Please use the form below to have your organization sign on to a Spring 2022 ERAP and RAFT advocacy letter to the Massachusetts Legislature. This effort is being coordinated by the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, Homes for All Massachusetts, Massachusetts Budget & Policy Center, and Massachusetts Public Health Association. Please share this link with others in your network:
https://tinyurl.com/erap-sign-on-2022. Our updated deadline for signing on is Friday, May 6th at 5 p.m.
** Whether or not you can sign on as part of an organization, please sign and share our online petition to legislative leadership and legislators:
https://mahomeless.org/erap-raft-petition/ **
The text of the organizational sign-on letter (without footnotes) and sign-on form are included below. The full letter with footnotes for your review can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1i6OiVrQvDdCYtI8b24o9qKCmTRP2FfTSkRGD5vry95Y/edit?usp=sharingIf you have questions, please send them to
kelly@mahomeless.org. Thank you!
May 6, 2022
Senate President Karen Spilka
Speaker of the House Ronald Mariano
Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Michael Rodrigues
House Ways and Means Committee Chair Aaron Michlewitz
Members of the Massachusetts Legislature
Re: Replenish Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) funds and expand access to Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT)
Dear Senate President Spilka, Speaker Mariano, Chairperson Rodrigues, Chairperson Michlewitz, and Members of the Legislature:
On April 16th, the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) stopped accepting applications for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP). ERAP, a program of the U.S. Department of the Treasury administered by DHCD, has provided critical emergency rental and utility assistance to families and individuals across the Commonwealth since March 2021. Ending the ERAP program will have catastrophic consequences for thousands of Massachusetts residents who are still struggling from the COVID-19 pandemic. We call on you to take urgent action to allocate available federal emergency and state funds to continue the desperately needed emergency benefits that have prevented, and can continue to prevent, displacement and homelessness.
We appreciate the important steps that you have taken to promote housing stability in the recently passed FY22 supplemental budget, which provided an additional $100 million dollars for the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition (RAFT) and extended Chapter 257 protections for some tenants in eviction cases, and in the early stages of the FY23 budget process, where the House has recommended $140 million for RAFT. However, the fallout from the pandemic still is affecting tens of thousands of renters across Massachusetts. We renew our request to you to directly invest in ERAP and/or direct DHCD to allocate RAFT rental assistance funds flexibly according to ERAP guidelines. These changes could be included in the FY23 budget, in an upcoming FY22 supplemental budget, and/or in the next allocation of funds from the American Rescue Plan Act. We are requesting $600 million in FY23 for ERAP and RAFT: $350 million for ERAP/ERAP-like benefits and $250 million for RAFT.
Closing the door to ERAP cuts off most households earning between 50-80% area median income, who generally do not qualify for any help from RAFT. This means thousands of households will no longer be eligible for emergency rental assistance benefits, and many workers who have accumulated rent debt and have recently returned to work may be unable to get any help. Eliminating access to ERAP now, just as the economy is beginning to rebound, shuts many workers out of rental relief and puts them at risk of eviction and displacement, further exacerbating Massachusetts’ long-standing race, class and gender inequities.
In addition, with the changes put into place on April 16th, the maximum benefit for new applicants has decreased from 18 months of rent with no dollar amount cap under ERAP to only $7,000 per year under RAFT. The cap of $7,000 will be insufficient to prevent eviction for many households who were left with no income during the pandemic; for many others who are facing dramatic rent increases on top of rent debt accrued during COVID-related shutdowns; and for households applying for assistance to move into new housing and avoid homelessness. Average rental assistance awards under ERAP have exceeded $9,000 in recent months, with some households receiving more than $20,000. In addition, any families and individuals that received $7,000 of RAFT within the previous twelve months will now be ineligible for any RAFT benefits.
The closure of ERAP also is causing an enormous decrease in the availability of assistance with overdue utility bills. This means hard-hit households will be held back by electricity and gas shut-offs or burdened by utility debt accrued through no fault of their own during the height of the pandemic.
While RAFT remains available as a critical homelessness prevention resource, life is not “back to normal” for many Massachusetts residents. Tenants, and particularly renters in communities of color, and immigrant households continue to struggle with the devastation brought by COVID-19. We must act with urgency to ensure an equitable recovery. Preserving ERAP is a critical first step to prioritizing housing stability, which needs to be followed by measures to address the housing crisis that is threatening displacement of both tenants and homeowners. Fortunately we have the resources available to take this first step, both from state surplus funds and remaining federal COVID-relief resources. We call upon you to help our most vulnerable neighbors, our communities of color, and our lowest-income residents stabilize their housing by preserving rather than ending ERAP.
We look forward to working with you to further promote housing stability and equity.
Sincerely,
[Endorsing organizations will be listed here.]
cc: Governor Charlie Baker
Undersecretary Jennifer Maddox, DHCD
