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The Massachusetts courts are now recruiting retired judges to help process 100,000 evictions when the moratorium expires on Oct. 17. Health experts warn this will lead to many more deaths. We need to pass the #COVID19 Housing Stability Act now! https://www.wbur.org/news/2020/10/08/eviction-moratorium-renters-crisis-federal-funds-courts
The effort to do something can be viewed as being in two camps. On the one hand, we have landlord groups, real estate industry groups, certain professional housing advocates, and the Baker Administration all suggesting it’s okay if evictions start to resume on October 17...
On the other hand, we have Black-led, People of Color-led, and working class-led housing justice organizations and legal service advocates who understand no plan to restart the eviction process next week, no matter how well intentioned, could actually protect public health...
And that’s because — even if Gov. Baker allocates some of the hundreds of millions of CARES Act funds that our state has laying around toward programs like RAFT, many thousands of our most vulnerable tenants will undoubtedly fall through the cracks of the legal system...
And even if we succeed in winning a right to counsel for tenants facing eviction — and we desperately need to win that right — it will still take months for a comprehensive public information campaign to let tenants know about rent relief programs and ways to access legal help.
That’s why our #HomesForAll movement is rallying around the only comprehensive plan that was drafted in partnership with the people most impacted by the pandemic and the ongoing housing emergency — the #COVID19 Housing Stability Act. https://www.repmikeconnolly.org/housing_committee_votes_favorably_covid-19_guarenteed_housing_stability_act
We’re out here in #CambMA this afternoon rallying for the #COVID19 Housing Stability Act (and a future of guaranteed #HousingForAll) with @Boston_DSA and @BDSA_Housing, et al.
Tomorrow at 11 am, we will be in #Somerville’s Union Square with @SenJehlen and @CAASomerville to demand a #HousingGuaranteeMA and then we will march to @SomervilleCity Hall. Visit http://tinyurl.com/Somerville-H4A to learn more!
Then at 2 pm tomorrow, we will be on Boston Common with @CityLife_Clvu and the #HomesForAll coalition for a rally to #PreventMassEvictions & foreclosures. RSVP via Facebook: https://fb.me/e/fPiYgVQQL
You can help with the advocacy and connect with the work of our grassroots housing justice coalition via this page https://www.housingguarantee.org
And connect with my own ongoing efforts to bring the voice of renters into the State House via this page http://www.rentfreeze.org
Finally, we are closing in on 5,000 grassroots supporters for our agenda of guaranteed housing stability. Join our movement via this petition https://www.housingguarantee.org/petition_covid19
