July 25, 2008

I want to alert JP residents to a crisis point in the terrible housing situation. In just a couple of weeks, time will run out on three bills before the Massachusetts legislature designed to provide relief for homeowners facing foreclosure and their tenants.

Through a variety of fraudulent and predatory practices, hard-working residents in too many Massachusetts communities are being forced out of their homes. They and their tenants are facing homelessness, and their neighborhoods are being blighted. While JP has not been as hard-hit as some other communities, the long-term impact of this situation will affect us all.

This doesn’t have to be! Bills have been filed in both the state Senate and House that address some of the problems and buy time for us all. Local state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson and state Rep. Liz Malia are lead sponsors of important legislation that deals with the problems. Local state Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez sponsored the second and third bills listed below.

The bills are: Senate 2663/House 4733, a bill providing for a temporary six-month moratorium on a property in foreclosure because of sub-prime, presumptively unfair mortgages; Senate 2664/House 4734, a bill preventing evictions of tenants from foreclosed properties, except for just cause; and Senate 2662/House 4735, a bill requiring judicial foreclosures: Right to a Day in Court. For more information see the web site of the Massachusetts Alliance Against Predatory Lending, www.MAAPL.info.

I hope everyone will call the State House to thank their local legislators and ask other legislators to support these bills.

Eva Kerr
Jamaica Plain