Major Update: Signatures Certified, Rent Control Advances Toward Ballot!
The Keep Mass Home campaign moves forward, and CLVU members are excited to win rent control. Join us!
We’re Moving Forward Toward Rent Control on the 2026 Massachusetts Ballot!
We have an exciting rent control update:
On Tuesday, December 2nd, the statewide Keep Mass Home campaign, with volunteers led by ally groups across Massachusetts, turned in signatures to the Massachusetts Secretary of State. The campaign hoped to get 75,000 of the 124,000 signatures we collected from voters officially certified to move forward – and we found out over the holidays that we got far more certified than needed! The CLVU community collected and contributed over 8,000 of these signatures from September-November, with groups from across the state collecting and adding to the total number!
CLVU organizers, staff and members joined with the statewide campaign at a celebratory signature turn-in event in December. Bob, a Dorchester resident and CLVU member, spoke to the crowd a bout his experience collecting signatures: “I talked with many voters who are facing excessive and exorbitant rent hikes from corporate landlords. Many shared they had already been displaced from their home recently or had to move in with family or roommates to afford rent.“
Dorchester organizer Antonio, who is also an owner-occupied landlord, added: “It’s the only shot right now at allowing people to not have to choose between a rent increase and their medical bills, the food in their refrigerators, the clothes on their backs, their health care and children”. You can get a better sense of how pumped up the crowd was at the event by this excerpt from a Newton Beacon article by Tori Torres detailing CLVU Organizer Antonio’s chanting with the crowd:
The responses grew louder each time Dorchester resident Antonio Ennis started a new chant in the small meeting room inside Church on the Hill. “What do we want?” Ennis called out, rousing the crowd.
“Rent control!” dozens of Massachusetts residents roared back.
“When do we want it?” Ennis prompted.
“Now!” the crowd shouted back.
“And if we don’t get it?” Ennis questioned.
“Shut it down!” their voices boomed, echoing off the walls.
A True Grassroots Community Effort
Grassroots volunteers drove this signature-gathering campaign! Keep Massachusetts Home got it done with a huge collective effort– and the CLVU community was out there helping make it happen! Thank you so much to everyone who put in the work to help reach this historic milestone. Here is a look back at just some of the many, many days and even more shifts of community leaders volunteering for rent control:
GET INVOLVED!
The first step is cleared – but we have a LONG way to go! We have a lot of work to do through the next phases of the campaign until November 2026.
Our communities, and vulnerable people and entire populations around the globe are facing violence, hatred, the effects of imperialism, white supremacy and corporate greed in a very real and devastating way already this year. Building community, talking to neighbors, and fighting back together is extremely important. There are many opportunities and ways to do this (follow CLVU’s Instagram, where we share posts and information from ally groups fighting for justice). The rent control campaign is one way to connect with neighbors and other Massachusetts residents, building community in your neighborhood and across the state, and growing a multiracial grassroots effort that the far right and corporate real estate executives would rather see disappear. Here’s how to plug in:
Sign up for CLVU action alerts to get new emails from us about upcoming events, actions, etc. related to rent control!
Join the Keep Massachusetts Home campaign list to receive notices about trainings and events happening across the whole state.
Follow the new Keep Mass Home Instagram account.
We'll need to collect another (smaller) set of signatures in May and June (yes, more signature collecting :] ) to put rent control on the ballot in November 2026— stay tuned for information on trainings! It’s time to stabilize our communities and keep our neighbors in their homes.
