Rental Assistance Reform
Summary
This bill was filed by renter advocates in 2021 to make RAFT permanent. Currently RAFT only exists in budget language added and re-added each year.
MassLandlords would make three changes to the renter advocate proposal to strength RAFT protections further:
- Give a full 12 months of assistance paid in arrears, going forward, or some combination. We're seeing horrible disasters where a renter waits to apply, because they know it's only one month going forward. They're trying to maximize their benefit. Then the program times them out or rejects them, and it's too late. They get evicted.
- RAAs have to go through procurement. Currently the regional administering agencies (RAAs) do not have to meet subcontractor requirements for the commonwealth, do not have to participate in sealed competitive bidding, and do not experience market or regulatory pressures to improve their operations.
- Rental assistance should be a public record. In December 2021, MassLandlords filed suit against DHCD alleging possible discrimination in RAFT. This case is ongoing. The state are using renter privacy as a reason not to divulge landlord addresses, essentially hiding the geographic and racial distribution of RAFT funds from public scrutiny. Our suit does not ask for renter names. We expressly exclude the renter's names from the public record in this bill, but make it clear that addresses where rental assistance is used are public.
Supported by Staff
MassLandlords staff drafted or participated materially in the creation of bill text below. Members will be polled at the next update of the policy priorities survey.Bill Numbers
Full Text and Explanation of the RAFT Reform Bill
Bill Text May Change
The legislative process involves many changes to most bills. Our goal with bill explainers like this is to communicate core concepts assuming final wording is beyond our control. If you feel we missed or misunderstood a core concept about this bill, please contribute to this explainer by emailing hello@masslandlords.net or by using the support widget on this page. Pointing out typos or poor drafting is appreciated on green bills (we wrote or support).|
An Act Relative to Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT).
|
|
|
SECTION 1. |
|
|
Chapter 23B of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2018 Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting after section 30 the following section:-
|
|
|
Section 31. |
|
|
(a) Subject to appropriation, the department of housing and community development shall administer the residential assistance for families in transition homelessness prevention program for households whose incomes are at or below area median income and who are at risk of homelessness, eviction, foreclosure or utility shut-off within the next 12 months.
|
|
|
For the purposes of this program, to receive cash benefits or other services, a household need not be subject to summary process under chapter 239 nor have received a shut-off notice from a utility company.
|
|
|
Risk of eviction, foreclosure and utility shut-off may be determined by certified statements from the landlord, mortgage holder, utility company, or the applicant household verifying outstanding rent, mortgage or utility costs and the household’s current inability to pay said fees.
|
|
|
The department shall set aside 50 per cent of the funds for households with incomes not greater than 30 per cent of area median income, but nothing in this section shall be construed so as to create a purpose in delaying awards to higher income households.
|
|
|
Eligible households shall include, but not be limited to, families with children under the age of 21, elders, persons with disabilities, and unaccompanied youth.
|
|
|
Services and cash benefits under the program shall be made available to households for the prevention of the loss of subsidized or unsubsidized housing.
|
|
|
Cash benefits for arrearages shall not exceed the actual liability, but cash benefits shall not be limited to arrearages.
|
|
|
Eligible households may receive benefits for short-term going-forward rental or utility payments to offset future costs, and to pay for other expenses that otherwise would leave the household at risk of homelessness, up to a total benefit equal to 12 months’ rent.
|
RAFT should cover 12 months' rent.
|
|
Lest the program act regressively in areas of opportunity, any budget established subsequent to this Act that establishes a cap on total benefit in dollar amounts shall be override the cap established in this section only to the extent that cap is greater than 12 months’ rent.
|
|
|
Furthermore, in any budget established subsequent to this Act, the naming of a regional administering agency or other agent shall not preclude the requirements of Chapter 30B.
|
The regional administering agencies will have to bid competitively for their contracts to administer RAFT. This could end regional monopolies, increase quality of service, and expand access to underserved populations by encouraging new, more competitive methods and administration technologies. |
|
In administering the program, the department shall coordinate with the department of transitional assistance, member agencies and offices of the Massachusetts interagency council on housing and homelessness and the agencies contracted to administer the residential assistance for families in transition program on behalf of eligible households served by those agencies and offices so as streamline the application process, provide additional support services, and better promote upstream homelessness prevention and housing stability.
|
|
|
(b) The department shall annually, on or before December 31, issue a report on the rental and mortgage arrearage assistance program created by this section. |
|
|
The report shall be submitted to the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means;
|
|
|
the Joint Committee on Housing;
|
|
|
and the House and Senate Clerks.
|
|
|
The report shall include but not be limited to the following information:
(i) the referral source for each household and number of households referred by said source; |
|
|
(ii) the number of applications requested, the number of applications completed, the number of applications approved; |
|
|
(iii) the number of applications rejected and the reasons for denial; |
|
|
(iv) the household income and demographic information for each qualifying household and its members. |
|
|
This information shall be provided by zip code and cumulatively;
|
|
|
(v) the monthly rent or mortgage liability for each qualifying household and the amount of each arrearage payment; |
|
|
and
(vi) the housing status of each qualifying household at six, twelve, and twenty-four months after receipt of services or cash benefits. |
|
|
Section 2
Chapter 66 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after Section 21 the following: Section 22. |
|
|
Documents pertaining to rental assistance.
|
|
|
In order to ensure the just, efficient and discrimination-free administration of housing services, a document made by the Department of Housing and Community Development or its agent, whether a Regional Administering Agency or other person or entity, pertaining to rental assistance in any form described under Chapter 23B or Chapter 151B Section 4, shall be considered a public record under this chapter to the extent it identifies the lessor, owner, manager or other recipient of funds, the precise address at which housing services were rendered, and the amount and dates of such assistance, provided however that the names of renters, tenants, subtenants, and other occupants of the premises at time of such assistance shall not be public records.
|
The places and times where RAFT gets used should be public, but the renters names should be confidential.
|
|
|
