According to recent estimates, more than 200,000 current renter households in Massachusetts are at risk of eviction. But those numbers, based on Census data, may not reflect some of the most vulnerable members of the population — those living in poverty and people who are undocumented.
A Lynn woman, who didn't want to be identified due to her undocumented status, told GBH News she lost her housekeeping jobs in the pandemic and started piling up rent debt. She was approved for $4,000 from the state’s rental assistance program (RAFT), but still owes nearly $1,000 in rent for the apartment she shares with her two sons.
She said her offers to make a payment plan with her building’s management company have been ignored, and instead she’s been threatened with eviction when the state moratorium ends on Saturday.
“I’m worried about eviction because I’m not prepared for eviction. I’m really worried because I don’t have money for another apartment,” she said in Spanish. “We immigrants are very frightened because we have children, who depend on someone, on their mothers and fathers, and we’re living in a desperate situation. [There is] so much fear.”
Massachusetts renters now owe their landlords an estimated $300 million in rent, and small landlords say it’s a burden that's weighing heavily on them. When the state moratorium was imposed, Ed Daniels decided to keep two of his apartment units in Millis, Mass., unoccupied rather than risk putting in a tenant who couldn’t pay.
“I think if you were a small landlord, you’d feel the pain and you would feel like that burden was too much on our shoulders,” Daniels said.
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