Nearly two years after a state-wide referendum abolished rent control in Massachusetts cities, including Cambridge, the government's protective provisions have finally reached their end.

Roughly 1,500 of the city's low-income households were granted a 24-month long rent control extension in 1994.

But on Tuesday this "protected status" expired, leaving future prospects for residents like Gretna J. Bohn-Hayden rather grim.

Bohn-Hayden, who is disabled and was once homeless, fears that a rent increase will leave her no choice but to live out of her car again.

"I received an offer from the landlord that would terminate in August and it was more than what my supplemental income could cover," Bohn-Hayden said. "I know that I can survive [homelessness], not that it's easy, but I worry about a lot of other people, especially the elderly."

Grass-roots tenants unions, like the Campaign to Save 2,000 Homes, are attempting to conduct negotiations with landlords to avoid immediate or drastic rent increases.

"Some landlords aren't responding at all," said Julie Geanakakis, a steering committee member of the Campaign to Save 2,000 Homes. "There is no willingness to negotiate or put anything in writing."

With the threat of possible eviction looming large, many tenants have already begun moving out of their apartments.

"Driving around Cambridge last night, I saw an awful lot of moving vans," Bohn-Hayden said.

In Boston, 11 tenants who stand to pay rent increases ranging from 45 to 91 percent or face eviction took their case before a judge yesterday.

The judge did not rule in the case, but ordered the tenants and the landlord to negotiate a settlement by next week.

The judge, however, criticized the rent hike.

"You can't just make that Herculean jump," Boston Housing Court Judge E. George Daher told The Associated Press. "Can't you have some sort of gradation, a slow increase of rents?"

As the largest rent control landlord in Cambridge, Harvard housing officials said they are doing their part to alleviate the city's housing crisis.

Last April, Harvard Planning and Real Estate (HPRE) initiated its own protective extension for 78 of its 700 affiliates.