Massachusetts renters who seek state aid to avoid eviction will face new requirements and a revised application process in less than a week, a sudden shift that prompted dozens of housing advocates to demand lawmakers intervene and stave off a “disgraceful and unnecessary outcome.”
In an attempt to stretch the hundreds of millions of dollars remaining in its eviction diversion program and steer them toward households facing the greatest threats, the Baker administration plans to amend how it decides which families receive rental assistance starting in the new year.
Most tenants will have to fall behind on paying rent for at least a month before they qualify for emergency aid, and all recipients will no longer be able to recertify their benefits for another three-month period without once again submitting a centralized application.
Housing advocates who work on the ground with at-risk renters argue that the move to ration dollars will displace more people and muddy the waters around who can access state support, all while Beacon Hill sits atop a mountain of unspent federal dollars.
Kelly Turley, the associate director of Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, said helping tenants in crisis should be “at or near the top” of the list for how to use the more than $2.3 billion in remaining American Rescue Plan Act funding.
“A lot of the concern is not only that the changes are going to go into effect, but also that there really wasn’t much transparency or notification to households that are depending on this program,” Turley told the News Service. “The idea that the administration would move forward with changes without talking to the Legislature and asking for additional funds for emergency rental assistance seems very extreme and unnecessary, and disruptive to both households that are relying on the program and looking to access the program as well as landlords.”
The updated policies will hit the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition program, or RAFT, and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, or ERAP, effective Jan. 1.
