Submitted by bostonglobe t3_124o2fx in massachusetts
From Globe.com:
When the pandemic first struck, Edson Costa lost his job and fell into a bout of depression so debilitating, he said, that “I couldn’t even do the work I had found.”
The unpaid rent balance on his Lynn two-bedroom ballooned, until his landlord handed him an eviction notice in 2021. But when Costa later showed up to court, the judge put his case on hold, because Costa had filed an application for rental assistance that was still pending — giving him protection under a temporary COVID-era law dubbed Chapter 257.
“I was able to stay where I was with no issues,” said Costa, 56. “At least, for a while. It saved me.”
Now, to the dismay of tenants like Costa and Massachusetts housing advocates, that policy is set to end, at a time when evictions are rising. Just over two years after it took effect, Chapter 257 expires on Friday, meaning that landlords will once again be able to evict renters even if they’re trying to tap financial aid.
In a letter to legislators, advocates argued the action would scrap an “essential protection” and displace residents at a faster clip.
Eviction filings are already creeping back up to prepandemic levels and have nearly doubled over the last year. In January and February 2023, Massachusetts landlords filed 4,984 eviction cases for nonpayment of rent, according to data from Housing Court. In 2022, that number was 2,554.
Extending Chapter 257 through July 2024 — as the letter encourages — would keep thousands in their homes, said Andrea Park, director of community driven advocacy at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.
“Why would we allow people to become homeless,” she asked, “when a check is in the mail?
The termination of the policy has also received mixed reviews from landlords.
Many were OK with Chapter 257 as long as there was rental aid to pay the bills for tenants who could not. Now that aid is shrinking, potentially leaving landlords on the hook. Others have tenants who’ve maxed out on relief programs and still owe them money. Chapter 257 would make it harder to evict and replace them with new tenants who can pay.