"Even though a significant number of our members gained protected status, the effect has been devastating," Turk says.

"Some have been forced to move or to leave Cambridge altogether," he says. "It's one situation when you have the option to move; it's another when it is forced upon you."

Turk says the higher rates are "impossible for many low- and middle-class families to afford" and that some families have had to find second jobs to pay their rent.

JoAnne Preston, chair of the Agassiz Tenants' Association, says that there have been dire civic ramifications associated with rent control's repeal.

"Rent control is a way of trying to protect a very scarce commodity, to preserve communities, to allow people to continue to live in their homes," Preston says.

Current tenants will be replaced by students, visiting scholars and "transient yuppies" who have no interest in the larger Cambridge community, according to Preston.

Landlords Pleased

But Maddox and other property owners say that rent-control supporters exaggerate their claims about eviction rates, rent hikes and community debilitation.

"The tenants are not evicted," he says. "They're just subject to an increase in rent."

Even supporters of rent control concede that few Cantabrigians have had to move from their homes, according to Maddox.

Schloming says she is "overjoyed" by rent control's death because she felt the policy protected citizens who should not qualify for assistance.

"Under 10 percent of rent-control tenants are actually poor," she says.

Schloming says she also opposes rent control because it forces property owners to shoulder the burdens for lower-income residents.

"They'd better stop asking me to fund [tenants,]" she says. "I just don't think there are that many [poor] people.

And Maddox adds that landlords will be less likely to repair housing units that yield below-market rents.