After surviving challenge, backers say Portland rent control law will help tenants stay afloat
After a judge earlier this month denied a motion to block a rent control ordinance passed by Portland voters in November, advocates celebrated the decision as an important outcome for tenants but said more must be done to ensure the law is followed and renters are able to afford and access housing in Maine’s largest city.
The ordinance, approved by a strong majority of Portland voters in November along with a slate of other progressive reforms, seeks to stabilize the city’s rising rental prices. Such increases in housing costs have been mirrored at the state and national levels, with a recent report finding a large difference between the wages of tenants in Maine — and many other states — and the income needed to afford a modest apartment. Lawmakers in Maine have started attempting to address such issues through a slate of affordable housing legislation, including a bill advocates are hoping the legislature funds that would provide money to build affordable, energy-efficient housing units over the next two years.
In Portland, the new rent control law makes a number of changes, including stipulating that most tenants’ rent at the beginning of January 2021 be equal to the amount changed in June 2020. In addition, the ordinance mandates that rents can only be raised once a year and cannot go up by more than 10%. The law also provides protections for tenants who have never signed a lease by mandating that landlords give a 90-day notice for evictions of such people, bars landlords from refusing to rent to those receiving assistance such as Section 8 vouchers, and establishes a rent board to mediate disputes and consider rent increase requests.
‘It’s time for landlords to stand down’
Many landlords opposed the new rules, and the Southern Maine Landlord Association sued the city in an attempt to block implementation of the law. However, Superior Court Justice MaryGay Kennedy denied that motion in a decision that came on the heels of a court ruling upholding the constitutionality of a separate ordinance passed by Portland voters in November to boost wages during emergencies by providing hazard pay. That ordinance also increased the city’s minimum wage.