EASTHAMPTON — When Leslie Sharr came home to Pleasant View Apartments one day in November to find a notice taped to her door alerting her that she could either sign a new lease with a staggering rent increase or alert the new owners of her intent to leave, she immediately started researching the legality of the situation.

“When we first got our letter, I would say we were all surprised,” she said. For many tenants, she noted, the increase in rent presented in the letter was about 35% to 40%.

But what she found wasn’t encouraging. Between rent increases implemented by Pleasant View’s previous owners, the new increases introduced with the sale of the complex in November, and the lack of rent increase controls, Sharr said her rent between February of 2024 and February of 2025 went up 51%, “and there is absolutely nothing anyone can do about it.”

But a piece of legislation sitting on Beacon Hill has offered potential hope for Sharr and her fellow Pleasant View tenants.

Sharr, 76, who has lived in her apartment at Pleasant View with her 89-year-old husband for about 11 years, began to organize alongside other tenants around this legislation, titled An Act Enabling Cities and Towns to Stabilize Rents and Protect Tenants (HD.2501/SD.1084). The proposed legislation is a local option that would impose a limit on annual rent increases and require that evictions be based on defined, just cause reasons within certain dwelling units within a municipality.

State Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, is a petitioner on the current House version of the bill because situations like the one at Pleasant View Apartments are something she sees frequently throughout her district as well. In Northampton and beyond, Sabadosa said she consistently hears of constituents having to make tough decisions about their living situations, often being forced into much less stable circumstances because of untenable rent increases.

“But they aren’t seeing any improvements to the property, there haven’t really been any changes,” which is commonly the case with such rent increases, she said.

If this bill were to pass, she said, tenants would have a better understanding of how much their rent would go up each year, and the limits placed on those increases would make for less jarring spikes in rent.

But Sabadosa made clear, “it isn’t a rent control bill, it’s a stabilization bill,” and the goal of the bill is “to give equity to both the landlords and the tenants.”

Sabadosa explained that where a rent control bill would place a cap on rent amounts, which can be harmful to landlords, this bill proposes a limit in the percentage of rent amount increases year to year.

When she was a renter herself, Sabadosa recalled that knowing how much her rent was going to increase each year was of major help.

The 33-unit Pleasant View Apartments complex was purchased for $4 million in November of 2024 by Pleasantview Residences LLC, according to the Hampshire Registry of Deeds. Since then, management of the property has also been assumed by a new company, A Better Way.

Notice of the rent increases came on Nov. 18, “right before Thanksgiving, so great timing,” said tenant Tom Berube. Tenants were given until Dec. 4 to accept or decline a new one-year lease at the updated rent amount of $1,550.

This startling change and short window of decision-making time was enough to mobilize a vocal core group of tenants, who got involved with the grassroots advocacy group Springfield No One Leaves, which focuses its efforts on displacements caused by the housing crisis.

But according to Berube, organizing has been tough, as tenants at Pleasant View have been more concerned with either scraping together their rent money or looking for a new place to live. In many cases, because of competitive grappling for housing in Easthampton and surrounding communities, they’re doing both.

For tenant Nancy Dorian, the rent increase was roughly $400. While she has been feeling the squeeze of the increase and looking for somewhere else in Easthampton to live, Dorian said that a shortage of affordable housing is a major issue in the city, and that there simply isn’t anywhere to go.

“I think a lot of people want to move, but there’s nowhere to move,” Dorian said, referring to her fellow tenants. “I’ve been looking.”

Dorian said that a few of her neighbors have moved out since the increase, but others are finding ways to make it work for now.

Alexa Lewis can be reached at alewis@gazettenet.com.