Boston City Council passes call for rent moratorium under coronavirus
The Boston City Council is calling for an end to rent and mortgage collection for the duration of the coronavirus emergency.
The council passed a non-binding resolution, 12-1, during Wednesday’s meeting calling for the city, state and feds to place a moratorium on rent and mortgage collection, evictions and foreclosures.
City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo said the council should continue to push the higher authorities to move on this kind of intervention as the global pandemic deepens. On Wednesday — the first of the month, a rent deadline for many — a proposed moratorium on evictions and foreclosures was making its way through Beacon Hill, and there are also discussions of further steps.
“Today there are residents who have lost their incomes — not because of anything they did, but because of decisions the government has made,” Arroyo said in the meeting, referring to the moves to shut down all non-essential business and tell people to stay home, as state and local governments have implemented in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Arroyo’s resolution does not actually change any laws; resolutions are expressions of the will of the body — basically the council voting to endorse a position for or against something or someone. It simply urges the administrations of Mayor Martin Walsh, Gov. Charlie Baker and President Trump to make changes to “use the powers vested within them to issue an immediate moratorium on rent, mortgage payments, evictions and foreclosures.”
Resolutions normally pass quickly the day they’re introduced, but when this one was introduced last week, City Councilor Frank Baker objected to it, which means it can’t be voted on during the meeting it’s introduced.
Councilor Baker of Dorchester was the lone vote against the resolution on Wednesday. He said the resolution is “flawed,” adding, “To tell people they don’t have to pay their rent is a dangerous message.”
Arroyo and others insisted that this wouldn’t create confusion, and people should pay their rent if they’re able to.
City Councilor Michael Flaherty offered up three amendments to include language in the resolution about it only applying to people who have lost income because of the coronavirus crisis and to say that this should last for the duration of the emergency. Arroyo rejected the amendments about only applying to people who can prove damage, saying he didn’t want to advocate for any barriers, and those amendments failed a full council vote. Flaherty’s amendment tying the call for a moratorium to the current crisis was accepted and made part of the final resolution.
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3bKglSU
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