RACIAL INEQUITY in Massachusetts is largely attributable to discriminatory housing policies. High levels of segregation keep people of color from experiencing equal access to employment and educational opportunities, clean air and safe neighborhoods, and the chance to build equity in their home and pass it along to future generations. Reversing residential segregation is a tall […]
Housing
Posted inOpinion
The eye of a housing hurricane
WITH COVID-19 DEATHS and infections remaining low here, enhanced federal unemployment benefits continuing through July, and the state’s emergency freeze on evictions still in effect, it’s possible to believe that Massachusetts is rebounding better than the rest of the country. But this is only the eye of the hurricane. The second half of 2020 risks […]
Posted inUncategorized
What about the back rent?   
THE EXTENSION THIS week by Gov. Charlie Baker of a statewide eviction moratorium to mid-October provides two more months of breathing room for tenants. The eviction freeze, put in place in April to respond to the surge in unemployment from the coronavirus shutdown of the economy, had been due to expire on August 18. But as the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Baker extends eviction and foreclosure moratorium
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER is extending the statewide eviction and foreclosure moratorium by 60 days until October 17. The moratorium, put in place on April 20, was set to expire on August 18. The moratorium, enacted in response to the widespread economic dislocation caused by the coronavirus pandemic, suspends most residential and small business commercial evictions, […]
Posted inEconomy
Tenant purchase legislation could stave off displacement
FOR THE TIME BEING, the COVID-19 epidemic in Massachusetts has begun to wind down. However, even if we keep the virus under control, it has already has set in motion many drastic and longer lasting changes in our housing markets. One of the outcomes could well be a significant decline in real estate values, an […]
Posted inEconomy
New bill would extend eviction moratorium by a year
REVERE RESIDENT Dolores De Blass has lived in the same apartment for 11 years and never had a problem making the $2,000-a-month rent, but then COVID-19 came along. De Blass, her husband, her sister, son, and two daughters all tested positive in April. De Blass was in intensive care twice, and her sister was in a medically […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker pushes $35m more for economic recovery package
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Friday proposed a $35 million increase and other changes in an economic recovery package he filed pre-COVID-19. The expanded proposal, which now has a price tag of $275 million and came up for a legislative hearing Friday, will bolster housing, community development, and business competitiveness in an economic landscape dramatically altered […]
Posted inNews Analysis
A new housing crisis for Massachusetts?
FACED WITH COMPOUNDING economic challenges, many renters in Massachusetts are struggling to keep up with monthly rent payments, raising the specter of a spike in evictions when the moratorium expires in August. Between April and June, 29 percent of those surveyed in a recent poll were unable to pay at least part of their rent […]
Posted inUncategorized
Two landlords challenge eviction moratorium law
TWO LANDLORDS have filed an emergency petition with the Supreme Judicial Court challenging the state’s temporary moratorium on eviction foreclosures. In April, the Legislature passed and Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law a moratorium banning evictions and some foreclosures during the coronavirus pandemic. The bill was passed over the objection of landlords who worried that […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Housing panel backs 2 rent control bills
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A Beacon Hill committee has endorsed two bills that would clear the way for rent control to return to Massachusetts more than two-and-a-half decades after voters narrowly banned the practice statewide. The Joint Committee on Housing favorably recommended the legislation on Thursday, advancing it with support from three-quarters of its members […]