Letter from the Executive Director for March 2024: It’s a Secret
| . Posted in News - 13 Comments
February 2024 will forever be the month I learned the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has been corrupted at the highest level. But here we are stuck in it. So in this letter I detail our ongoing work to fix it. Plus, we started new projects and held some events, which ought to have improved some lives despite the state's best effort to stop us.
The big event took place after-hours on Feb. 15. At 6 p.m., 0 minutes and 21 seconds, Supreme Judicial Court servers fired off an email denying our application for further appellate review of our longstanding lawsuit. Thus ended my chance for a good night's sleep, along with two years of litigation intended to shine a light on rental assistance. The state denied 70,000 applications for pandemic rental assistance. It lost 50,000 more to supervision. Those renters, their families and their landlords were all harmed (evicted, bankrupted or worse). And the state offers no explanation. Yet after two and half years, dozens of pages of legal briefs, four affidavits, two hearings, three courts and at least five judges – possibly as many as 10 – our whole effort just to see the public record was denied with five inexplicable words: "failure to state a claim."
The loss shook me. I had imagined the SJC were incorruptible, the height of public service. Surely they would read and apply the law? But no. As if to show us just how political the SJC can be, Governor Healey recently nominated an ex-lover to the court. Even if that nominee were the best (which is not likely), that's just not what a public servant should do or how a public body should be comprised. But that is what the governor has done. It is how our SJC was comprised. While our case was being denied, the SJC was agreeing to hear a matter concerning a brothel. The moral is clear: if you want to get heard before the SJC, someone in power has to want it.
Besides the state wielding power, the media also wields power. And this is the other reason the loss shook me. I tried and failed to get our case into the news before the SJC denied us. But no one dared support us publicly. We have it on good authority that no one felt free to do so. The nature of power is being able to take food off someone's table. That is the kind of power Massachusetts government wields over both renter advocacy nonprofits and media organizations. If either were to side with us and concede openly that possibly the administration had room for improvement, then they could be harmed by funding denials or lack of access. We are therefore on our own. We always were. I just hadn't realized how true it was.
I hold out hope that this matter is not yet done. Just because the courts didn't willingly show us the data doesn't mean we are out of options. Meanwhile, for those of us living and working here, MassLandlords remains a needed force for good. Moreso all the time.
To that end, we gave an engaging Springfield crash course, a 60-attendee Mass Save event, and a highly-rated Waltham review of ADU laws. We also started projects to upgrade our notices to quit and our event visibility in search engines. We aren't going anywhere.
Thank you for supporting our mission to create better rental housing. We've got your back only because you've got ours. Please join as a member, encourage others to join, become a property rights supporter or increase your level of support. We aim to hire both a full-time educator and policy advocate.
Sincerely,
Douglas Quattrochi
Executive Director
MassLandlords, Inc.
Thanks for your work, Doug. Very troubling
Doug — sorry that your hopes were dashed. I feel your pain. I am and have been very concerned about small “landlords” because they can no longer toe the line with legislature and politicians that don’t understand how precarious our profit really is. There is going to be a reckoning at some point in the future….can’t happen soon enough to save the small landlord industry. Thanks for what you do every day to shed light where it truly needs to be
Thank you Doug, I appreciate and value your efforts.
As someone who has encountered corruption, which you touch upon in your letter, the extent of the complicit dishonesty has reached an alltime high. My five years serving in the State House, six years as an elected official, and eight years as an agency head provided me great insight into the “system.” Clearly, to me, our current climate of corruption is at its worst.
Let us not be detered to keep our efforts for truth and justice going strong, the goods guys always win in the end.
Please let me know if I can be of assistance to your efforts.
Best regards,
David
I am disheartened by this result. I feel your pain after so much time and crucial information was gathered and put before the court and it apparently did not matter. It smells.
I thank you and everyone else that worked so tirelessly to make a good case. Are the high courts so political even in states?
I’m sorry Doug – I saw this one coming a mile away – this, and Rent Control. There’s an old saying, “You can’t fight City Hall”; unfortunately, it’s still valid. Too much money is spent on an ‘unwinnable’ fight against those with power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and, can you imagine the favors to be cashed in when Rent Control is approved? Unimaginable.
Do the right thing always but, don’t be fooled into thinking others will, too.
Doug,
I agree with you but for years it’s been a much bigger fight than we realize.
Unless we identify and expose the many headed hydra of woke, who is funding it and why are they funding it, we will lose. Look at the streets, for example.
The childish utopian dreams are only dreamt by useful puppets.
Where is there someone who will really take this on who has the level of intelligence and resources that drive it? It’s an insidious war and it’s been funded for a long time.
Otherwise, ‘we’ will be eating crickets and ‘liking’ it.
As you imply, Massachusetts is a mess. However, we have to be wiser about compromise and resolution.
This is very disturbing news indeed. Many thanks for your really hard work on this–we all appreciate your efforts since most of us do not have the knowledge (nor time and energy) to argue the case. I am truly sorry for all renters and housing providers that have been harmed by the State’s mishandling of what could have been real help for those in need during the pandemic, as well as the State’s failure to take responsibility for the harm they caused. The truth in this matter will come out one day, but unfortunately that does not help anyone now.
Keep up the good work you do.
Dear Doug,
I hold immense respect for your unwavering dedication towards advocating for Massachusetts landlords. Your efforts are commendable and have not gone unnoticed. However, I must express my concerns again regarding the current strategy of navigating through the Massachusetts legal and government framework, which, as you’ve acknowledged, seems to be faltering. You encapsulated the struggle vividly, stating, “After two and a half years, dozens of pages of legal briefs, four affidavits, two hearings, three courts, and at least five judges – potentially up to ten – our concerted efforts to access public records were rebuffed with a baffling five words: ‘failure to state a claim.'”
It is crucial to recognize that these endeavors are not yours alone. Members of MassLandlords who contribute to the Property Rights Fund anticipate some form of return on their donations, despite being fully aware of the substantial challenges involved.
In my view there are only two viable pathways to achieve our goals.
Firstly, elevating a case to the U.S. Supreme Court might seem unattainable, yet it’s important to remember that it was precisely this court that shielded landlords nationwide from the eviction moratorium. This victory was secured through challenges presented in federal court by realtor associations in Alabama and Georgia, along with landlords from these states. Similarly, New York landlords nearly succeeded in bringing their anti-rent control case before the Supreme Court. Although the court ultimately declined to hear the case, Justice Clarence Thomas issued a dissenting opinion, indicating a possibility for future consideration.
The second strategy involves orchestrating referendums. Historical evidence suggests Massachusetts voters are sympathetic to landlord causes, as demonstrated by the state-wide rent control referendum in 1994 and the Cambridge rent control referendum in 2003. Additionally, a recent initiative to introduce rent control failed to garner sufficient signatures in 2023.
Beyond the issue of unpaid rental assistance, the overarching challenges include the demeaning treatment of landlords, mainly the excessive difficulties surrounding evictions. Some other grievances such as the recent mandate for daily cleaning of common kitchens in multi-tenant residences need addressing.
I propose the development of a balanced, and possibly tenant-friendly, landlord-tenant relationship code that stands a strong chance of being approved in a state-wide referendum. This approach should aim to offer compromises where feasible, such as not enforcement of lease agreements in terms of staying in a rental unit until the end of a lease, which, in reality, are not enforced anyway.
With best regards,
Alex Narinsky
I know this is terrible news, but Doug I’m glad you’re letting everybody know about it and that you are going to continue the fight.
“If you can’t beat ’em, outlast ’em.”
Walter
First, thank you to Doug and the rest of the team.
Second, hopefully these efforts and others will continue.
Third, the fact remains the housing costs will be best solved with rental assistance and an increase in supply, and not by rent control. We must continue to push the undeniable logic of these facts even against massive head winds.
Again, thank you.
Terrific job as always Doug. Yes as a scientific person one assumes the correct answer to a problem will gain acceptance, not so in public machinations. Too bad, it does leave one with a negative outlook.
Doug,
This is disheartening but not surprising.
I still believe in MA Landlords and am thankful for for this community.
The unintended consequences will be painfully obvious. Landlords will now not even rent to someone if they see that there is a sealed eviction note. My position would be to put the angst on the applicant to pull their own court records. And if they refuse to do that, I will deny them.