Why don’t they work?  Because they tend to discourage construction of new rental buildings. By restricting supply they make the market tighter and, perversely, increase the pressure to raise rents.  They also discourage landlords from maintaining or improving their properties - so the quality of the existing inventory declines.  And those outcomes are exactly the opposite of what we need to do here.  We do not have enough rental inventory in this state and the problem literally gets worse every day.  Our population is growing by 31 people every day.  Two thirds of that is natural growth: 21 more babies are born here every day than the number of people who die.  That’s 76,650 new locally born new residents in the next decade.  That’s why the state Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism has stated that we need roughly 65,000 new housing units in the next ten years and it’s why the Legislature this year resolved that we need 22,000 new affordable rental units by 2026.