‘Fear’ as courts open to eviction proceedings
As Massachusetts courts restart eviction proceedings, renters and landlords are trying to navigate the crisis.
Paulette Houston, landlord, Roxbury
Houston, 66, said her tenants of two years were already two months behind on rent when the pandemic struck and are now more than $12,000 in arrears.
“I’m at the point where I don’t know what to do,” Houston said. She has been forced to dip into her retirement account to cover the costs.
She feels small landlords like her have been “forgotten” by an eviction moratorium she says she was originally in favor of, but said tenants have “learned to take advantage of.”
Houston — who suffers from multiple sclerosis, diabetes and other health issues — was raised in the Homestead Street duplex where she still lives and said it has always been a “point of pride” for her to be able to lease out her “clean, well-kept affordable place” that she rents out for below market-rate.
Allison Nolan and Thomas Hodge, tenants, Bridgewater
Nolan, 33, and Hodge, 32, moved to the South Shore to escape Boston’s higher rent a little over a year ago and have struggled since the pandemic hit to stay current with the bills amid their lost income and waning benefits.
The couple missed a $1,600 rental payment in June and have found it “impossible to catch up,” even though they’re both back to work full-time. They now face weekly calls and emails from the property management company they describe as “heartless,” reminding them they will face eviction if they don’t pay in full by Dec. 1.
Juana Sanchez, tenant, East Boston
Sanchez, 52, said she feels “fear and panic” that when the eviction moratorium ends, she will be pushed out of her home of nine years where she currently lives with her husband and two daughters.
Sanchez is a volunteer for City Life/Vida Urbana and said she has not fallen even one month behind on her $1,100 rent.
Yet, she said in Spanish, “I’m worried that they are going to fight to get me out.”
Sanchez said her fear of eviction started three years ago when she was told the property needed to be renovated to usher in new, and higher-paying tenants.
But she loves her neighborhood and home, where she said she has a view of the sea and of Boston that calms her when she experiences depression and insomnia.
“I’m not the only one suffering, there are cases more horrible than mine,” said Sanchez.