When members of the city's Rent Control Board sit down Wednesday to consider allowing condominium conversion in buildings on Linnaean St. and Washington Ave., they could defuse or aggravate the housing brouhaha currently boiling in the city council.

The board might decide to grant removal permits for the apartments, allowing tenants to purchase them as condominiums. If they grant the permits, it might in turn persuade councillor Alfred E. Vellucci--the swing vote on all housing issues--to let the matter drop. "I'm just trying to help these people who've gotten themselves in trouble," he insisted at last night's council meeting.

But the board could also decide to deny the permits. If they do, Vellucci might well vote for an amendment to the city's condo control ordinance which would specifically exempt the buildings, an amendment that, by singling out some buildings for special treatment, could undermine the legality of the entire ordinance restricting condo conversion.

And so, though they won't admit it publicly, tenants and landlords may be hoping for just the sort of outcome they usually oppose. Tenants rights activists like David Sullivan understand that the loss of two buildings could help save many more by defusing the situation (the two buildings also contributed much of the vaunted "condo vote" in this month's city elections).

And traditional friends of landlords may actually be wishing that the conversion permits are denied: that action could create a cause celebre, and perhaps generate enough furor to keep the condo issue alive and perhaps overturn the entire ordinance.

If the rent board acts this week, the city council could reconsider its policy statement in favor of granting the removal permits at next week's meeting; if the rent board members don't act, or if they deny the application for permits, then the chances that the council will actually amend the ordinance to include exempting for the two buildings will improve dramatically. And once that momentum is established, it might carry over into other votes on other housing issues.