January 21, 2024

Housing advocates: Evictions on the rise across state, region

BY Greta Jochem | gjochem@repub.comMassLive

SPRINGFIELD — As federal pandemic-era programs have faded, evictions are rising across the state.

Eviction filing rates have climbed and are higher than they were before the pandemic, according to a new report from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership, a public nonprofit group that works on affordable housing with the state.

The rise is concerning, the organization says.

“The increase in filings we observed is not the result of localized housing instability issues— for instance, increased rates in a few larger cities — but rather, is indicative of a statewide trend, that renters across Massachusetts are struggling to afford their rents,” the report says.

That includes Hampden County.

In the six-month period the report analyzed, Holyoke, Chicopee and Springfield had the highest rates of filed eviction cases per renting households compared to other larger municipalities in the state, the report says. In Springfield, 866 eviction cases were filed in the six-month period, according to the report.

The organization’s previous reports found Hampden County had among the lowest rates, which it attributed to a high use of federally-funded rental relief and “excellent coordination of housing assistance programs.”

Community Legal Aid, which provides free civil legal aid in Central and Western Massachusetts, saw its housing and homelessness workload increase last year. In 2023, the housing and homelessness unit saw a 29% increase in cases from the previous year, and the group was fundraising to meet the rising need.

The report on rising rates did not surprise Andrea Park, a housing attorney at Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, a poverty law and policy center.

The organization had been tracking eviction data in the state, Park said. Early in the pandemic, advocates worried about a tsunami of evictions, and programs and protections like an eviction moratorium were put in place and staved it off.

Now, rates are rising again.

“This is what we warned about,” Park said. She pointed to policy changes that could help, like enacting local rental control and increasing renters’ access to legal support, as the vast majority of people facing eviction cases are not represented by an attorney.

The Massachusetts Housing Partnership report says the data shows the need to reinvigorate pandemic-era rental assistance programs.

“Now that these programs have been discontinued or reduced in scale and eligibility, and with evictions on the rise, it is a good time to consider the adequacy of remaining programs, and whether course correction is necessary to recapture the gains in housing stability achieved in the past several years.”

In August, the state approved the revival of an eviction prevention initiative that requires courts to pause evictions while a tenant is waiting a rental assistance application review.