Mayoral hopeful Andrea Campbell painted herself as the only candidate without ties to the citys influential development industry, while also calling on Acting Mayor Kim Janey to enact an eviction moratorium.
Im the only candidate that actually does not have any ties whatsoever to anyone in the development community, Campbell said at a press conference Monday.
She was likely referring to her mayoral rival Annissa Essaibi-George, whose husband is a real estate developer in Boston.
Other candidates, including Janey, John Barros and Essaibi-Georges husband, are landlords, and Michelle Wus husband works in the commercial real estate industry. Campbell later clarified that she has no personal ties to development, including through family.
A Boston Herald analysis conducted in July found that Janey raked in about $100,000 from developers since March, while Essaibi-George raised over $80,000 from developers in that same time period. Rounding out the group was Barros, who took in the next-highest chunk relative to his total earnings, at over $34,000. Campbell raised about $32,000 out of $588,000 from developers, while Wu raised $19,000 out of $606,000.
On Tuesday, Campbell also called on Janey to enact an eviction moratorium in Boston, as neighboring cities like Cambridge, Somerville and Malden have done.
Last week, the Supreme Court struck down the existing federal moratorium put in place by the Centers for Disease Control, saying that it was an overreach by the CDC and that Congress must specifically authorize it themselves.
The state-level eviction moratorium in Massachusetts was not renewed by Gov. Charlie Baker.
Campbell also called for a faster disbursement of rental assistance. A release by her office stated that out of over $50 million in rental assistance available to Boston renters, only $16 million has been distributed to over 3,000 families in the city as of earlier this month.
She added that as mayor, she wants to provide better resources to the Office of Housing Stability, permanently fund the citys Rental Relief Fund and create a workforce housing voucher program to cut down on the Housing Authoritys waiting lists, among other programs.
The latest poll of the mayoral candidates shows Wu leading with 24% of the vote, Essaibi-George in second with 18%, Janey at 16%, Campbell at 14% and Barros with 2%. A quarter of likely voters are still up for grabs.
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