Fight for Housing Justice & Immigration Justice

On Monday, the House voted on key housing amendments to its economic development bill.

State reps overwhelmingly ignored housing justice activists, voting AGAINST allowing municipalities to impose real estate transfer fees to combat speculation and raise money for affordable housing, AGAINST allowing municipalities to pass rent-stabilizing regulations, and AGAINST making it easier for municipalities to pass inclusionary zoning ordinances.

Some of these state reps — embarrassingly — voted against the text of bills they co-sponsored earlier in the session.

The Senate will be taking up its version of an economic development bill tomorrow, so that means there is another opportunity to fight for housing justice and immigration justice.

Can you call your senators in support of the following amendments? 

#2 (Crighton): Work and Family Mobility, which eliminates immigration status as a barrier to obtaining a driver’s license

#6 (Crighton): Tenant’s Right of First Refusal, which guarantees the right of refusal for tenants when a large building is up for sale or foreclosed

#47 (Boncore): Promoting Housing Opportunity and Mobility through Eviction Sealing (HOMES), which seals evictions when they are pending, until and unless an allegation is proven; seals all no-fault evictions, and seals all evictions after 3 years

#57 (Cyr): Compromise local option transfer fee on high cost home sales to support low and middle income housing, which enables municipalities to impose a real estate transfer fee on sales above $1 million, with money going to affordable housing

#96 (Collins): City of Boston Inclusionary Development Policy and Linkage Fees, which incorporates Boston’s Inclusionary Development Policy (requires affordable units within new residential projects) and Linkage Fees (requires payments from large commercial developments to fund affordable housing and job training) into Boston’s zoning code and allows for future rate adjustments 

#175 (DiDomenico): Tenant Right to Counsel Pilot, which establishes a right to counsel pilot program to provide full legal representation to eligible individuals vulnerable to evictions

#249 (Jehlen): Supporting Affordable Housing With A Local Option For A fee To Be Applied To Certain Real Estate Transactions, which enables cities and towns to impose transfer fees on real estate sales with appropriate exemptions (e.g., for low- and middle-income homeowners)

Housing Stability Is an Essential Part of the Cure for COVID

The following testimony was submitted to the Joint Committee on Housing.

Thank you chairs and members of the committee for reading our testimony.

As municipal leaders scramble desperately to find solutions to the onslaught of evictions they know are headed their way, the people must turn to the state legislature to quell the oncoming tsunami of homelessness that will destroy families and traumatize children if the state legislature does not act.

We urge you to pass S2831/H.4878 in order to end the threat of evictions posed by the sudden end of the current eviction moratorium in October. If families are required to pay back rent for almost half a year, there is no way those living paycheck to paycheck will be able to stay in their homes. If we don’t provide a solution to this problem, we will have a catastrophe unlike any we have confronted before, as families are turned out of their homes en masse.

Please vote yes to allow a year long moratorium on evictions to give families the time they need to get back on their feet and forgive them their back rent since living paycheck to paycheck will not allow them the ability to accumulate the savings they will need to pay their back rent. There is no perfect solution to the housing emergency that confronts us, but this bill is the best solution to a difficult problem. It ensures housing stability for renters while also providing funds for smaller landlords who are also victims of the pandemic economy.

If you pass this into law, it would say a lot about who we are as a state and as human beings. Please show the compassion and responsibility to our citizens that we want to see in other states. You have an opportunity to show leadership to the entire country. Please pass S2831/H.4878.

Thank you,

Caroline Bays

Board President, Progressive Massachusetts

Massachusetts House Votes Down Proposals to Help Renters, Promote Affordable Housing

When Governor Charlie Baker sent an economic development bill to the MA Legislature, he included his “Housing Choices” legislation, which had been stalled as a standalone bill. The “Housing Choices” bill addresses one aspect of Massachusetts’s affordable housing crisis: the fact that new construction is relatively rare in the suburbs due to the prevalence of single-family zoning. If you can only build one housing unit per lot, it makes it more difficult to respond to a growing population or growing demand. Currently, zoning changes (such as those that would approve multifamily housing construction) require a 2/3 approval from local government. Baker’s bill, which the MA House retained in their economic development package, would lower that to a simple majority.

The need for more supply, though, is just one part of the problem. There is no guarantee that the new supply would be affordable, nor that the new supply would not push up rents for current tenants, thus running the risk of displacement. There isn’t even a guarantee that any new housing will be built at all (it’s a removal of a barrier rather than promise of new construction).

That being said, as an MIT researcher recently noted in CommonWealth Mag, all this means is that we need to think comprehensively when we approach the affordable housing crisis: we do need zoning reform, but we also need stronger protections for existing tenants. Tenant protections will not address the need for supply: only new construction can. Zoning reform will not address displacement: you need tenant protections for that. This was also an essential takeaway of the book Golden Gates by Conor Dougherty on the housing crisis in San Francisco.

Unfortunately, the MA House voted down efforts at striking such a balance.

Rep. Mike Connolly (D-Cambridge) filed and roll-called three amendments to strike a better balance.

First was his amendment 34, which would have enabled municipalities to impose transfer fees on real estate transactions to fund affordable housing. Cities like Boston, Somerville, and Nantucket have filed home rule petitions in order to be able to do so because state law prohibits them from doing so on their own. To be clear, this amendment would simply allow municipalities to pass their own laws to address the affordable housing crisis–and to craft whatever exemptions to the transfer fee’s application as they see appropriate.

The House voted 130 to 29 against it. 9 state reps endorsed *the very same bill* but voted NO here: Barrett, Driscoll, Garballey, Gonzalez, Keefe, Khan, Livingstone, Miranda, and Santiago.

The only argument put forth against it on the floor was from Rep. Ken Gordon (D-Bedford), who said that there is already enough money for affordable housing (false) and that a transfer fee would hurt low and middle-income homeowners (also false, given the allowance of exemptions).

He also filed and roll-called an amendment that reflected the text of his Tenant Protection Act, which would remove the prohibition on rent control and enable municipalities to pass other tenant protections, such as just cause eviction ordinances or limitations on condo conversions. Again, simply allowing municipalities to pass their own laws in response to the affordable housing crisis.

The House voted 136 to 23 against it. Five legislators who co-sponsored the very same bill voted against the amendment: Devers, Hawkins, LeBoeuf, Miranda, and Santiago.

7.27.20 House Vote on RC

Finally, Connolly filed and roll-called an amendment to lower the threshold for approval of inclusionary zoning ordinances to a simple majority. Inclusionary zoning, i.e., the requirement that a certain percentage of new construction meet an affordability threshold, was not included in the list of zoning changes that would no longer need a supermajority.

Given that many suburbs don’t want to build housing at all, there is likely not a rush to adopt inclusionary zoning, but if a suburb were so forward-thinking, it should be able to.

The House voted 139 to 19 against allowing that. Again, five representatives who co-sponsored *the same bill* voted against it: Gentile, Hawkins, Hendricks, LeBoeuf, and Livingstone.

7.27.20 House Vote on Inclusionary Zoning

Go Big or Don’t Go Home

In a mere eleven days — on Friday, July 31st, at 11:59 pm — the legislative session in the Massachusetts State House comes to an end.

The bills that didn’t make it past the finish line this year will disappear into the ether or return like a phoenix from the ashes in January next year, only to face the same grueling process.

But there are many policies that can’t wait until January. Indeed, passing them now is already far later than should have been done. And, frankly, the Legislature shouldn’t get to leave session until they finish.

What priorities are we talking about?

  • Passing the Safe Communities Act so that state and local law enforcement aren’t being deputized as ICE agents
  • Passing the Work and Family Mobility Act because mobility is a basic right, regardless of one’s citizenship status
  • Passing the ROE Act because MA needs to strengthen reproductive rights here at home as they remain under attack on the federal level
  • Passing the 100% Renewable Energy Act because we can’t keep stumbling forward into climate chaos
  • Passing Emergency Paid Sick Time so that no worker has to choose between their health and their job security
  • Passing guaranteed housing stability for at least one more year ​because if we want people to stay at home, they need a home to go back to
  • Passing a budget that raises Progressive Revenue by making sure that corporations and the rich are paying their fair share

The Legislature can’t keep punting session after session and patting themselves on the back.

Can you call or email your state legislators about taking real action before the session ends — or staying in until they do?

Go Big or Don't Go Home

Take Action: Extend Sick Time. Extend the Eviction Moratorium. Extend the Session.

COVID graphic

TL;DR: Tell your legislators to extend paid sick time, extend the eviction moratorium, and extend the legislative session.

Today marks Phase 3 of Republican Governor Charlie Baker’s reopening plan. That means that movie theaters (??), casinos (??), and gyms (??!?) are allowed to reopen today — even as states around the country are seeing resurgences of the COVID-19 outbreak.

And to make matters worse, this reopening is happening without any new, enforceable protections for workers.

If we want to have a successful, equitable recovery, then workers who are sick or are taking care of loved ones need to be able to stay home without fear of losing their job. Massachusetts’s 2014 earned sick time law does not provide enough hours to meet the scale of the crisis, and the federal Families First Coronavirus Response Act has big coverage gaps that leave millions of front-line workers without paid sick time.

Massachusetts needs to pass Emergency Paid Sick Time legislation to ensure that all workers can take paid sick time during this crisis.

And for people to be able to stay home, they need a home to go back to. The eviction and foreclosure moratorium signed in April is set to expire next month, August 18. That means that, if the Legislature does not take action, working-class families across the state could face a wave of evictions during a possible COVID resurgence.

Evictions and foreclosures are bad for public health in the best of times. They are even more dangerous now, and the instability and insecurity is likely to hit Black and Brown families the hardest.

But, again the Legislature can take action here by extending the eviction/foreclosure moratorium, expanding mortgage deferment protections, and stabilizing both renters and small property owners.

And time is short. The Legislative session is set to end at the end of the month. If the Legislature does not finish the vital business of protecting workers and addressing the backlog of important pre-COVID legislative priorities, then legislators should stay in session until they finish.

Here’s where you come in.

(1) Call your legislators in support of these two bills & call on them to support extending the legislative session:

  • S.2701 / H.4700: An Act relative to emergency paid sick time
  • SD.2992 / HD.5166: An Act to guarantee housing stability during the COVID-19 emergency and recovery 

(2) Email your legislators in support of these bills and extending the session.

(3) Share this email with five friends.

Four Weeks Left….

Unless anything changes, four weeks from today — Friday, July 31st — the formal part of the 191st Legislative Session of the Massachusetts General Court will come to an end.

That means that there are four weeks for the MA Legislature to up its game on pretty much every single front.

Four weeks for them to take action in support of immigrants’ rights, such as passing the Safe Communities Act and the Work & Family Mobility Act.

Four weeks for them to take action in support of reproductive justice by passing the ROE Act.

Four weeks for them to tackle the systemic racism in policing and the criminal legal system.

Four weeks for them to tackle our affordable housing crisis (and just over a month for them to take action before the eviction moratorium passed earlier this year expires).

Four weeks for them to take action to address climate change because Mother Nature doesn’t care about self-imposed deadlines.

Four weeks for them to pass Emergency Paid Sick Time so that workers don’t have to choose between their health and their job security in a global pandemic.

Four weeks for them to pass a budget that lives up to our values by raising progressive revenue to avoid deep, harmful cuts in public services.

None of this will happen unless your legislators hear from you — loud and clear — that they can’t keep procrastinating. That they can’t keep punting issues to later and later in the session until each session runs out. And then the cycle of excuse-making and delay continues.

Can you call your legislators to demand action in these final four weeks?

Find their contact information here, and then save it for next time.

🚨Actions You Can Take from Home During the COVID-19 Crisis

With the outbreak of COVID-19, Massachusetts is facing a crisis.

We have a public health crisis, as the number of those infected grows every day. We have an economic crisis, as the threat of a recession looms larger every day and workers risk weeks (or months) without a paycheck. And we have a democratic crisis, as the virus outbreak challenges our ability to hold traditional in-person elections.

And this is on top of the crises we already face, such as the inequality that affects all aspects of our society.

And our Legislature needs to respond with the requisite urgency and comprehensiveness. 

Can you email your state legislators to demand quick and comprehensive action? 

Here’s what a comprehensive response must include: 

✅Passing HD.4935 (Connolly-Honan): An Act Providing for a Moratorium on Evictions and Foreclosures During the COVID19 Emergency because, in a state of emergency in which people are being asked to stay at home, people need to have homes. Evictions and foreclosures exacerbate our public health crisis and strain our already weak safety net. 

✅Passing legislation to provide immediate financial assistance ​to mitigate the economic impact of the pandemic​, such as HD.4945 (Gouveia): An Act providing for emergency cash assistance in response to COVID-19, HD.4951 (Decker): An Act to provide short-term relief for families in deep poverty, and HD.4950 (Miranda): An Act providing emergency access to equity and justice for all in response to COVID-19 

✅Passing HD.4958 (Mark/Sabadosa): An Act relative to COVID-19 emergency unemployment expansion, which would ensure that independent contractors, sole proprietors, partners in a partnership, freelance, and tipped employees are eligible for unemployment benefits and that COVID-19 emergency assistance does not make any worker ineligible for receiving any existing state benefits

✅Passing Emergency Paid Sick Time legislation that guarantees all workers at least fifteen additional work-days (120 hours) of job-protected paid sick time for immediate use during the COVID-19 outbreak or any future public health emergency because no worker should be forced to choose between their health and their economic security 

✅ Passing ​HD.4963 (Sabadosa): An Act regarding Decarceration and COVID-19, which would require the release of individuals who are currently in pre-trial detainment or under incarceration if they are a member of a population deemed especially vulnerable by the CDC, are eligible for medical parole, are almost finished with their sentence, or are only being detained due to inability to pay bail or due to minor violations of parole

✅Passing legislation to expand options to Vote by Mail (such as HD.4957 — Mark/Sabadosa), so that no voter is forced to choose between their health and their right to participate in our democracy 

✅Providing the necessary funding to ensure that our response does not leave vulnerable communities behind, such as our immigrant population or our homeless population.

Our legislators need to start responding with the urgency required–and fast.

Can you email your state legislators today?

Did you already email? Then you can follow up with a call. Find your legislators here.

CommonWealth: “Beware of Rodrigues’s ‘boring middle’”

PM Issues Committee chair Jonathan Cohn penned an editorial in CommonWealth about the new Senate Ways & Means chair:

OVER THE PAST few legislative sessions, progressives have looked to the Massachusetts Senate as a beacon of progressive policymaking. Across a range of issues, the Senate has been willing to pass bold and expansive bills that end up watered down—or dead on arrival—in the more conservative, top-down House.

However, Senate President Karen Spilka’s choice of Sen. Michael Rodrigues to chair the powerful Senate Ways & Means Committee should give progressives everywhere pause. Although the Westport Democrat describes himself as part of the “boring middle,” much of Rodrigues’s record locates him squarely on the right.

We Need to Use Every Tool in the Toolbox

The following testimony was submitted to the Joint Committee on Housing on Tuesday, January 14, 2020.

Chairman Crighton, Chairman Honan, 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, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

It is because of those values that we write today in support of H.3924 (An Act enabling local options for tenant protections) and S.773 (An Act supporting affordable housing with a local option for a fee to be applied to certain real estate transactions).

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 #41 in housing affordability (and #43 in cost of living).[1] A worker earning minimum wage in Massachusetts would have to work 91 hours a week to afford a modest one-bedroom rental home at market rate (and 113 hours for a modest two-bedroom).[2] Monthly median rents have gone up by more than one-third since 2010, outpacing income growth.[3]

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.

But it also requires public investment. Over the last ten years, the need for affordable housing has increased, while funds for affordable housing have decreased at both federal and state levels.

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.

H.3924 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.

S.773 also removes barriers that cities and towns face in addressing the housing crisis. It would enable cities and towns to raise additional revenue for affordable housing by levying a small fee on real estate transactions (with the ability to establish exemptions as appropriate in each municipality).

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 H.3924 and S.773.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Chair, Issues Committee

Progressive Massachusetts  

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

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

[3] https://www.zillow.com/ma/home-values/

The Enterprise: Rent Control on Beacon Hill

Ben Berke of The Enterprise wrote about the upcoming hearing on rent control on Beacon Hill — as well as the state of housing politics in MA:

Jonathan Cohn, who helps lead the advocacy group Progressive Massachusetts, said the bill will likely need broader support than it currently has to pass.

However, with House leadership considering plans to pass an omnibus housing bill this session, Cohn said legislators could force a vote on rent control and other tenant protections by adding them to the broader piece of legislation as amendments.