Letter from the Executive Director for November 2015

Let's talk politics. Hardly a week goes by when someone doesn't request MassLandlords to take a position on this or that issue.

We have started to catalog the growing list of concerns at MassLandlords.net/laws and /policy. The list is far longer than we are in a position to tackle. Since we launched in 2014, we have come across only three bite-sized problems.

The first of these was to collect data on current eviction processes, building a case toward rent escrow. The idea behind rent escrow is to stop the "free rent trick," in which financially insolvent tenants manufacture habitability claims in order to drag out an eviction. We've collected data on the eviction process. This work is relatively straightforward and can be outsourced. Generous contributions from groups like the Small Property Owners Association have encouraged this ongoing work.

The second issue was the idea of a landlord-tenant guarantee, or as I prefer to call it, insurance against homelessness. Here the door to change was opened for us by three people: Sandra Katz, a Worcester landlord; her senator, Harriette Chandler, of 1st Worcester; and Peter Shapiro, a landlord in Cambridge and experienced non-profit mediator, who had been studying the data from Seattle's guarantee program for years. By reaching "across the aisle", so to speak, we were able to copy-paste a pilot program from Seattle, more or less. Our survey data have informed the program with Massachusetts specifics.

The third bite-sized problem we've tackled was about security deposits. Can a violation of the byzantine security deposit law overturn an eviction? We believe it cannot. We agreed to lend our name to an amicus briefing recently filed with the Supreme Judicial Court. The briefing was written entirely by Attorney Peter Vickery in Springfield, on his initiative. Although it took input from me, Atty Komack in Springfield, Atty Ward in Cambridge, and many others, this effort like the others was bite-sized and fact-based.

There is a real need in the Commonwealth for reasonable, fact-based policy. But the facts, contrary to what we might hope, do not speak for themselves. No, it's too easy for those in control of hundred million dollar budgets to cherry pick the data that supports their growing empire. There is both incentive and ability to maintain the status quo. One homelessness advocate explained it like this: it would be preferable if homelessness got worse under the current Republican governor. I found this statement truly evil. I don't use that word lightly.

Overcoming ideology demands from us all that public policy can be and should be. It demands the most assiduous attention to detail. It demands the most statistical rigor. It demands the greatest intellectual honesty. This is what MassLandlords can be for housing in Massachusetts. This is what we will become.

It's a long road from here to there. Thank you most sincerely for your continued support on this journey.

Sincerely,
Doug Quattrochi
Executive Director
C: 617-285-7255