Gov. Charlie Baker acknowledged during a July 16, 2020 press conference that he needs to make a decision "soon" on potentially extending a ban on evictions and foreclosures. Photo by Stuart Cahill | Boston Herald/Pool
Gov. Charlie Baker acknowledged Thursday he needs to make a decision “soon” on whether to extend a temporary ban on evictions and foreclosures, but did not indicate which way he’s leaning, as he announced another $20 million in funding for homelessness prevention and other community aid.
Housing supports have become a growing focus in recent weeks amid widespread economic strain and record levels of unemployment, as well as the forthcoming expiration of a law designed at keeping people safely housed during the crisis.
A law Baker signed in April imposing a moratorium on most non-emergency housing removals is set to expire on Aug. 18, after which tens of thousands of residents could suddenly face eviction or foreclosure proceedings. Baker has authority under the law to extend it in 90-day increments, and as of his Thursday appearance, he has not yet taken a public position on whether he will do so.
“We’ve been having regular conversations with our colleagues in local government, with folks in the housing community, with folks in the advocacy community and folks in the Legislature about this,” Baker said. “We recognize and understand that we’re going to need to make a decision on that soon.”
Rep. Kevin Honan, who co-chairs the Housing Committee, joined with Rep. Mike Connolly and Sen. Patricia Jehlen to file legislation that would automatically extend the moratorium until one year after the state of emergency ends, pause rent increases, and make funding available to small landlords affected by the policies.
Their bill (HD.5166), which has nearly 90 co-sponsors in the two branches, was reported from the Rules Committee to the Housing Committee on Thursday.
Much of the real estate and lending industries oppose it in its current form. Their core criticisms center on provisions that would allow any renter or residential mortgage borrower to stop paying their landlord or lender during the moratorium, on the assumption that such an action would be due to COVID-19 or its economic fallout. That provision could cause lenders to refuse to issue mortgages to all homebuyers in the state, the Massachusetts Mortgage Banker’s Association warned yesterday. Landlord groups say the bill does not share the pain created by efforts to prevent an “eviction tsunami” on Aug. 18 equally and places it all on landlords’ backs.
The administration will make the latest $20 million batch of CARES Act funding that Baker announced Thursday available to 181 municipalities through the Community Development Block Grant program, aiming the relief at municipalities with fewer than 50,000 residents to help with homelessness prevention, food pantries and job training.
Last month, Baker unveiled a separate $20 million fund to supplement the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition program, and a spending bill that’s close to reaching Baker’s desk includes another $20 million for residential assistance.
With 15 days remaining before the Legislature plans to end formal sessions for the year, lawmakers have been rushing to tie up loose ends and wrap up key priorities for the two-year session that have been left until the last minute.
Baker and Polito made another pitch at Thursday’s press conference for the zoning reform legislation they have been unsuccessfully pushing for years. The proposal, which would lower the local voting threshold for zoning changes from a two-thirds majority to a simple majority in an attempt to spur more housing development, features as a piece of a $275 million jobs and COVID recovery bill the administration rolled out last month.
“With COVID-19, the impact of stable housing has never been clearer,” Polito said Thursday.
Legislative leaders have not indicated if they have plans to tackle the bill, and their bandwidth is already crowded with a range of other proposals.
