LYNN — Despite the federal moratorium on evictions, some Lynn families say they have felt pressured to leave their homes.
The moratorium prevents the final step of expulsion until Jan. 31, but still allows the eviction process to move forward in the courts.
More than 6,000 formal court evictions have been filed in Massachusetts since the statewide moratorium expired on Oct. 17, according to trial court statistics.
At least 115 eviction cases have been filed in Lynn, according to the court.
One man, who preferred to go by his nickname Fiss, has been helping his parents deal with an eviction order that they received in December.
“When my parents got the eviction notice they were shocked because, in my country, if you get an eviction notice it means you’re out the next day,” said Fiss, who attended Lynn English High School. “They don’t care — they just take your stuff and throw it out. My mom was in tears because she didn’t know how the system works in America.”
His parents are Eritrean, and his family moved to the United States about 10 years ago. His mom worked as a cook at Boston Logan International Airport, and his dad worked as a parking attendant, but they both lost their jobs at the beginning of the pandemic.
They have both been receiving unemployment benefits, which they have put toward rent for their Lynn apartment.
When they were receiving the monthly $600 dollar unemployment boost, they were able to pay their rent in full, but now that those benefits have been reduced, they have struggled to make ends meet.
“They’ve been using all the money they could to pay for housing and necessities,” said Fiss. “November and December were the two hardest months for them because the unemployment was lowered and the money they had saved started to run out.”
Both of them are older, and his mom has diabetes, so they have been wary about seeking out work during the pandemic.
Fiss contacted the landlord’s lawyer about the notice, who informed him inaccurately that his parents were not eligible for Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) funding because they had already received funds.
He proposed a payment plan under which his parents would pay $1,500 for rent instead of the usual $1,300 to catch up to the missed payments, and suggested that they get jobs.
His parents later discovered that they were actually eligible to receive a second round of RAFT funding, which negated what Fiss had been told by the attorney.
“It was a tough moment,” said Fiss. “There was a lot of fear and anxiety. My parents aren’t sure what to do next.”
Lawmakers have been trying to address the crisis through the state budget, which allocates $100 million in emergency rental assistance through RAFT, and up to $12.3 million to provide tenants and landlords with access to legal representation and related services before and during the eviction process, and community mediation to bring tenants and landlords together to find a resolution outside of eviction, and nearly $50 million for post-eviction rapid rehousing.
But these state funds are not always enough to prevent eviction notices.
A Lynn resident and single mother, who preferred to go by her first name, Emma, was in the onboarding process to begin a job packing food at the airport when the pandemic struck, and she was unable to come in to work.
In November, she received her first eviction notice for failure to pay rent.
“My first thought was, where am I going to take my daughter?” said Emma through a translator.
She believed that the notice was unfair, because it charged her for the full rent payment from January through November, despite the fact that she had contributed her stimulus check and some of the money she had been able to collect throughout the year toward rent.
The monthly rent at her studio apartment on Oxford Street was $1,600.
She was able to receive RAFT funding in December, which was paid to the landlord, but it was not enough to prevent another notice to vacate from arriving on Dec. 31.
“That was my New Year’s gift,” she said. “They said, ‘you can’t live here, you have to get out.'”
Emma said the landlords began calling her to ask her to vacate the premises.
The landlords have backed off somewhat since then, which has given Emma time to search for another apartment.
“Landlords are also human, and I understand that they are in a situation where they have to pay their mortgage,” said Emma. “But considering we’re in the middle of a pandemic, in a situation like mine, where I’m keeping everything clean and giving every penny I can towards my rent, they should be a little more understanding to the tenants.”
Evictions have the potential to increase the spread of COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which cites stable housing as a vital tool in controlling the pandemic.
“During a pandemic, calling a temporary halt to evictions can be an effective public health measure to prevent the spread of disease,” the CDC’s eviction moratorium document said. “A temporary halt of evictions can help people who get sick, or who are at risk for severe illness from COVID-19, protect themselves and others by staying in one place to quarantine.”
The CDC said local stay-at-home orders are much more effective when people have homes to stay in, and stable housing allows people to avoid congregating in areas like homeless shelters, where the disease frequently spreads.
As part of the “Housing is the Cure National Day of Action,” organized by the Homes For All Coalition, Lynn activists gathered outside of City Hall Wednesday afternoon to denounce evictions during the pandemic and distribute information about rights and resources to vulnerable tenants.
The group marched to 1 Brightwood Terrace, where they held a rally outside of a building owned by KCMP Capital, which, according to trial court data, has filed eviction notices against several Lynn tenants.
The group, led by Lynn United for Change, announced through a bullhorn that help was available to tenants facing eviction.
Upon hearing the announcements, two tenants came outside to report that they had also been recently threatened with eviction.
Guthrie Scrimgeour can be reached at [email protected].
