A new COVID-19 eviction and foreclosure prevention bill was filed last week, and it needs our support. See the Fact Sheet here and the organizational endorsement form here.
Please sign on and please ask your legislator to co-sponsor this critical legislation (for Representatives, it’s HD 3030; for Senators, it’s SD1802). You can find your legislator here. A simple one line message: Please co-sponsor [HD 3030/SD 1802] to prevent more evictions and foreclosures during COVID-19.
In summary, it will:
The COVID-19 Housing Equity Bill will:
1) Require landlords to pursue and cooperate with rental assistance programs before pursuing eviction;
2) Protect the most vulnerable tenants from forced removal for COVID-19 debts;
3) Pause no-fault evictions during the state of emergency and recovery period;
4) Reinstate a pause on foreclosures and require forbearance based on federal policies; and,
5) Require the state to adopt equitable principles, flexibility, and simplification in the distribution of rental assistance funds.
Since the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures was lifted in October 2020, over 8,000 new eviction cases have been filed, 1,500 in Western Massachusetts alone, and over 1,000 executions have been issued to landlords, meaning these families can be forcibly removed by sheriffs or constables. There are 1000 Massachusetts homeowners at imminent risk of foreclosure. All of this has taken a dramatically disproportionate toll on communities of color and low income people across Massachusetts.
Let’s build the movement to stop this now. Please sign on and let’s get our entire Western MA delegation on board with a call or email asking for their co-sponsorship of this bill.
More Network priorities and more asks of our legislators to come next week – let’s start here now!
