Antonio Ennis, a 59-year-old Dorchester resident and small property owner, takes a different view than many landlords in the latest battle to overturn Massachusetts’ longtime ban on rent control.
Ennis said he has two tenants in the building where he also lives; one has lived there for 13 years, another for eight years. And he wants state residents and lawmakers to back a ballot question in 2026 that would limit yearly rent increases to inflation or 5%, whichever is lower.
“A landlord such as myself doesn’t want to be looking for a tenant every other month, every three months, every six months,” he said Tuesday at a rally on Beacon Hill in support of a proposed ballot question for next year. “You have a mortgage to pay, and the mortgage company doesn’t want to hear you don’t have any tenants right now, you can’t pay the mortgage.”…