Instead of extending outdated policies, as Banker & Tradesman called for in a recent editorial, we should increase housing production and create needs-based rental aid programs, where property owners receive the funds directly.
With federal money running out, the Baker administration announced that it is closing several pandemic-era emergency rental aid program to new applicants.
As the economy rebounds and employment increases, many of our friends and neighbors remain homeless or at risk of losing their home. But we don’t have to accept this situation.
A prominent group representing small landlords has sued state officials for access to data on the state’s pandemic rental aid program it says could show discrimination against renters of color and their landlords.
The federal government is revving up to redistribute some unspent rental aid it steered to states during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Massachusetts hopes to be near the top of the list to receive an extra boost.
Baker administration and judiciary officials touted the effort to connect renters and landlords with emergency aid as a model of success even as advocates and lawmakers contended that the system still has harmful gaps.
States and localities have only distributed 11 percent of the tens of billions of dollars in federal rental assistance, the Treasury Department said Wednesday, the latest sign the program is struggling to reach the millions of tenants at risk of eviction.
Not to downplay the pending foreclosures and evictions faced by millions of families, but the current national furor is a bit overblown.
