Organized fight goes on to protect against evictions, foreclosures

I commend the Globe for its recent stories and commentary on the overrepresentation of landlords in the Massachusetts Legislature, what it means to be too poor for “affordable housing,” and state legislators’ resistance around tenant protections.

These articles expose the political conditions underpinning a devastating housing displacement crisis in Massachusetts. Yet noticeably absent were the decades of organized resistance against evictions and foreclosures in our state. This resistance has been built on the unity between renters and small owners (all our neighbors!) against corporate greed. Together we fight for new anti-displacement policies such as strong rent control and foreclosure prevention.

The housing crisis is systemic. The ebbs and flows of the housing market cause this routine and preventable crisis. When the housing market was weak in 2008, tenants stood with homeowners to defend their homes against foreclosure. Now that the market is strong, tenants are priced out and evicted while landlord-legislators are quietly trying to cut RAFT benefits (Residential Assistance for Families in Transition) for tenants struggling to pay their rent.

Just as the housing crisis is systemic, so is the resistance. The strategic organizing of City Life/Vida Urbana and many other housing justice groups has defended people from the claws of the market and built a growing statewide coalition, Homes for All Massachusetts, that we hope will create the political will to save our homes even if millions of dollars of real estate profits are on the line for ultrarich politicians.

GABRIELA CARTAGENA

Communications co-director City Life/Vida Urbana Jamaica Plain