Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is drawing criticism after announcing that she will vote in favor of a statewide rent control ballot question.

Wu made her position clear during an appearance on GBH’s “Boston Public Radio” this week.

“If this is still on the ballot by this fall, I am a ‘yes’ voting for it,” Wu said.

The proposed ballot measure would tie annual rent increases across Massachusetts to cost-of-living increases, with a hard annual cap of 5 percent. Owner-occupied buildings with four or fewer units would be exempt, along with newly constructed buildings during their first 10 years.

Wu previously pushed a rent control proposal in 2023 that would have capped annual increases at the Consumer Price Index plus 6 percent, or 10 percent, whichever was lower. Since Massachusetts voters enacted a statewide ban on rent control in 1994, the legislation would have required the state legislature to approve a home rule petition. Ultimately, that never happened.

The Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance sharply criticized Wu’s endorsement of the ballot question.

“Rent control does not make housing cheaper," Paul Diego Craney, executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, said in a press release. "It simply shifts the cost onto someone else, and homeowners are often the ones left holding the bill. Instead of fixing the policies that make Massachusetts too expensive to build, live, and do business in, Mayor Wu is backing a government-imposed rent control scheme that history shows will shrink housing supply, freeze development, and ultimately raise the cost of living for everyone in the state."

Craney pointed to recent data from Portland, Maine. A September 2025 analysis found that rent control policies in Portland reduced the city’s taxable property base by as much as 5.4 percent. According to the study, homeowners are now paying between $224 and $329 more in property taxes, with some facing increases of more than $2,000 over five years.

“That is the reality of rent control in practice," Craney said. "When investment dries up and property values are distorted, cities make up the difference by raising taxes on homeowners, retirees, and working families. Rent control becomes a hidden tax increase on people who can least afford it."

Supporters of the ballot measure argue that rising housing costs require action.

“I’m not going to let perfect be the enemy of the good in this case when there is so much urgency and pressure from housing costs on our residents,” Wu said.

The campaign backing the proposal, organized by Homes for All Massachusetts, says it collected more than 124,000 signatures, surpassing the 74,574 required to advance the measure.

Governor Maura Healey said in December that she would not support the proposal. She has argued that Massachusetts needs to build more housing and warned that rent control could slow construction.

The measure is now before the state legislature. Lawmakers can pass it, propose changes, or take no action. If they do not act, organizers must gather additional signatures in the spring to secure a spot on the November ballot.