Natale, who is SPOA's legal defense fund coordinator, is not the only SPOA member excited about the lawsuit.

At a recent SPOA meeting, the lawsuit was on every landlord's lips, and it seemed as if all the landlords had different opinions on just how to move ahead with the suit.

The suit reflects SPOA's growing grassroots political power: the suit is very much the product of a team effort from middle and lower-income individuals. For more than a year, SPOA steering committee members have been campaigning for small contributions and a $20 membership fee from each member of SPOA. Natale, Jillson and others have met with lawyers and professors, and broad strategies have been mapped out across kitchen tables and in 50-person public debates.

So far, Jillson says, the group has raised $57,000 towards paying for legal fees. She estimates the group will need at least $100,000 to pay for lawyers for a three-year battle to the Supreme Court. The group will approach some of Cambridge's larger landlords for contributions soon, she says.

Over the past five years, the group has grown from a handful of disgruntled landlords to a militant political and educational organization with a membership between 1500 and 2000, Jillson says, adding that the group "grows larger every day."

"We would have preferred not to go this route because it's expensive, it's risky," she says of the suit, which is SPOA's most ambitious attack on the system yet. "Most of us operate with a negative cash flow."

"This would have never happened had the city been willing to make reforms. It's that kind of absurdity that led us to this," she says. "Now that this suit is filed hopefully they'll realize we are credible and we are determined."

The lawsuit is the latest-and possibly the broadest-challenge in the seemingly endless series of political and legal attacks on Cambridge's system. It reflects a tide of decontrol slowly sweeping rent regulating communities across the state and nation.