JUNE 2026 UPDATE

Unfortunately, after nearly a year of Massachusetts organizations mobilizing around a rent control ballot initiative led by the Keep Massachussetts Home Campaign, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the ballot question cannot appear on this year’s ballot.

The court said its ruling was due to the ballot question exempting religious facilities, and the Massachusetts Constitution states that “a petition is excluded from the initiative petition process if it… relates to religion, religious practices or religious institutions.”

We agree with our fellow organizers that this ruling is a technicality. We also know that our opponents were frightened by how effectively we organized around this issue. Keep Massachusetts Home through its many affiliate organizations (including RG Boston!) collected more than 124,000 signatures in the first round of signature collection last fall and more than 25,000 signatures in the second round this spring, making this the state’s largest grassroots ballot signature gathering campaign this election cycle.

While we’re extremely disappointed and angry, we also have so much to be proud of. This campaign brought together scores of MA organizations, who demonstrated their collective power by zeroing in on one issue.

In RG Boston, we were part of the signature collection effort and fundraising effort: we collected over 600 signatures and raised over $40,000. Thank you to our wonderful chapter members and friends and family who made that possible. We firmly believe none of that was a waste: this campaign garnered media attention, government attention, and the fury of our opponents. We are a force to be reckoned with. When the time comes to remobilize around housing justice, we will be ready to move and build, strengthened by our efforts up to this point.

Thank you to everyone who got us here. We have so many wins ahead of us.