How MA Can Be a “HERO” for Climate and Affordable Housing

Green affordable housing

Friday, January 21, 2022

Chairman Hinds, Chairman Cusack, and Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge a favorable report for H.2890 and S.1853: An Act providing for climate change adaptation infrastructure and affordable housing investments in the Commonwealth, jointly known as the HERO bill.

The motto for Progressive Mass is “We all do better when we all do better.” If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we are all connected and that we must trust and rely on each other to create the robust, healthy state we all want to live in.

As income inequality skyrockets and housing prices rapidly escalate, exacerbating the housing stability faced by countless families, Massachusetts must take action to ensure that we can still be a place where people can afford to live and thrive at any stage of life. Likewise, as the consequences of climate change become increasingly apparent, we must similarly take bold action to enable us to meet and exceed existing climate goals.  But both of these crises cannot be addressed without raising the funds to address these issues.

Raising the deeds excise tax to be more in line with the rest of New England is an easy way to raise some of this much-needed revenue. We cannot afford to pass up this opportunity to add $150,000,000 to our Global Warming Solution Trust Fund to allocate towards climate mitigation and climate adaptation measures and another $150,000,000 towards Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and the Housing Preservation and Stabilization Fund (HPSF).

The HERO Coalition has been an impressive effort uniting housing advocates and climate advocates around shared goals. Indeed, the goals of affordable housing and climate justice are deeply linked, as greening our housing stock is essential to climate mitigation and combating climate change is essential to community stability amidst extreme weather. This bill provides a great opportunity to take action, with long-term positive benefits that ripple across the Commonwealth.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts 

“I can think of nothing more disruptive to a child’s education than an unexpected move because of a large increase in rent.”

Rent Control Now

The following testimony is from Keith Bernard, Malden School Committee Member and co-chair of Mystic Valley Progressives.

Thank you, Chairs Rep Arciero and Senator Keenan and all the members of the joint committee on Housing. I’d also like to thank and appreciate my  fellow elected officials activists and renters in Massachusetts that have testified already in favor of these bills.

My name is Keith Bernard, a member of the Malden School Committee and I am here to state my support for the following bills:  H.1378/S.886, sponsored by Reps. Mike Connolly and Nika Elugardo and Sen. Adam Gomez, H.1440/S.889, sponsored by Rep. Dave Rogers and Sen. Patricia Jehlen.

Malden is the 5th most diverse community in the state and our high school is the most diverse in the state.  We speak over 60 different languages in our school systems.  Malden also has a large population that do not own their home but rent.  Over 55% of housing in our city is rental properties, our rental rates have nearly doubled in the last ten years, and it is getting more difficult for our working families to stay in Malden.

I can think of nothing more disruptive to a child’s education than an unexpected move because of a large increase in rent.  If a family is lucky, they may be able to find housing in our city, but that is unlikely.  When a student leaves us, it means that the family needs to go through the stress of re-enrollment and the child acclimating to a new school system.  If the child has an IEP or other necessary services, that family has the additional stress of getting those services in place.  Finally the emotional impact that a child experiences being uprooted from their friends and neighborhood that not only affects that child, but the children and community around them.

On a personal note, I’ve been volunteering with many of the mutual aid community groups that arose during these last two years.  There is nothing more heartbreaking than finding out a neighboring family that I had an opportunity to help had to move because of an unexpected rise of housing costs.  

Most families are not looking for a hand out but a hand up.  We are looking to you, the members of this committee, to allow municipalities to sculpt solutions that work for their community.  What works for Boston may not work for Malden or Medford or Worcester or Pittsfield.  Each community has its own officials and local representation that can “right-size” a solution for their town or city.

I ask that the committee please keep these thoughts in mind when considering implementing rent control.  By stabilizing the cost of rentals, we stabilize those families, we keep our children safe and we protect our communities.  And by implementing these bills we allow the people who know best, our local cities and towns the ability to implement the best solution for our individual towns & cities.  

I strongly encourage the committee to support and endorse passage of  H.1378/S.886, sponsored by Reps. Mike Connolly and Nika Elugardo and Sen. Adam Gomez, H.1440/S.889, sponsored by Rep. Dave Rogers and Sen. Patricia Jehlen.

Respectfully,

Keith Bernard

Malden School Committee, Ward 7

(Photo credit: Boston Globe)

“Massachusetts has a lot to offer, but that does little if people can’t afford to live here.”

Rent Control Now

Tuesday, January 11, 2022

Chairman Keenan, Chairman Arciero, and Members of the Joint Committee on Housing:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge a favorable report for S.886/H.1378 (An Act enabling local options for tenant protections).

Massachusetts has a lot to offer, but that does little if people can’t afford to live here. The US News & World Report’s annual state rankings put Massachusetts at #48 in affordability. [1] A worker earning minimum wage in Massachusetts would have to work 83 hours a week to afford a modest one-bedroom rental home at market rate (and 102 hours for a modest two-bedroom). [2] 

Clearly, Massachusetts has an affordable housing crisis. This is unsustainable. It has led to expanding economic inequality, increased homelessness, and damage to our economy, as talented workers often leave the state for less expensive regions.

Solving this affordable housing crisis will require us to use every tool in the toolbox. That requires zoning reform that encourages the creation of walkable, sustainable, and inclusive communities. It requires public investment. And it requires strengthening tenant protections that ensure that communities can remain affordable, inclusive, and stable.

However, municipalities across Massachusetts are blocked from taking the necessary steps to address the housing crisis. The misguided statewide ban on rent stabilization policies and a stringent home rule system that prevents municipalities from passing their own laws to govern the basic aspects of civil affairs hamstring municipalities.

S.886/H.1378 provides the appropriate redress. It repeals the outdated and misguided statewide ban on rent stabilization policies and enables cities and towns to pass policies aimed to regulate rents, limit condo conversions, prevent landlords from evicting tenants without just cause (e.g., failure to pay rent, illegal activity), require landlords to inform tenants of their rights, and take other steps to protect tenants and ensure long-term affordability.

We cannot build our way out of the crisis alone because the people at the highest risk for displacement will already be pushed out before they can benefit from any medium to long-term reduction in rents.

The pandemic we have been living through for almost two years, moreover, has underscored the essential role of housing stability to public health: we cannot ask people to stay at home when they are sick or exposed if they do not afford a home to go back to.

There is a lot of fear-mongering around rent control, but I want to make a simple point. If you don’t think a landlord should be able to double or triple someone’s rent in a year after doing no work on the property, you believe in rent control, and the question is just a matter of percentages and exemptions. And the Tenant Protection Act would enable us to debate and answer that question.

On too many issues, Massachusetts is haunted by the ghosts of  ill-advised ballot initiatives past. It’s 2022, and we need to act like it.

There is no silver bullet to solving our affordable housing crisis. But if we are to have a chance at solving it, we must empower municipalities to take action. We thus encourage you to give a favorable report to S.886 and H.1378.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts 

[1] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/opportunity/affordability

[2] http://nlihc.org/oor/massachusetts

(Photo credit: Boston Globe)

MA Needs to Lift the Ban on Rent Control

Rent Control Now

Today, most Massachusetts residents will be experiencing subzero temperatures due to wind chill.

And too many working-class people will have to decide whether they can afford sufficient heating (or sufficient winter clothing) and still afford next month’s rent, a decision no one should have to make.

At the same time, we’re in the midst of a pandemic that has made clear that quarantining at home is impossible if you don’t have a home to go back to, and that too many workers are faced with the dire choice of going into work while sick or not having enough money to pay rent.

What both show is that we need to be doing far more for housing stability in our state amidst escalating rents and the displacement that results.

This morning, the MA Legislature will hear testimony on the Tenant Protection Act (S.886/H.1378), a bill from Sen. Adam Gomez and Reps. Mike Connolly and Nika Elugardo that would lift the statewide ban on rent control and enable municipalities to take action to support housing stability in line with the needs and conditions of each community.

No one policy is a silver bullet, but local leaders need to have every tool in the toolbox to address our housing crisis.

Here are ways that you can show support for the bill:

(Photo credit: Boston Globe)

MA Can Do More to Protect Tenants from Eviction. Here’s How.

Last week, the right-wing Supreme Court ruled against the extension of the CDC’s federal eviction moratorium, putting millions of tenants at risk across the country.

While we wait for Congress to take action, we can take action here in Massachusetts by passing the COVID Housing Equity Bill.

Massachusetts has hundreds of millions of dollars in federal rental assistance, but the application process is complex and resources are not reaching tenants in time to prevent unnecessary evictions.

The COVID Housing Equity Bill complements and strengthens the work of these existing programs by (1) ensuring that landlords pursue and cooperate with rental assistance programs before evicting, (2) pausing no-fault evictions through March 2022, and (3) pausing residential foreclosures, among other steps.

Housing is a human right, and never has that been more clear than during a pandemic.

Can you contact your legislators in support of the COVID Housing Equity Bill?

Fair Share Amendment Advocate Training!

Next Thursday, at 6 pm, Raise Up Massachusetts will be holding a training call for the pledge card program for the Fair Share Amendment this fall.

Sign up to learn more about the plan for our campaign for the rest of 2021 and how you can most effectively advocate for the Fair Share Amendment!

Treating Housing as a Right with the COVID Housing Equity Bill

eviction notice

Thursday, August 12, 2021

Chairman Keenan, Chairman Arciero, and Members of the Joint Committee on Housing:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the chair of the Issues Committee of Progressive Massachusetts. Progressive Massachusetts is a statewide grassroots advocacy organization that fights for shared prosperity and racial and social justice.

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.1434/S.891: An act to prevent COVID-19 evictions and foreclosures and promote an equitable housing recovery.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscored how important affordable housing is to public health. It’s simple: when we asked people to stay home to avoid the spread of the virus, that could only be possible if they had a home to stay in.

The Legislature recognized this and passed a strong moratorium on evictions and foreclosures, and we are appreciative of all the work that went into that.

Although that moratorium has lapsed, housing instability, economic instability, and the pandemic all remain. Massachusetts has hundreds of millions of dollars of federal rental assistance, but that money often doesn’t reach tenants due to a cumbersome application process. And evictions have been rising.

These bills, known as the COVID Housing Equity Bill, offer a solution. The COVID Housing Equity Bill pensures an equitable distribution of rental assistance funds, pauses no-fault evictions during the COVID recovery period, and requires that landlords pursue and cooperate with rental assistance programs before evicting.

Tenants are not the only ones at risk, and the bill recognizes this. It would pause residential foreclosures and require mortgage forbearance based on federal policies. Owning a home is one of the only paths toward building wealth for communities of color, and we cannot allow the pandemic to make already existing racial and economic inequalities worse.

Every day without this bill, more families in the Commonwealth are put at risk of housing insecurity, and we urge swift passage.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Chair, Issues Committee

Progressive Massachusetts