Massachusetts tenants/landlords: You are in EVICTION FREE ZONE
There is legislation now at the State House that would protect tenants from eviction for failure to pay rent if affected by COVID-19, and would protect small landlords from foreclosure. Please read closely, it is a good bill with many nuances.
If you can, call or email your legislator and urge him or her to support HD5166, the COVID-19 Housing Stability Act to extend the eviction and foreclosure moratorium in Massachusetts.
MissionSAFE stands with its families and neighbors in this difficult time.
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Dear Colleagues,
The Legislature must pass legislation by July 31 to extend the Eviction and Foreclosure Moratorium law that otherwise expires August 18.
Absentee landlords are making lots of calls to Legislators who are telling us they are getting few calls on from our side from tenants and homeowners.
The new bill, see below, extends the moratorium for the large number of people unemployed and underemployed because of COVID-19 with some other tenant protections. Housing Court staff predict landlords would file 20,000 eviction cases soon after August 18 if the Moratorium ends.
**Ask of Legislators
1. Tell your State Representative that you support HD5166, the COVID-19 Housing Stability Act to extend the eviction and foreclosure moratorium.
Ask your State Representative if he/she will speak to Speaker DeLeo on having a vote before July 31 to pass HD5166 to extend the Eviction and Foreclosure Moratorium for those unemployed or underemployed because of COVID-19.
2. Tell your State Senator that you support SD2992, the COVID-19 Housing Stability Act to extend the eviction and foreclosure moratorium.
Ask your State Senator if he/she will speak to Speaker DeLeo on having a vote before July 31 to pass SD2992 to extend the Eviction and Foreclosure Moratorium for those unemployed or underemployed because of COVID-19.
More background is below.
Thanks, Lew Finfer MA Communities Action Network (617) 470-2912 and on behalf of the Homes for All Coalition
89 legislators who have co-sponsored our bill, HD.5166/SD.2992, An Act to guarantee housing stability during the COVID-19 emergency and recovery, i.e. “the COVID-19 Housing Stability Act.”
In this email, we will seek to further highlight the urgent need for this bill and help answer some frequently asked questions. We will also seek to correct the record regarding some misinformation that has been distributed to some landlords.
As you know, the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures that we enacted back in April has been recognized as a nation-leading policy for COVID-19 and housing stability. However, these eviction and foreclosure protections are set to expire on August 18. Over the past several weeks, we’ve seen many reminders of the need to take further action to ensure housing stability for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency and recovery.
Consider the following:
● 75% of Massachusetts residents support an extension of the Eviction Moratorium, according to MassINC.
● 32% of U.S. households missed their July housing payment, according to CNBC.
● Just 21% of Massachusetts renters who have missed a rent payment since the emergency began say they are “very likely” to be caught up by August.
● City Life/Vida Urbana and MIT researchers recently issued a report warning of a “tsunami of evictions” that will disproportionately impact Black people and communities of color.
● Senator Elizabeth Warren recently introduced the Protecting Renters From Evictions and Fees Act, which would create a national moratorium on evictions for virtually all renters that would last until March 27, 2021.
● WinnCompanies and the Boston Housing Authority both recently announced they are unilaterally extending the eviction moratorium for their tenants.
● Suffolk University Law School recently reported on an investigation showing racial discrimination in housing is “egregious” and “outrageously high” in the Greater Boston area.
Our bill seeks to address the need for continued housing stability by offering protections and relief to all concerned — tenants, homeowners, and landlords.
Drafting of the bill was driven by housing justice organizers and attorneys from Greater Boston Legal Services and the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. These advocates work with tenants, homeowners, and small landlords on a daily basis. At present, over 200 advocacy groups, labor unions, and faith-based organizations have endorsed our bill, including the Massachusetts Association of Community Development Corporations, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, and the four Roman Catholic Bishops of Massachusetts, just to name a few.
Highlights of our bill include:
● Eviction Protection — our bill proposes to extend eviction protections for COVID-impacted tenants by ensuring tenants who missed rent due to a COVID-related reason during the emergency and for one year after the emergency ends cannot be evicted on that basis. The scope here is narrower than the current Eviction Moratorium law, in that this proposal for extended protection would apply only to COVID-impacted tenants. As with the current Eviction Moratorium, allegations of criminal activity or lease violations that impact health and safety would continue to be cause for eviction under our proposal.
● Housing Stability — our bill further proposes to maintain rents at the levels they were at on March 10, 2020, and establishes “just cause” eviction protections. Owner-occupant landlords in residential properties of 4 units or less would be exempt from these additional housing stability protections.
● Foreclosure Protection — our bill proposes to extend the Foreclosure Moratorium for the duration of the State of Emergency and for one year after the emergency ends. The current moratorium on foreclosures is also due to expire on August 18 unless further action is taken.
● Mortgage Forbearance — our bill proposes to extend the duration of mortgage forbearance (i.e. deferment) for an additional six months. Furthermore, we propose to expand the forbearance provision by making it available to all COVID-impacted homeowners and landlords with up to 15 units of rental housing, and we explicitly authorize the Attorney General and the Division of Banks to issue regulations to ensure all banks and servicers comply with these expanded forbearance protections.
● Housing Court Jurisdiction — our bill proposes to make Housing Court the exclusive jurisdiction for recovery of any missed rent or mortgage payments — this is an idea suggested by legal services attorneys because they recognize Housing Court is the venue best equipped to offer mediation services and facilitate payment arrangements.
Correcting the record re: Landlords talking points
Given the effort that has gone into drafting this proposal and building consensus around it — it is disappointing to see that a statewide landlords' group has distributed a set of talking points that are filled with inaccuracies and misinformation. Please allow us to correct the record.
● Landlords Claim #1: “This bill would cancel my rents. Not postpone them, cancel them, until Aug 2021 at the earliest.”
○ This is a distortion or oversimplification of what the bill actually proposes.
○ Section 2 of our bill says that COVID-impacted tenants cannot be evicted due to an inability to pay rent during the COVID-19 emergency and recovery period. This eviction protection is actually narrower than the current eviction moratorium, in that it is limited to COVID-impacted tenants only — and even for these COVID-impacted tenants, the obligation to pay rent remains in effect and landlords can still seek to recover any rental arrears in housing court, the venue that legal service advocates feel is best equipped to support mediation and equitable payment arrangements.
○ Meanwhile, Section 7 of our bill provides mortgage forbearance (i.e. deferment) to landlords with 15 or fewer rental units, and specifies that landlords who obtain this mortgage forbearance are correspondingly obligated to offer rent forgiveness to COVID-impacted tenants. So while it is true the bill does contemplate some form of rent forgiveness, it would only happen in very specific cases where the landlord obtains mortgage forbearance and the tenant is impacted by COVID-19.
● Landlords Claim #2: “There is nothing that requires tenants to pay rent during the emergency.”
○ Our bill does not generally relieve tenants of their obligation to pay rent.
○ Rather, the main thrust of our bill, with respect to tenants, is to say that an inability to pay during the emergency and recovery period will not be used against a COVID-impacted tenant in an eviction action. The contractual obligation to pay rent remains in effect, but an inability to pay due to COVID-related impacts wouldn’t be recognized as grounds for eviction.
○ Where landlords still wish to sue for unpaid rent arising during this period (as opposed to working with the tenant to cover arrearages out of RAFT or other potential sources), they are still permitted to bring civil suits as long as they file in Housing Court. The only exception, as described above, is when the landlord obtains mortgage forbearance and the tenant is COVID-impacted.
● Landlords Claim #3: “It specifically removes my ability to recover rent in court or by mediated agreement afterwards.”
○ This is completely false. Section 9 of our bill establishes Housing Court as the jurisdiction where landlords can recover back rent and work out mediated agreements. The only time rent is forgiven is when a landlord successfully obtains mortgage forbearance and their tenant is COVID-impacted — and even in those very specific cases, landlords are not precluded from accessing other forms of assistance.
● Landlords Claim #4: “In order to collect rent, I would have to prove they can pay.”
○ Again, this is generally false. As discussed above, all tenants are obligated to pay rent. The only exception is for a landlord who obtains mortgage forbearance and has a COVID-impacted tenant.
● Landlords Claim #5: “The only cost reduction for housing providers is six to 12 months of a foreclosure moratorium, depending.”
○ This is false. It mischaracterizes the duration of our proposed extension to the foreclosure moratorium for owner-occupant landlords of residential properties; it fails to mention our expanded proposal for mortgage forbearance for landlords with up to 15 units of rental housing, and it fails to mention how our proposal would limit the application of fees, penalties, or interest against landlords who take advantage of the forbearance provisions.
○ Our legislation offers a moratorium on foreclosures for the duration of the COVID-19 State of Emergency and for a recovery period of 12 months after the emergency declaration is rescinded, and it says that debts accrued during this period can never be used as the basis of foreclosure against an owner-occupant landlord of a residential property.
○ In addition, the legislation offers up to one year of mortgage-payment forbearance and deferment to homeowners and landlords with 15 units or less.
● Landlords Claim #6: “The cost reduction...only applies to owner-occupied properties.”
○ As discussed above, this is false. We are proposing an expansion of the mortgage forbearance provisions of the current moratorium law. Our proposal would extend these protections to not just homeowners and owner-occupant landlords of residential properties, but also to all landlords of 15 units of rental housing or less, even if buildings are not owner-occupied. And this cost reduction measure includes a prohibition on any additional fees, penalties, or interest.
To be sure, in this time of uncertainty, the issue of how to address the pending eviction crisis is both challenging and complicated — and that’s why it’s disappointing that so much misinformation has been distributed by certain landlords about our bill. Now that we’ve corrected the record by refuting these six claims, let me conclude by addressing some additional questions that have been raised about our bill:
● Housing Stability and Recovery Fund
○ Section 8 of the bill creates a COVID-19 Housing Stability and Recovery Fund. The fund is intended to help fill in the gaps in existing programs and to be nimble enough to prioritize limited resources in ways that best serve the most vulnerable homeowners and landlords.
○ The fund could accept monies from state or federal sources or other sources. It would be administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development with oversight from legislative appointees, including a strong representation of residents from the communities most impacted by COVID-19.
○ The fund is designed to prioritize the property owners who are most vulnerable, including owner-occupant landlords, elderly homeowners, nonprofits, and Massachusetts-based landlords who own 15 or fewer units of rental housing.
○ In this moment of unprecedented crisis, the most promising source of new revenue for the fund will likely be via future federal relief packages. As was the case when we enacted our landmark Student Opportunity Act last year, we did not attempt to specify any new revenue sources for this fund. Rather, our hope for this bill is to advance the concept of the fund into law, thereby helping to form the basis for future consensus on potential revenue sources.
● “The state must guarantee all expected income to landlords”
○ Some landlords are insisting that the only way we can consider any further protections for vulnerable tenants is if the Commonwealth guarantees and fully indemnifies landlords against any and all lost income due to the ongoing pandemic.
○ However, such a principle isn’t applied elsewhere, and other businesses aren’t asking for such a guarantee. For example, the owners of pubs and taverns aren’t saying, “The state cannot close our businesses during the pandemic unless and until we are guaranteed full compensation for any lost income as a result of the shutdown.” Such a demand would be unrealistic in our current political context. In the same way that bars need to be closed for the sake of public health, the eviction of COVID-impacted tenants must be stopped for the sake of public health.
○ We should be thinking about the potential for the proposed Housing Stability Fund to help fill in the gaps in existing programs (such as RAFT) and to help keep small landlords afloat during the crisis. For example, a vulnerable landlord who has received mortgage forbearance under our proposal might fill out an application to DHCD seeking support from the Fund to help cover the cost of a water bill or an unexpected maintenance need. In our present fiscal context, these are the sorts of needs we could look to address on a priority basis through the concept of this fund.
● “This will create just cause rent control”
○ The recovery from the economic crisis created by the pandemic will take months, if not years. Almost overnight, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, incomes, and stability — and it will take time for those families to rebuild their lives. As the economy recovers, it is important to ensure that investors don't take advantage of the situation through speculative rent increases. Massachusetts was experiencing an affordable housing emergency before the pandemic stuck — and the just cause and rent freeze provisions of this bill are designed to ensure the situation doesn't get even worse.
○ Owner-occupant landlords of residential properties are excluded from these additional housing stability provisions.
● “The bill creates eviction sealing, but eviction records are relevant for landlords to see. If this bill passes, we will have secret courts, corruption, and bribery.”
○ Existing procedures for sealing court records are highly difficult (if not impossible) to navigate. Even before the pandemic, a tenant's ability to search for an apartment was dramatically impaired by the presence of an eviction record — even in cases where the court ruled in favor of the tenant or in evictions where they never were accused of any wrongdoing. It's important to make sure that tenants who lost income through no fault of their own are not prevented from finding apartments in the future as a result, and it’s especially important to ensure that any eviction attempts that are in violation this proposed law cannot be unfairly used against tenants. More information about how eviction court records create a barrier to accessing housing is available via this report.
● “This will sink small landlords”
○ Some claim that our proposal will be disastrous for small landlords. To be clear, our proposal broadens forbearance protections to include all small landlords who own up to 15 units of housing, and it extends these forbearance protections for a full year. Landlords who take advantage of this forbearance would also be allowed to cover other expenses by accessing the proposed Housing Stability Fund.
○ Moreover, our proposed extension of eviction protections would only apply to COVID-impacted tenants, and our housing stability proposals explicitly exclude owner-occupant landlords of residential properties.
● “Tenants are abusing the current moratorium”
○ It's important to note that the data (including the recent poll from MassINC) indicates that the people who haven't been paying rent during the pendency of the crisis are largely doing so because they cannot pay, not because they're looking to "game the system." We need to make sure that these tenants — the ones who lost all or most of their income through no fault of their own — aren't evicted en masse following the end of the moratorium, or evicted constructively by huge rent increases as the market begins to recover and bad actors start to try to speculate off that recovery.
We hope this email helps to update you on the progress we've made in building support for this legislation while also correcting some of the misinformation that has been circulated in recent days. If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please do not hesitate to reach out.
