An Action Plan to
Reduce Evictions in Boston
December 2019
Mayor Martin J. Walsh would like to thank the members of the
Eviction Prevention Task Force for their willingness to lend their expertise and
leadership in the crafting of this Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston.
Task Force Members:
Patricia Baumer, Director of Government Affairs, Greater Boston Real Estate Board
Zoe Cronin, Managing Attorney, Housing Unit, Greater Boston Legal Services
Janet Frazier, President and CEO, Maloney Properties
Soni Gupta, Director of Neighborhoods and Housing, The Boston Foundation
Brian Kean, Executive Vice President, WinnResidential
Sean Kelly-Rand, Small Property Owner
Joe Kriesberg, President, MA Association of Community Development Corporations
Eloise Lawrence, Attorney, Harvard Legal Aid Bureau
Gail Livingston, Deputy Administrator for Housing Programs, Boston Housing Authority
Kathleen McCabe, Managing Director of Policy & Practice, Health Resources in Action
Susan Nohl, Deputy Director, Metro Housing Boston
Chris Norris, Executive Director, Metro Housing Boston
Matt Pritchard, President and Executive Director, Homestart
Lauren Song, Attorney, Greater Boston Legal Services
Lisa Owens, Executive Director, City Life/Vida Urbana
Eviction Prevention Task Force Co-Chairs
Sheila Dillon, Chief of Housing and Director, Department of Neighborhood Development
The Task Force would like to acknowledge the contributions of Jessie Dubin,
a graduate student at the Boston University School of Public Health, to this report.
AN ACTION PLAN TO
REDUCE EVICTIONS IN BOSTON
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Background 3
The Eviction Prevention Task Force 4
I. Analysis of Eviction Data: Defining the Landscape 6
II. Effects of Eviction 15
III. Existing Supports 18
Financial Assistance 18
Legal Representation and Mediation 19
Other Innovations 20
IV. Recommendations: Expansions, Improvements,
and New Ideas 23
Appendices
Appendix A. Resource Guide: Financial Assistance 27
Appendix B. Resource Guide: Support at Housing Court 29
Appendix C. Resource Guide: Support Outside
of Housing Court 32
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 2
Background
In 2014, one of Martin J. Walsh’s first acts as Mayor was to convene a Task
Force to create an overarching housing policy for the City of Boston. The Mayor’s
Housing Advisory Task Force brought together housing development professionals
from both the nonprofit and for profit sectors, housing advocates, service providers,
academics, legislators, funders, and a broad array of professional staff from across
City government. The resulting housing policy, Housing a Changing City: Boston
2030, was released in October 2014 with ambitious goals focused on how Boston’s
growing population was outstripping its housing supply, leading to escalating need
for affordable options in Boston’s housing market.
Housing a Changing City: Boston 2030 called for a strong response in
housing production to create a more equitable and inclusive city. The 2018 Update
to this plan set a goal of creating 69,000 new housing units by 2030 with specific
targets for production at different affordability levels. These 69,000 new units include
15,820 new income-restricted units across a range of incomes, which will elevate
Boston's income-restricted inventory total to 70,000, while maintaining Boston’s
high ratio of income-restricted units. Currently, one in five of all housing units in
Boston is income-restricted, a ratio that rises to one in four when only rental units
are analyzed.
Although adding to Boston’s overall housing stock and its income-restricted
housing supply is critical to addressing the chronic undersupply of housing in
Boston, Mayor Walsh recognized that new production cannot be the only strategy
employed. With low- and moderate-income households in Boston increasingly at
risk of displacement due to rising costs and other factors, he announced the creation
of the Office of Housing Stability (OHS) in 2016. This office in the Department of
Neighborhood Development is the first of its kind in the nation; its mission is to work
with other City departments and external partners to prevent displacement and
ensure housing stability for Bostonians currently at risk of losing their tenancies.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 3
The Eviction Prevention Task Force
Averting displacement of those already at risk for it requires several different
intervention strategies. Tenants in housing crisis often need a combination of
services, including legal and financial assistance, dedicated housing search support,
landlord-tenant mediation, and assistance to access the network of housing
supports across the City and the State.
Preventing displacement on a broader scale requires different interventions.
Working as a coalition, the City of Boston, non-profit tenant advocacy organizations,
housing service providers, and the real estate community are collaborating on
creating effective policies and legislation to reduce displacement. In the 2017-2018
Legislative Session, Mayor Walsh filed a series of bills aimed at preventing
displacement by providing a right to legal counsel in eviction, a right for tenants to
purchase foreclosed properties, real-time tools to track evictions, and tax relief
incentives for landlords who keep properties affordable. Although the Legislature did
not pass any of these bills at the time, the tenant protection bills were revised and
refiled for the 2019-2020 legislative session. Current organizing efforts have led to
additional support and an increased likelihood of passage.
1
The number of tenants coming to OHS seeking relief and assistance from
eviction proceedings has continued to increase as the availability of OHS programs
and services to help avert eviction became better known. To better quantify the
outcomes of these cases, and to get a clearer picture of what was occurring citywide,
the City of Boston partnered with HomeStart, Inc. to collect evictions data beginning
in 2015. The City’s partnership with HomeStart, Inc. is to collect data on every eviction
filed in Boston Housing Court, and builds on past data collection efforts by One
Family, Inc., Project Hope, and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative.
1
The Mayor’s 2019-2020 Legislative Package will be discussed later in this document.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 4
In the 2018 Update to Housing A Changing City, Mayor Walsh created the
Eviction Prevention Task Force consisting of small property owners, legal services
agencies, housing service and rental assistance providers, public health
organizations, tenant advocates, community development corporations, and City of
Boston staff, including the leadership teams from OHS and the Boston Housing
Authority. Their charge was to examine the eviction and displacement landscape
and propose practical and implementable policy changes to reduce evictions and
promote stable tenancies. The Working Group convened in 2018-2019 to explore
best practices in other cities, review and refine policy proposals for the
Massachusetts legislature, identify gaps in current eviction prevention resources,
and finally, produce a report with recommendations for reducing the number of
evictions in Boston.
This Eviction Prevention Task Force Report begins with a summary of the
eviction data collected in the Eastern District Housing Court for the years 2015-2017.
Next, it offers brief explanations of the effects of evictions, and the existing programs
and services that provide impactful solutions. The report concludes with a goal for
reducing evictions and recommendations for the expansion of existing programs
and new initiatives. This report and its recommendations lay out a blueprint for work
that the Eviction Prevention Task Force will undertake.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 5
I. Analysis of Eviction Data: Defining the Landscape
The data utilized for this analysis was collected by HomeStart, Inc. in
partnership with the Office of Housing Stability. This data is from the Eastern
Housing Court because it is estimated that 90 percent of all eviction cases in Boston
go through this division. Prior to July 2017, the Housing Court exclusively covered
Boston and was called the Boston Housing Court. In 2017, as part of state-wide
expansion, a new Eastern Division of the Housing Court was created, covering
Boston
and nearby communities. Data from the Boston Housing Court and the new Eastern
Housing Court is amalgamated together for Boston cases.
2
The data represents eviction cases opened during 2015, 2016, and 2017.
Eviction cases are not resolved within a specific window of time, and many cases are
in the system for longer than the calendar year in which they were filed. For
example, data for 2015 represents eviction cases that began in 2015 but may have
been resolved in 2016. Using this methodology, data for “2017” represents cases
opened in 2017 that were being heard in the Eastern Housing Court through 2018.
Data from “2018” will be analyzed over the course of the next few months, and will
likely be available during the first six months of 2020.
Housing Court case level data from these years cannot be retrieved
electronically. Instead, legal interns pull each individual paper case file and manually
3
2
As of the fall of 2019, the Housing Court hears East Boston cases in a Chelsea satellite session on Mondays, along
with cases from Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop. Public housing cases are heard on Wednesdays from Boston,
Brookline, and Newton. Other Boston eviction cases are heard on Thursdays. Landlords still have the option of filing
evictions in the Boston Municipal Court divisions in East Boston, South Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury, West Roxbury,
Central, Charlestown, and Brighton, but residential tenants can file to transfer those cases to the Housing Court. The
eviction data here does not include the BMC cases which were not transferred.
3
For many cases currently entered with the Housing Court, far more data is accessible on-line via the Attorney
Portal, such as the summons, notice to quit, court agreements, motions, and orders. However, this is not uniform,
and physical file review often remains necessary for an accurate picture.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 6
enter case attributes into spreadsheets. Attributes of interest collected include:
housing location, landlord type meaning private market vs. subsidized tenancies,
arrearage amount, owner/ management company, attorney, neighborhood, and
case resolution, if there is one. Attributes that are not available include age,
race/ethnicity, disability, English proficiency, family composition and household
income. A reasonable assumption of the income level, however, at least for residents
of subsidized housing, can be made using the existing data. It is also important to
note that the legal and practical definitions of eviction can be somewhat different.
The dataset counts as an eviction any case where a court ordered execution was
issued. The property owner must request this court order before a tenant can be
physically removed from their apartment. It is possible to tell from the available data
how many court orders were requested, but the data does not show how many
court orders were actually used. Resolution, which allows a tenant to remain housed,
can sometimes occur after a court order has been issued. Alternatively, the data does
not capture constructive evictions or move outs after the court summons but before
an execution is issued.
It should also be noted that the data being reported on is representative of
formal evictions filed in the court system only. As such, It cannot account for
so-called ‘informal’ evictions, where a tenant is told their lease will not be renewed
and moves out, or when a tenant moves because they cannot afford a rental
increase. The total number of eviction cases filed in Eastern Housing Court that were
within the city of Boston was approximately 5,000 for each of the three years
examined: 2015, 2016 and 2017. Notably, however, the number of eviction executions
declined by 10 percent, from a high of 2,172 executions in 2015 to 1,952 in 2017, which
represents one percent of all rental households in Boston. (Chart 1)
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 7
CHART 1. TOTAL FILED EVICTION CASES FROM 2015-2017
HAVE REMAINED LEVEL
Nonpayment of rent is the primary reason given for filing an eviction case.
During the three years examined, nonpayment was cited in 70 percent to 78 percent
of cases. (Chart 2) It is also clear that ‘cause’ as a reason for eviction has increased
from 5.5 percent to 14 percent. For these purposes cause typically involves violating
the terms of the lease with behaviors such as destruction or damage of the unit,
nuisance complaints, unlawful conduct including illicit drug use, or an unapproved
sublease of the premises. It should also be noted that sometimes cause is cited for
4
reasons related to non-payment, i.e., chronic late payment of rent. Certain types of
cause cases, such as failure to recertify, may also be susceptible to different types of
resolution closer to the type of interventions used in nonpayment evictions. In some
cases, after a recertification has occurred, the tenant may owe a balance, triggering
its placement into the non-payment category even though the tenant had been
paying their monthly rent.
4
“2017 Eviction Data Report,” Department of Neighborhood Development and Department of Innovation and
Technology, City of Boston.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 8
In 2017, the data team added the category ‘no-fault’ to the ‘reasons for filing’
categorization. No-fault evictions are commonly used by new owners of properties to
empty buildings and some houses, evicting all tenants, even those with no history of
non-payment or other ‘cause’ infractions. It accounted for 7 percent of 2017 cases.
CHART 2. EVICTION CASES: REASONS FOR FILING, 2015-2017
Outcomes of these cases are divided into two categories: subsidized tenancies
and private market tenancies (Chart 3). To establish the tenancy type, case records
are cross-referenced with the City of Boston’s Income-Restricted Housing Inventory
for known addresses of affordable developments, rents that appear to be the result
of an income-based calculation, or any other indication of subsidy. Subsidized
tenancies also include public housing and tax credit units, tenants with mobile or
project-based vouchers, tenants in homeless set-aside units, or other types of
affordable units.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 9
CHART 3. EVICTION CASES BY RESULT AND TENANCY 2015-2017
More of Boston’s eviction cases in the Eastern Housing Court are being
brought against tenants living in subsidized housing than those living in market-rate
housing. Private market eviction filings and executions decreased significantly (20%)
from 2015-2017. For subsidized tenancies, although the number of executions and
filings decreased 5% from 2015-2016, they increased by 12% from 2016-2017, resulting
in a 6% increase over the three year period.
Tenants in subsidized housing are at high risk of homelessness after an
eviction because they often have limited financial resources and few other housing
options available to them. Still, there are many low-income tenants in market-rate
housing who are similarly vulnerable. More than 34,000 low-income non-student
renter households are paying more than 50% of their income on rent. These severely
rent-burdened households are living in market-rate housing with limited financial
capacity and are also vulnerable to eviction.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 10
CHART 4. SUBSIDIZED TENANCY CASES
BY PROPERTY MANAGER, 2015-2017
Property
Manager
Cases
2015
Cases
2016
Cases
2017
Change
2015-2017
Evictions
2015
Evictions
2016
Evictions
2017
Change
2015-2017
Beacon
231
188
151
-34.6%
83
63
45
-45.8%
Boston
Housing
Authority
251
276
386
53.8%
78
93
62
-20.1%
Cruz
129
129
81
-37.2%
36
23
20
-44.4%
Maloney
225
222
124
-44.9%
62
58
38
-38.7%
Trinity
207
227
189
-8.7%
84
67
63
-25.0%
Winn
380
397
401
5.5%
133
115
126
-5.3%
Other*
1804
1,662
2,124
17.7%
864
660
899
4.1%
Despite the increase in filings and executions for subsidized tenancies, larger
property management companies, responsible for managing most
income-restricted affordable housing developments in Boston have realized
significant decreases in evictions. These decreases can be credited to additional
financial and legal support, the sharing of eviction data and increased awareness of
the issue, participation in workshops on best practices, and the City’s efforts to link
future funding to eviction prevention efforts. For example, Greater Boston Legal
Services (GBLS) identified that there were public housing tenants in “mixed finance”
sites being redeveloped who were not receiving uniform protection of public
housing grievance rights as required by law. The BHA’s Mixed Finance Resident
Group of resident leaders, BHA staff, and private partners developed a new standard
set of procedures and protocols to address this gap. In 2019, this strategy was
expanded to include any affordable/replacement unit, including Section 8 Project
Based Vouchers or Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) units. Going forward,
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 11
these kinds of procedures and protocols need to be made available to small
landlords, in particular those with subsidized tenancies, so they have increased
awareness of the resources that they can access.
Analysis of nonpayment cases reveals that the amount owed has increased
year over year. In non-payment cases with evictions executed on subsidized
households, the median rent owed in 2017 was $1,712 for about 3 months of
back-rent (Chart 5). Paying 35% of income on rent, the estimated annual income of
that household would be $19,400, or extremely low income. With the awareness,
however, that many cases of non-payment in subsidized housing are due to an
arrearage from recertification and represent a partial payment, the annual income
of households cannot be deduced with complete certainty.
CHART 5. MEDIAN OWED FOR NON-PAYMENT CASES
IN SUBSIDIZED TENANCIES, 2015-2017
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 12
Private market executed evictions for non-payment, on the other hand,
averaged a significantly higher $4,063, for a shorter term of about two months of
back rent. It is difficult to estimate the average incomes of households evicted from
private market rentals because the percentage of their income spent on rent in
unknown. If these households are paying between 35 and 50 percent of their income
on rent, however, their annual incomes would range between $48,000-70,000, or
just slightly higher than Boston’s median income of $62,021 in 2017 at the upper end.
CHART 6. MEDIAN OWED FOR NON-PAYMENT CASES
IN PRIVATE MARKET TENANCIES, 2015-2017
Further analysis shows that 60 percent of the evictions filed in 2017 occurred
in just four of Boston’s neighborhoods: Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, and Hyde
Park , although only 32 percent of the city’s housing stock is in these neighborhoods.
5
5
DND Neighborhood boundaries
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 13
These four neighborhoods are also home to 80 percent of the city’s African- or
Caribbean-American residents, and include significant populations of Bostonians
who identify themselves as Latino/Hispanic, Vietnamese, or Thai in Census data.
6
These neighborhoods also have a noteworthy amount of income-restricted housing,
and a considerable number of households that are utilizing mobile vouchers.
Roxbury alone has 11,065 units of income-restricted housing, Dorchester 4,130 units,
Mattapan 2,783 units, and Hyde Park has 1,876 units. In addition, Boston’s
households of color, on average, have incomes under the citywide median. In 2017,
the median income for all household types was $62,021, while the median income for
African American households was $40,507, and $32,780 for Hispanic/Latino
households. Because of their lower incomes, and because of the significant number
of evictions occurring in neighborhoods where they live, it is clear that persons of
color are disproportionately vulnerable to evictions. It follows that the communities
where these Bostonians live also suffer long-lasting negative impacts.
CHART 7. EVICTIONS FOR NON-PAYMENT
OF RENT BY NEIGHBORHOOD: 2017
6
American Community Survey, 2017
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 14
Even as the real estate market remains heated, however, both the total
eviction case rate and the number of executions have not increased -- in fact, they
have decreased slightly. This decrease is likely the result of programs and services
being offered by the Office of Housing Stability and its nonprofit partners who work
directly with tenants and landlords to avert eviction, in concert with the expansion of
the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) program, funded by the
MA Department of Housing and Community Development. There is also a likely
positive impact from wage gains and Boston’s very low unemployment rate. As of
April 2019, Boston’s unemployment rate was 2.2%, and the lowest paid workers, who
commonly work in the service industries and retail, showed modest gains in wage
growth, likely attributable to an increase in the Massachusetts minimum wage .
7
II. Effects of Eviction
Each year, thousands of people are evicted from their homes in Boston,
primarily due to their inability to afford rent. Housing instability, coupled with other
8
forms of hardship like incarceration and joblessness, most severely affect Boston
residents who have extremely low incomes and the least ability to recover from a
financial downturn and disruptive life events. This instability is further compounded
by the rising cost of living, and diminished federal assistance programs.
9
Compounding these factors, most low-income families live in private, market-rate
homes without governmental housing assistance to stabilize their income or
prevent eviction.
10
Until recently, the effects of eviction were understudied by sociologists,
researchers, and policy-makers despite the known long term and generational
consequences of evictions in perpetuating cyclical poverty. Evictions are
11
7
From the Boston Planning & Development Agency “Boston's Economy 2019,” April 2019
8
This report.
9
Matthew Desmond, Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, “Eviction’s Fallout: Housing, Hardship, and Health,” Social Forces, 2015.
10
Ibid.
11
Ibid.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 15
consistently associated with negative outcomes in both mental and physical health,
12
such as increased depression, anxiety, and frequency of experiencing traumatic
events. These effects are exacerbated by the fact that eviction can lead to chronic
13
homelessness, with the ultimate consequence of high morbidity and premature
death. Homelessness has such a severe negative outcome on physiological health
14
that children who only experienced homelessness while in-utero suffered worse
health outcomes after birth than compared to their stably housed peers. The
15
worsened health outcomes following eviction represent preventable costs to human
health directly caused by eviction. Finally, research has shown that people who
16
have been evicted once are much more likely to be evicted again, compounding
their trauma, and further driving them into intergenerational cycles of
homelessness, poverty, and disease.
17
The aftermath of eviction has impacts for more than just the physical health of
tenants. In Massachusetts, evictions filed in Housing Court become permanent,
publicly accessible records which can undermine the evicted tenant’s ability to be
re-housed. The children of evicted tenants can be similarly affected by an eviction
record, as the inclusion of a child’s name in the eviction filing will burden the child
with a permanent eviction record regardless of age, or the outcome of the
proceeding. For evicted adults named in eviction filings, whether or not they were
responsible for the lease, the eviction can tarnish their credit rating and impair their
future ability to access crucial financial necessities. Many families who are evicted
18
from subsidized housing are then barred from receiving state shelter for a period of
12
Ana Población, Allison Bovell-Ammon, Richard Shepard, et. al., “Stable Homes Make Healthy Families,” Children’s
HealthWatch: What If? Series, July 2017.
13
Lauren A. Taylor, “Housing and Health: An Overview of the Literature,” Health Affairs, June 2018.
14
Amanda M. Stewart, Mia M. Kanak, Alana M. Gerald, Amir A. Kimia, Assaf Landschaft, Megan T. Sandel, and Lois K.
Lee, “Pediatric Emergency Department Visits for Homelessness After Shelter Eligibility Policy Change,” Pediatrics
vol.142, no. 5 (November 2018).
15
Lauren A. Taylor, “Housing and Health: An Overview of the Literature,” Health Affairs, June 2018.
16
Ana Población, Allison Bovell-Ammon, Richard Shepard, et. al., “Stable Homes Make Healthy Families,” Children’s
HealthWatch: What If? Series, July 2017.
17
Matthew Desmond, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City, New York: Broadway Books, 2016.
18
Matthew Desmond, Carl Gershenson, “Who gets evicted? Assessing individual, neighborhood, and network
factors,” Social Science Research, 2016.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 16
three years and thus more likely to experience chronic homelessness. Tenants with
vouchers who are evicted face a significant risk of loss of the voucher.
Evictions place a considerable financial burden on landlords, tenants, housing
authorities, municipal governments, medical institutions, and society as a whole.
19
Eviction cases often cost considerably more than the amount owed in non-payment
of rent cases, as an eviction typically costs the landlord between $5,500-$8,000 in
lost rent, attorney’s fees, repairs, and turnover costs for the unit. One study by
20
Children’s HealthWatch concluded that national housing instability, including
eviction, would contribute to the development of preventable health conditions in
10.2 million children, costing the healthcare system $34.3 billion over the next ten
years.
21
In addition to treating children and families with health conditions, Boston’s
hospitals are often called upon to provide temporary shelter to Bostonians suffering
from eviction and chronic homelessness. Families turn to local hospital emergency
22
rooms for a safe place to sleep. A Boston Children’s Hospital study found that a
change in eligibility for emergency shelter access led to the use of more than 8,500
hours of emergency department resources and $200,000 of state Medicaid funds to
temporarily house people experiencing homelessness. While this policy was initially
23
implemented to reduce emergency shelter spending, it had the unintended
consequence of increasing overall spending through hospital staffing hours and
government spending.
24
19
Ibid.
20
“Eviction Report,” Office of Housing Stability, Department of Neighborhood Development, City of Boston, 2015.
21
Ana Población, Allison Bovell-Ammon, Richard Shepard, et. al., “Stable Homes Make Healthy Families,” Children’s
HealthWatch: What If? Series, July 2017.
22
Amanda M. Stewart, Mia M. Kanak, Alana M. Gerald, Amir A. Kimia, Assaf Landschaft, Megan T. Sandel, and Lois K.
Lee, “Pediatric Emergency Department Visits for Homelessness After Shelter Eligibility Policy Change,” Pediatrics
vol.142, no. 5 (November 2018).
23
Ibid.
24
Ibid.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 17
III. Existing Supports
Financial Assistance
Massachusetts and Boston both have existing resources and supports to help
prevent evictions, including, but not limited to: financial assistance, tenant and
landlord mediators, in-court resources for dispute resolution and workshops to
educate tenants about their rights and responsibilities. Unfortunately, the majority of
resources for tenancy preservation are unable to meet the demand.
There are two primary funding sources that tenants rely on when they are
facing evictions for non-payment of rent. The first is the Residential Assistance for
Families in Transition (RAFT) program. Administered by Metro Housing|Boston and
funded by the State through the Department of Housing & Community
Development (DHCD), RAFT provides eligible applicants with up to $4,000 in
emergency assistance to help retain existing housing, obtain new housing, or
otherwise avoid becoming homeless. Eligible participant families can receive up to
$4,000 within a twelve month period, and program funds may be accessed more
than once per year as long as the total dollars received do not exceed $4,000. RAFT
funds can only be accessed for utility expenses once per 12 months (but only the
same utility expenses once per 24 months). Households residing in subsidized
housing cannot receive RAFT assistance for subsidized rent arrears twice in 24
months. RAFT funding follows the Massachusetts legislative year, and begins on July
1st.
In FY2017, the RAFT program was expanded to include households of all sizes.
RAFT is the largest eviction prevention program in the city. Between FY2015 and
25
FY2019, statewide funding for RAFT grew from $11 million to $20 million. Chart 8
26
documents the total amount of RAFT funds expended in Boston.
25
“Metro Housing|Boston RAFT in Review Fiscal Year 2019,” p. 7, November 2019.
26
Ibid, p. 6.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 18
As of FY2020, households can qualify for assistance by demonstrating that
they are behind on their rent, and a court action does not need to be filed.
CHART 8. RAFT ASSISTANCE TO BOSTON HOUSEHOLDS, FY15-FY19
FISCAL YEAR
NUMBER OF
HOUSEHOLDS SERVED
TOTAL FUNDING
EXPENDITURES
FY2015
690
$1,838,620
FY2016
970
$2,598,409
FY2017
1,063
$2,709,122
FY2018
1,041
$2,723,856
FY2019
1,269
$3,186,121
The second source of funding comes from the City of Boston Office of
Housing Stability. These City Flex funds cap at $2,000, and are administered by a
variety of non-profit housing service providers across the city. In 2018, $460,566 was
provided to 292 Boston families, resulting in preserved tenancies.
Legal Representation and Mediation
Analysis of the collected eviction data shows that legal assistance in eviction
proceedings is extremely rare and often limited: only seven percent of tenants facing
eviction in the 2017 dataset were represented by counsel.
Organizations that provide legal assistance include Greater Boston Legal
Services (GBLS) who assist tenants in eviction proceedings if their income is less than
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 19
200 percent of the Federal Poverty Limit, or if they are otherwise Title 3 eligible (age
27
60 or older). GBLS is limited by the fact that it only takes on a case once the tenant
has received the summons and complaint. This means they only have ten days to
build a case, file an answer to the court, and submit a request for discovery.
Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and WilmerHale Legal Services Center are also
available to help constituents in court, but they generally serve as Limited Assistance
Representation, i.e., day of court representation. As a result, neither of these teams
are able to follow a case that continues. In addition, clinical programs’ capacity is
affected by the cycle of the academic year.
If tenants can access legal advice further upstream, the tenancy may be
preserved without an eviction case being filed. To try and fill some of this gap,
HomeStart contracts with a GBLS attorney in-house to provide legal assistance
further upstream, but more needs to be done to truly affect the outcomes in court,
and preserve tenancies.
Mediation can be a critical service for helping landlords and tenants
communicate better and address concerns long before court proceedings begin.
The Office of Housing Stability provides funding for landlords and tenants to access
mediation services at no cost. Mediation provides an opportunity for parties with
opposing views to feel heard, and to learn to communicate their needs and
understanding of landlord/tenant laws and lease terms more effectively. Often, the
disagreements stem from a lack of understanding regarding the rights and
responsibilities of the two parties. Mediators can facilitate conversations that lead to
mutually beneficial outcomes.
27
200% of the Federal Poverty Limit 2017: 1 person household: $24,120; 2 persons: $32,480; 3 persons: $40,840, 4
persons: $49,200.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 20
Other Innovations
Community-based providers are also exploring other innovative solutions to
prevent eviction. One example is HomeStart’s per-intervention reimbursement rate
model for eviction prevention services. After research data showed that tenancy
preservation services are more cost-effective for property owners than executing the
evictions, HomeStart was able to establish a unique partnership with Boston
Housing Authority in which the housing authority reimburses HomeStart for each
tenancy successfully preserved. Based on the effectiveness of this partnership,
HomeStart has expanded this model to include an agreement with Beacon
Communities to provide these services to the residents of the income-restricted
Georgetowne Homes development and is working in concert with Metro
Housing|Boston, who is co-locating services at Georgetowne, in addition to six other
sites across the city.
In 2019, the Department of Neighborhood Development created an Eviction
Plan Policy requirement for any developer applying to the City of Boston for funding
to create income-restricted housing. All developers and their property management
teams are required to submit an Eviction Prevention Plan that provides details on
what steps will be taken by the management company in eviction scenarios. The
plan must consist of:
● A plan for conflict resolution and mediation procedures as well as repayment
plans for tenants behind in rent (rental arrears) or with minor lease violations
(recertifications, minor noise complaints, etc.)
● A plan to address other serious lease violations (criminal activity) including
opportunities to maintain tenancies when possible
● Designation of a tenancy preservation team that includes an on-staff Eviction
Prevention coordinator. The team will be proactive in early intervention by
identifying residents who are at risk of being evicted through monitoring and
intervention.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 21
● A tenant education and communication plan that at a minimum includes a
resource list provided to all tenants which will include tenant advocacy
contacts and other resources that can provide rental assistance and legal
counsel for evictions. The list shall be displayed on a public board that is
accessible to all tenants.
● A plan for referrals for tenants who wish to move from their unit
● Identify who is responsible for the implementation of the tenancy
preservation program and compliance with this policy.
● Identify how the owner/asset manager of the property is monitoring the
eviction proceedings of the management company
When applying to the City of Boston for funding, developers are now required
to submit an updated report to DND that lists all eviction and displacement risk data
on a yearly basis. The developer must keep documentation on all evictions for each
affordable housing project in their portfolio, and may be required to submit
documentation upon request from DND.
No project will be able to close if a developer or property management
company does not comply with the requirement to provide eviction documentation.
If a developer or property management company is found to be out of compliance
with this policy, then the award of funds may be withdrawn from the current project.
For a full list of existing eviction prevention supports, programs, and services,
refer to the Appendices.
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 22
IV. Recommendations: Expansions, Improvements, and New Ideas
National rankings of eviction execution rates for large cities place Boston at
number 178, when compared to cities of similar size. (Chart 9) Even within the state
of Massachusetts, Boston ranks 4th on the list of eviction execution rates, behind
Lowell (2.42%), Springfield (2.06%), and Worcester (1.97%).
CHART 9. EVICTION RATES IN LARGE U.S. CITIES, 2016
28
CITY
EVICTION RATE
Atlanta
5.12%
Providence
3.82%
Philadelphia
3.48%
Washington, DC
2.59%
Houston
2.30%
Denver
2.29%
Miami
2.01%
Boston
1.30%
Chicago
1.10%
This 1.3 percent eviction rate means that slightly more than one in every 100
renter households received an eviction execution judgment in 2016. This low score
may mean that we are doing better than other major cities, but it by no means
represents a stopping point. Instead, this data represents an achievable goal to
measure ourselves against. Eviction is a problem that can be solved.
With the problem identified, and the will to address it, the Eviction Task Force
recommends the following steps: 1) set a goal; 2) determine the interventions and
actions to take to achieve the goal, which may include money, policy or legislative
changes necessary to make them available; 3) track and report on the results; and 4)
adjust or change course as needed.
28
Eviction Lab Eviction Rankings, evictionlab.org
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 23
Goals:
● Reduce the total number of eviction cases and eviction executions in
subsidized housing by 33 percent within five years, from 3,596 and 1,296 to
2409 and 868 respectively.
● Reduce the total number of eviction cases and eviction executions in private,
market-rate housing by 25 percent within five years, from 4,910 and 1,952 to
1,227 and 488 respectively.
Interventions:
Increase Production and availability of housing that is affordable to households with
very low and extremely low incomes
● Build additional housing affordable to households with low and extremely
low-incomes
● Implement a cost-burden preference which would provide low-income
households with demonstrated cost burdens priority for new affordable
housing opportunities
Rent Arrearage: Increase, and make more widely known, the resources to reduce
the number of evictions due to rent arrearages.
● Support increased funding for the Residential Assistance for Families in
Transition program
● Maintain City funding for eviction prevention
● Increase awareness of the financial resources available to both landlords and
residents
● Explore expanding the per-intervention reimbursement rate model for
eviction prevention services at the BHA to include Mixed Finance BHA units.
● Work with the housing court, legal services, and property owners to draft a
sample arrearage agreement with budgetary guidelines to create
sustainability, and make that agreement available to landlords in housing
court
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 24
Legal Representation & Mediation Services: Expand capacity and access to legal
representation via new legislation and funding
● Support and gain passage of “Right to Counsel” legislation, and ensure
that households and certain landlords who have low, very low, or extremely
low incomes have legal representation in housing court
● Increase funding and expand capacity for legal representation to include
assistance for program administration and program participants with
MRVP and Section 8 voucher retention in administrative procedures
● Increase opportunities for and usage of pre-court dispute mediation
programs
● Explore options to alter the Summary Process Complaint Form to require
the landlord to identify if the tenant is using some form of subsidy, and
specify what subsidy it is, i.e., project-based, tenant-based, LIHTC, etc.
Information and Best Practices: Improve and disseminate information on best
practices, tenant and landlord rights and responsibilities
● Make “Legal Tactics: Tenants’ Rights in Massachusetts” available to all housing
service providers in the city of Boston
● Re-establish the online resource originally developed by the Boston
Homelessness Prevention Clearinghouse aka Front Door Collaborative
● Facilitate Learning Labs to teach eviction prevention best practices
● Send a mailing to all rental property landlords and management companies
annually informing them of programs available to prevent evictions and how
to access them
● Do a yearly review of other major cities to ensure that we are employing all
newly evolving best practices available
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 25
Upstream Improvements: Design early warning protocols and educate property
managers and owners on how to utilize them to prevent eviction
● Require owners of housing subsidized with city dollars to provide and
document eviction prevention assistance (either self or third-party) to all
tenants who reach 30-days delinquent
● Support existing programs with new resources to expand capacity to provide
real time assistance for landlords with tenants who have mental health issues,
hoarding, etc. and track the outcomes
Improve Data Collection and Sharing: Improve data collection and use eviction
data to understand current trends, impactful interventions, and resource needs
● Secure de-identified aggregate MassCourts data as an electronic file provided
by the Court system, rather than depending upon legal interns to cull
information from paper files
● Obtain real-time data to track emerging hot spots, which includes data from
district courts as well as Eastern Housing Court
● Develop method of recording number of levied executions in Boston, through
potential partnerships with constables and the sheriff’s office
● Cross reference addresses of households seeking tenant preservation
assistance with eviction data
● Explore partnering with DHCD to share data about who enters shelter and if
they have also accessed RAFT
Replicate Successful Models: Through intentional information sharing and the
creation of learning labs.
● HomeStart’s Eviction Prevention Reimbursement Rate Program
● Metro’s Co-location Partnership
● Urban Edge’s Tenant Support Methodology
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 26
Track Results: The City of Boston, in collaboration with its nonprofit partners, will
continue to collect, make available, and analyse this data to evaluate plan progress
● The Eviction Task Force will utilize this eviction data to assess which
interventions are working to reduce evictions, and monitor progress against
stated goals
● The Eviction Task Force will utilize this data to pinpoint any negative trends
and design impactful responses to address them
● The Eviction Task Force will report progress against goals to the public on an
annual basis
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 27
Appendix A. RESOURCE GUIDE: Financial Assistance
Agency
Service Description
Eligibility/
Maximum $ Assistance
City Mission of Boston
Limited funding for
back-rent, some heating
Low-income/1mo rent;
fuel up to $500
Project Hope
Eviction Prevention
Services, housing search
assistance, case
management services for
Project Hope families
Very low-income,
sustainable after funding
Neighborhood of
Affordable Housing
Emergency housing funds
Very low-income families or
individuals displaced from
home due to fire or other
emergency. Funding can
be used for deposits /
$1800-$2000
Metro Housing | Boston
Residential Assistance for
Families in Transition and
other city and state plus
privately raised funds
Household income <50%
AMI for RAFT; individuals or
families of at least 2 people,
1 of whom is a dependent
<21y/o; pregnant mother as
head of household
experiencing housing crisis;
domestic violence / $4000
Lend a Hand Society
Help meet basic
emergency needs of
low-income individuals
and families
Live inside Route 128; can
only be referred once; must
be low-income
Boston Tenancy
Preservation Project
Housing stabilization for
households facing
eviction due to lease
violation and a disability
Must have a disability
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 28
Agency
Service Description
Eligibility/
Maximum $ Assistance
HomeStart, Inc
Eviction Prevention
Services, assistance for
rent arrears, housing court
advocacy
City of Boston residents;
gross income <60% AMI;
rent <50% of net monthly
income; must have
received at least a notice to
quit; arrearage <$2,500 or 3
months’ rent (whichever is
greater); typically assist
non-payment cases already
in court process, but the
hotline at 857-415-2900
offers suggestions and
assistance to callers in need
of eviction advice
Hearth, Inc
ESG funding to provide
intervention in cases
where rental assistance
would preserve
tenancy/prevent
homelessness. Weekly
walk-in hours to assess
eligibility under guidelines
of ESG contract
Over 50 years old, in Boston
area, at risk of
homelessness.
Boston Home Center
Rental Rehab Loans for
landlords wanting to
rehab their home,
including de-leading
programs
Landlord must agree to
income-restrict the
rehabilitated unit for
subsequent 10 years /
$30,000
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 29
Appendix B. RESOURCE GUIDE: Resources/Supports at Housing Court
Organization
Capacity
Services Offered
Age+ Strong Boston
-1,000+ people annually
-People who are at any
stage of the eviction
process
-Funding is generally
designated for hoarding
cases
-General housing search for
Bostonians 55 years and older
-Senior homeowners who need help
with home repairs
-Accommodation to seniors with
housing subsidies
-In court: advocacy, not general
intake
Asian American Civic
Association
- >3,000 people annually
-Inclusive of Latinx
people
-In court: advocate for its clients in
court; no legal services
-All programming also offered in
Chinese: ESL, job
training/prep/placement, housing
stability/homelessness prevention
BMC: Elders Living At
Home
-55 people annually
-No income limit
-Elders (50+) facing
eviction or other cause
that would lead to
eviction
-In court: advocate on behalf of its
clients, not others
-Advocate for more subsidized
housing
City Life/Vida Urbana
-1,000 people annually
-People who are at any
stage in eviction process
(must attend its weekly
workshops)
-People facing
displacement
-In court: advocacy, not general
inquiries or intake
Court Services Center
-Tenants and landlords in
the housing court
-Provide computers, printing
services, general directions and help
to tenants/landlords navigating
housing court
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 30
Organization
Capacity
Services Offered
Disability Law Center
-50 families annually
-Any stage in the eviction
process
-Not present in court (unless to
represent a client)
-Accept referrals from “Attorney for
the day” programs
-Paralegal refers to a staff attorney,
external legal org, or will write a
letter to landlord explaining laws
regarding disability
accommodations
Eastern Region Legal
Intake, Volunteer
Lawyers Project of the
Boston Bar Association
-4,600 people annually
-Any stage in the eviction
process
-Eligibility: living in
service area, <200% of
FPL, immigration status,
criminal record of drug
crimes, other conflicts
-Refers clients to GBLS, Tenant
Assistance Program, City Life/Vida
Urbana, HomeStart, ABCD, OHS
-In court: aids in Volunteer Lawyers
Project; provides legal advice,
mediation assistance
Greater Boston Legal
Services
-Low-income individuals
and families (<125% of
FPL, <200% in limited
circumstances)
-Tenants
-Full representation and partial
representation client advocacy,
attorney for the day assistance with
advice/mediation
-Legal advice, help with court
appearances, weekly legal clinics,
legal services referrals,intervention
for subsidy preservation
- Massachusetts Defense for Eviction
(MADE) App: an online interview tool
that helps unrepresented
individuals prepare answers and
other court documents; explains
next steps in the eviction case;
translated into 5 different languages
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 31
Organization
Capacity
Services Offered
Harvard Legal Aid
Bureau
-Mostly public housing
clients (private market
with subsidy)
-No income cap
-Law students very occasionally
represent clients in court, including
full and partial representation,
attorney for the day
HomeStart
-400-450 clients annually
-People being evicted for
non-payment of rent
with reasonable
possibility of
re-stabilization
-Income restricted to
30-50% AMI
-In court: Non-legal advocates,
providing coaching and emotional
support
-One on one case management
support
-Short-term/one-time financial
assistance, up to ~$700
Housing Court
Specialists
-10-20 cases for
mediation per day
-Facilitate mediation
Legal Services Center
(Harvard Law School
Housing Clinic, Jamaica
Plain)
-150 families annually
-Summons and
Complaint stage
-Families with children,
people withholding rent
to enforce sanitary code,
DV survivors
-In court: participates in Attorney for
the Day program
Nuestra Comunidad
-150 people annually
-“11
th
hour” cases
- Summary eviction
process
-Provide individualized coaching
-Build 3-6 month stabilization plans
Rosie’s Place
-over 12,000 women
annually
-Coordinate/provide legal aid -Court
appearance prep, hoarding
prevention/ intervention, housing
search, rent payment service
referral, short-term/long-term case
management, RAFT intake, shelter
women in summary eviction
process
An Action Plan to Reduce Evictions in Boston 32
Appendix C: Resource Guide: Supports Outside of Housing Court
Organization
Capacity
Services Offered
Cardinal Medeiros
Center
-100+ per year
-Homeless
-Low-income
- 45+
-Job training, clothing,
food
Lawyer’s Clearinghouse
-100 clients annually
-Those beyond eviction
process
-Homeless
-Visit homeless shelters
and other service centers
to offer pro bono legal
services; represent
clients who have been
denied tenancy or
priority status
Massachusetts Office of
Victim Assistance
-Provides referrals to
other eviction prevention
programs: HomeStart,
Civil Legal Aid for Victims
of Crime, RAFT, Lend a
Hand, GBLS, Volunteer
Lawyers Project, Harvard
Legal Aid Bureau, OHS
Metro Housing | Boston
-8,000 year
-Summons/complaint
stage
-Income eligibility: <50%
AMI for RAFT. Provided
cash assistance to 1,500
households in FY18
-Housing support services
to all without income
requirements
-Financial coaching,
other legal services
-Uses flexible funds from
the city and state to
assist Boston residents
-Provides RAFT
assistance of up to
$4,000 for eligible
households
Project Hope
-Families facing
homelessness in
Dorchester and Roxbury
-Housing search, adult
education, employment
training for entry-level
