We’ve got our first priority legislation hearing tomorrow – Tuesday, May 9 – with the Joint Committee on the Judiciary holding a hearing on a number of our key housing bills, including:
- Access to Counsel in Massachusetts (H.1731) (Note: this hearing is on the House bill, the Senate access to counsel bill is in the Housing Committee).
- Making Chapter 257 Eviction Protections Permanent (H.1682/S.1048)
- Eviction Record Sealing (HOMES bill) (H.1690/S.956)
To see more details on what these bills will do and their lead sponsors, please see this summary from the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless.
What you can do:
- Submit written testimony! Write a letter (can be short or long, it all counts!) saying why any or all of these bills matter to you and/or your organization’s work. Send it by email to Michael Musto at michael.musto@mahouse.gov or by land mail to Judiciary Committee, 24 Beacon St, Room 136, Boston, MA 02133. Copy your own Rep or Senator (note: Senator John Velis and Rep. Dan Carey from Western MA are ON the Judiciary Committee – if they’re your legislators, DEFINITELY be in touch!). Send it by next week for maximum impact!
- Testify virtually: To testify virtually you must register online by 5 p.m. today – Monday, May 8th using this Registration Form. You can rest assured that The Network will be there (Pamela Schwartz is honored to testify on its behalf); and if you can join, please do so.
- Watch on livestream! If you want to get to connected to “democracy in action” here’s your chance. You can tune in by going to the Judiciary Committee web page and clicking on the livestream link any time after 1 pm (it will run for many hours, so tune in any time that afternoon).
We’ll be in touch on next steps after the hearing!
