Fears Persecution

One woman who has been living illegally in her own condominium for about six years said she fears prosecution and is afraid to apply for a permit. "If I apply to the board for a permit, I could be persecuted," she said.

The general counsel to the Cambridge Rent Control Board said violators are not prosecuted.

The other bill discussed was House 2259, which says that Cambridge should be forced to prove on a yearly basis that there is a housing emergency. The assumption that there is a housing emergency is one of the underlying bases of rent control.

Salim A.T. Kabawat, who spoke on behalf of the bills, said the only reason rent control advocates would have for opposing this bill was fear of discovering that a housing emergency no longer exists. If there is a housing emergency, he said, "It could be interpreted as a pro-rent control bill."

Supporters of the rent control system said that re-certifying every year would make rent control more bureaucratic.

But Hong Liu, who bought a rent control rooming house when she came to the U.S. to get her Ph.D. in economics, said rent control is already too bureaucratic.

"Rent control is bureaucracy. It is distortion. It's a handout to the poor. The government should support the poor, not the property owners," Liu said.

However, tenants of rent controlled apartments said they and their friends would be homeless if rent control were eliminated.

Laurence McKinney said the city would lose character and diversity if rent control were abolished. McKinney, who said that despite being a graduate of the Harvard Business School he has never been able to earn more than $15,000 per year, said, "People like me make Cambridge."

Rushing said he would recommend that the committee not take action on the other two bills today since there is another bill on rent control working its way through the system. It should reach the committee in about a week