While the extension of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions federal eviction moratorium allowed renters to breathe a sigh of relief, landlords across Massachusetts are still worried about how theyll keep a roof over their own heads.
Theres all kinds of articles about the tenants who are about to be homeless. You know, if they dont pay their rent, Im gonna be homeless, said Paulette Houston, 67, who rents out a three-bedroom apartment in her two-family Roxbury home she inherited from her mother.
Houston said her tenants, a family with two teenagers, owe her $7,710 in rent on her $1,800 a month property. With only a $1,700 monthly check coming in from Social Security since shes retired, she said she can barely afford to cover her mortgage and other expenses.
Houston said landlords look may like the bad guys in the media but, its not true. In her case, her only option to get rental assistance is through the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) program, which provides local landlords with up to $10,000.
But Houston said her tenants have refused to finish the application, which asks a series of detailed questions including applicants Social Security numbers and other personal information.
More frustratingly, she said, the couple was only out of work for two months at the beginning of the pandemic, and should be able to pay the rent. They have had the funds, she said, but because of the COVID eviction moratorium, I cant get them out.
Doug Quattrochi, executive director of Mass. Landlords Incorporated and himself a small landlord in Worcester, said that although the core idea that people should have a home during a pandemic makes sense, it doesnt seem like a really carefully crafted policy, he said.
The new guidelines, which only apply the moratorium to areas of high transmission, means that some landlords have only some of their properties covered by the law. On top of that, the CDC is doing this without the direct connection to funding, he said. The fact that its separate, allows for potentially the moratorium to cover more people than are covered by the funding.
At the federal level, he added, the law only works if people know it exists. If people dont fill out the piece of paper, they get no protection, he said. Once they fill out the CDCs declaration form, theyre protected from eviction.
In Massachusetts, the additional rental assistance application is long and detailed and especially challenging for non-English speakers. Almost 5,000 applications were incomplete and timed out between January and June of this year, according to state data.
After helping his tenant fill out an application, Quattrochi didnt receive the $8,000 he was owed until four months later, when the funds were wordlessly dropped into his bank account.
All landlords want is to get paid, he said. Its really the administration of the rental assistance that is the problem.
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