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The House on Thursday afternoon passed a bill (H.4615) to put a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures during the coronavirus emergency, quickly advancing the bill to the Senate after it was released in the early afternoon by the Committee on Ways and Means.
The Senate earlier this week had unveiled its own bill to provide housing security for renters and homeowners during the pandemic, but leaders had not yet put the bill on the floor for a final vote.
A prominent tenant advocacy group yesterday criticized the Senate bill (S.2621) as something that “fails to effectively halt evictions.”
As drafted, Greater Boston Legal Services staff attorney Joseph Michalakes said, the Senate bill does not define no-fault evictions as non-essential, implying that they can still continue at this time. Michalakes also argued the bill’s timeframe – in effect for 90 days after enactment or until the state of emergency is lifted, whichever comes first – creates a possibility that it will expire and evictions will resume while officials still recommend staying at home.
Instead, Michalakes said a house bill (HD.4935) filed by Rep. Mike Connolly and Housing Committee Co-chair Rep. Kevin Honan would be a better choice.
“We think a better approach would be to mirror what the House has produced,” he said, referring to the Connolly-Honan bill, “as opposed to trying to reinvent the wheel in a way that we think doesn’t really meet the urgency of the problem, which is to make sure that as few evictions as possible are happening during the public health crisis.”
Standing orders in the state’s trial court prevent hearings from taking place until mid-April, but new eviction cases can still be filed, and GBLS has “continued to get calls” from tenants who have received execution notices for cases that advanced before the state of emergency, Michalakes said.
While some jurisdictions have implemented local restrictions on levies of execution, Michalakes argued that statewide legislation must outright ban them until the state of emergency ends to prevent sheriffs and movers from removing tenants during a public health crisis.
