Resolution in Support of S.874 and H.1435, an Act Promoting Housing Stability and Homelessness Prevention In Massachusetts. On motion of Edwards , rule 12 was invoked to include Councilor Bok as a co-sponsor. On motion of Councilor Edwards, Arroyo and Bok, the rules were suspended; the resolution was adopted.
Councilor Edwards. Councilor Clarity. Councilor Flynn. Councilor Siby George. Beside the chair. Please add Councilor Wu as well and docket 1079 shall be referred to the Committee on Education. And I'm Clark. Would you now please read docket 1080 Docket 1080. Councilors Edwards and Arroyo are for the following resolution in support of Senate Bill 874 and House Bill 1435, an act promoting housing stability and homelessness prevention in Massachusetts. Thank you. The chair now recognizes the district council from East Boston. Councilor Edwards, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I was hoping to for 12 and add Councilor Baucus and original co-sponsor. Councilor Lydia Edwards seek suspension of Rule 12 and the addition of Councilor Kenzie BLOCK as an original co-sponsor on Docket 1080. Seeing no objection, she is hereby added. Please proceed. Thank you very much. I'm presenting this resolution today to my colleagues, and I hope that you will support Senate Bill 874 and House Bill 1436. Currently before the Joint Committee on Housing, we provide both low income and vulnerable tenants and owner occupants, also landlords of 1 to 3 family homes at their sole dwelling as their sole dwelling with legal representation. I'll repeat this. This is a bill to provide legal representation to both tenants and landlords, small landlords and low income tenants. Why is it necessary? I come to you as a former tenant and our current landlord. The deals are simply better. The conversations are smoother. People feel more represented and they feel that they are being heard and have access to justice when they are represented by an attorney. 85% of landlords have an attorney. I believe less than 6% of tenants who come before the court trying to fight for their homes have an attorney . That doesn't make sense. I come to you also as a legal services attorney who understands that half the battle is oftentimes helping them navigate the system. Someone who gets an eviction notice, clams up, gets frightened, and may end up doing things that are not necessary, moving fast or signing documents they don't need to don't understand because they are trying their best to get rid of this situation. And what I encourage is for people to talk immediately to either go to mediation. But I can't imagine how frightening it is to show up in court. You don't have childcare. You're there with your child sometimes and you're sitting there waiting for whoever knows how long because everyone is told to show up at 9:00 in the morning and then you're there the entire day. You'll miss your hourly wages. You might end up threatening your job or losing your job. You're having all of these burdens placed on you. I also know the other side as a landlord. I haven't received rent. I'm dealing with difficult tenants and they won't talk to me because they're intimidated. Obviously, I'm their landlord and I own the building that they live in and I want nothing more oftentimes to be able to pick up the phone and negotiate right away with whoever represents them. I want to resolve the issues. And I think most landlords and most tenants want a resolution. But if you are sitting there talking with someone who may not speak English, doesn't have an attorney, how can you honestly say you're giving them a true attempt in a true, honorable way to negotiate for their ability to stay or to leave on dignified terms? You can't. So this right to counsel, Bill, is going to help out those low income tenants. It's going to help out those small landlords who oftentimes cannot afford an attorney either because the rents are paying their mortgage. Right. These are people who are making huge amounts of money. These are people oftentimes who are on Social Security who may have paid off their mortgage, and then that is their only income. I think they should have a right to counsel as well. And I'm happy that this bill does both. This is a moment where we need to really assess honestly how all of our systems are working. The housing system isn't working. It isn't working for a lot of landlords. It certainly isn't working for a lot of tenants. And so I think this is one more tool in the toolbox to help both sides get to resolutions and to really affirm in the state of Massachusetts that housing is a human right. So I am I, I specifically wanted to invite Councilor Arroyo into this conversation and to be a lead sponsor because he already has done the work at CPC. KPCC's Excuse me, and making sure and understanding of the right to counsel oftentimes is a right to literally life. And freedom. And I wanted I wanted his voice and I wanted his perspective. And I thank you for being a co-sponsor for this cancer radio. Thank you. The channel recognizes the district council from Hyde Park in the lead co-sponsor, Councilor Ricardo Arroyo. The floor is yours. Thank you. And thank you to Councilor Edwards for your leadership on this. This is not a new issue for you that you've been leading on. And as a public defender, my my job often meant that I was actually in different courts, including house in court sometimes for my clients, where I had to ask for permission to represent them in those spaces. Because the latest, you know, before it was trendy, my big thing was to tell folks that stabilization was the key word in the work that I did that folks were living on stabilized lives. And largely the biggest stabilization factor for them was housing and their lack of housing or the tenuous understanding that they had that the housing could be taken from them in time. This right to counsel for eviction proceedings for housing rights. Most folks do not know their housing rights. Most folks are actively Googling or trying to figure out in some format where you're processing your housing advocacy and that in the system's not built for that. It's systems not built to treat people who are processed respectfully. It's not built to their benefit. It's not built for folks who don't understand the system. There is no doubt in my mind that if we had counsel or right to counsel for housing, housing rights and for folks going through eviction proceedings, we would see very different outcomes . And we would also see a very different approach from landlords and from folks who use this maliciously. And to give you a sense of that, in my district this last year, we had Beacon Properties, which is Georgetown is better known as Georgetown Homes, where they issued hundreds of eviction notices, specifically for the purpose of scaring the residents into applying for at the time rental relief program. I believe they've then rescinded all of that. However, because eviction proceedings are forever on somebody's record, all of them carry that black mark. I think we've been doing some repair work on that, but that is the kind of carelessness and callousness that it leads to when, you know, there won't be a check, when you know that there's not going to be an attorney on the other side of that who says what you're doing is wrong, what you're doing is actually incorrect. And unfortunately, for many folks who find themselves in these situations, they do not have the resources or the ability to hire private attorneys to go to folks for counsel. This is a wildly important thing for residents. It's something that the state is well behind. And I think this bill has been present for a while. They've certainly been advocating for this for a while. And I hope we see this done because exiting this pandemic, we're heading into a time of real financial and fiscal uncertainty where folks need those kinds of resources, folks need those kinds of protections and they deserve them. So thank you to Counselor Edwards for her leadership on sponsoring this. I'm happy to co-sponsor this, and I look forward to eventually seeing real change for these folks on a on a state and city level. Thank you. Thank you, Counselor Arroyo. The chair now recognizes the second co-sponsor, the district council from Beacon Hill, Councilor Kenzie Bok. The floor is yours. Thank you so much, Mr. President. And thank you to Councilors Edwards and Arroyo for allowing me to join. I was proud to testify in favor of this bill at the State House last week. And I just really you know, I want to emphasize the point that, you know, the service that Councilor Arroyo did as a public defender is so critical, as my brother does that now. And and yet we have this split system where we know someone's entitled to that on the criminal side, but on the civil side, they're not. And obviously, the notion there is that something more significant is happening on the criminal side, because you might lose your liberty. Right. And and not on the civil side. But I think we all just have to recognize that when someone is at risk of losing their housing because of a court action that is as fundamental to their life as the as the possibility of imprisonment oftentimes, and it can really derail things in a really fundamental way. So I just think I really commend our Department of Neighborhood Development, and I'm glad that the council has been able to partner with the administration over the past sort of year and a half with COVID to to get ourselves the kind of, you know, right to council style pilot in Boston and to put resources there. But it's just fundamentally different. If we could actually do it at the state level and make it a kind of a real stable commitment that we have to to people's legal rights being upheld. It's just changing the game for tenants so strongly in support of this. And and I hope that the council will join in passing it today. Thank you. Thank you, Councilor. But would anybody else wish to speak on docket 1080 saying none. Would any councilors wish to add their name as a co-sponsor? Madam Clerk, please add Councilor Baker. Councilor Braden. Councilor Campbell. Councilor Siby George. Councilor Flaherty. Councilor Flynn, Councilor me here please add the chair. Please add Councilor Wu. And you're asking for suspension of the rules, right? Sponsors? Yes. So Councilors Edwards, Arroyo and Bok are seeking suspension of the roles and adoption of Docket 1080. All those in favor, please indicate by saying. I suppose the ayes have it. The docket has passed. It's been adopted. Madam Clerk, would you now please read docket 1081?