Judy VanIngen, like many Cambridge residents who live in one of the city's 17,000 rent-controlled apartments, puts little stock in claims that Proposition 1-2-3 is designed for her benefit.

"Proposition 1-2-3 will end rent control forever," VanIngen says. "If rent control goes out, I'm sure my landlord can get $1200 for my apartment and I don't know what I'll do."

But according to Mari E. Morgan and other Cambridge property owners, 1-2-3 would offer those same Cambridge residents a fair shot at home ownership, an opportunity they lack under current rent control policies.

"If a tenant is living in a condominium and he wants to buy it and the landlord wants to sell it, then I don't see any reason why he shouldn't be able to," Morgan says.

Those arguments--and the faces behind them--will be on the minds of Cambridge voters today when they pass final judgment on Proposition 1-2-3, the latest referendum on rent control in Cambridge.

If voters approve 1-2-3, rent-control tenants will be eligible to purchase their apartments after living in them for at least two years. That would mark the most fundamental change in Cambridge rent control policy, which currently sets ceilings on rent levels throughout the city, since its inception nearly 20 years ago.

More importantly for the people who now live in those apartments, however, is the effect they think 1-2-3 will have on their lives.

"I certainly don't want Proposition 1-2-3 to be passed," says one 50-year Cambridge resident. "I need to be in a rent control apartment because I'm on a limited income and Social Security."

Those opposed to the proposition claim that it would decrease the number of available rent control apartments in Cambridge, foroing many low-income tenants out of the area.

"Most people living in this building cannot afford to live in Cambridge without rent control," says Grace H. Smith, who has lived in the same apartment on Chauncy St. for about 50 years.

At the very least, many tenants say, 1-2-3's passage would give landlords more leverage over their tenants.

"Landlords have the right to put in whoever they want and they'll put in people who have the money to buy the apartment," says Amy J. Fripp. "I don't think most people can afford to buy their apartments."

Even worse, some residents say, 1-2-3 will allow real estate investors to wield greater financial influence, forcing low-income earners out of the apartments so they can woo wealthy potential buyers.

"The greedy real estate people will make us offers and get us to sell," VanIngen says. "If you're a poor family and someone offers you $3000 to move that sounds great. But you have to have somewhere to move to."

And that, many fear, would take away from Cambridge's unique character.