The federal government’s eviction moratorium expires this weekend, removing the last remaining protection for tenants who’ve fallen behind on rent during the pandemic.
The Massachusetts Landlords Association does not expect a rise in evictions in August, saying there’s plenty of state assistance to help tenants behind on their rent.
But housing advocates are concerned that aid is not getting to renters who need it just at the moratorium established last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) is expiring.
While the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) has distributed more than $170 million in rental aid to nearly 30,000 households since Gov. Charlie Baker lifted the state’s eviction moratorium, the agency has rejected 90% of those seeking assistance this year, according to the agency’s reports.
The state housing agency did not respond to a GBH News request for an explanation for the high rate of rejections for rental aid, but housing advocates have criticized the application process, calling it overly complicated and difficult for some renters, especially those with limited English proficiency, to complete.
Andrea Park, a housing attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, said the Biden administration is encouraging quick distribution of federal aid.
“What we've seen on the state level is just more and more barriers. The programs, every time they change the rules, they get more confusing,” she said. “I think that we're really concerned that people are going to start falling through the cracks in even bigger numbers than they have been.”
Massachusetts courts saw a wave of eviction filings after the state’s moratorium expired late last year — topping 3,700 last December — but eviction numbers have otherwise stayed below their pre-pandemic levels for the comparable 2019 months.
Gary Klein, who leads the COVID Eviction Legal Help Project at Greater Boston Legal Services, estimated that about 100,000 families in the state are behind on their rent and the federal moratorium was protecting many of them who have not yet received government aid. He says the expiration of the moratorium will mean more evictions.
“The moratorium has been acting as a dam, preventing at least some part of potential cases from being filed,” Klein said. “When the moratorium goes away, we're going to see a flood of new cases.”
Update: After this story was published, the state housing agency told GBH News that applicants' failture to complete the application is the reason for the vast majority of rejections for rental aid, while roughly 10% are because the applicant was ruled ineligible for aid.
