase in incoming supply.”
Batista similarly said the city has seen rents stabilize over the past two quarters as more housing has come online, but cautioned that housing costs are only one part of the financial pressure facing residents.
“Affordability still remains a challenge in our community and across the state as well,” Batista said. “Housing is the number one challenge, right, in terms of affordability, but when you add pressures of, you know, the gas going up and the utility bills going up, the groceries going up, those things also impact.”
The city’s job, Batista said, is to continue producing housing in hopes of stabilizing rents and preventing the steep increases residents have experienced in recent years.
“It’s something that we can’t take the foot off the pedal,” Batista said. “We got to continue moving forward, we got to continue working at it as a city, as a community.”
Asked about the court’s removal of the rent control measure from the ballot, Batista did not frame his response around the legal decision itself but reiterated his position that production is the city’s preferred approach to the housing crisis.
“I feel strongly that the best way to approach the housing crisis that we have is to increase our production,” Batista said. “There’s sometimes policies that restrict that or impact the ability to produce, and right now our primary focus is production as a city.”
Batista said existing programs have helped Worcester expand its housing toolbox, pointing to the state’s Affordable Homes Act, Community Preservation Act funding, home repair and lead abatement programs, and the city’s expansion of down payment assistance.
“Every little thing that we can add to that toolbox improves our ability as a city to produce and produce at a high level,” Batista said. “I think we in Worcester should be proud of that. I know that oftentimes it may not seem like it, or it may seem like we’re just not moving fast enough, but if you compare it to any community across the entire state, I feel pretty confident that we can compete, if not be at the highest levels.”
At the same time, Batista said policymakers must remain alert to the unintended consequences of regulations that may slow housing construction.
“Policies are great, and these regulations are more, but we also need to be mindful that it doesn’t impact the speed in terms of which we need to develop, not only as a state, as a city, but as a country,” Batista said.
“This ballot initiative, which would have devastated housing investment and local taxpayers, fell on clear constitutional grounds,” Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios said in a statement. “Pioneer assembled a compelling body of evidence showing that rent control restricts housing supply, and our Legal Foundation identified additional constitutional defects that any future rent control proposal would have to overcome.”
Supporters of the rent control proposal expressed disappointment with the ruling but indicated they intend to continue pursuing tenant protections.
According to State House News Service, Noemi “Mimi” Ramos, executive director of New England Community Project and chair of the Keep Massachusetts Home campaign, said the court’s decision was “a massive disappointment” but argued that the issue identified by the justices could be addressed without changing the proposal’s broader goals.
The rent control question was one of several proposed ballot measures that faced legal scrutiny before reaching voters. Other ballot questions concerning recreational marijuana and election procedures survived legal challenges and remain on track for the November ballot.
For Worcester, the debate highlights a question city leaders, housing advocates and developers continue to wrestle with: whether the region’s affordability challenges are best addressed through new tenant protections, expanded housing construction, or some combination of both.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to include additional reporting and comments from Worcester City Manager Eric Batista.
The Worcester Guardian has reached out for comment from city officials and local housing leaders and will update this story as additional responses are received.
