Governor Baker has extended the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures for another two months until October 17, 2020! The bill that MAAPL worked to pass at the end of April allowed the Governor to extend the moratorium by executive order.
This is a double victory!
1. We have another 60 days! This means that all of the work that MAAPL members and supporters have been doing to emphasize how devastating it would be on August 19th to suddenly have the floodgates open for all foreclosure auctions to go forward AND also the work that everyone has been doing to extend the eviction moratorium. That was all heard and got some traction.
2. Because the moratorium extension was done based on the language passed on April 20th, that law was the strongest legislation possible to extend the moratorium on foreclosures. The new bill, HD 5166, does not have a phase-in with protections for people on the foreclosure side. (We are working with the new Homes for All Coalition to include a partial lift that would still halt all BUT judicial foreclosure.) For now, the fact that the extension is based on the existing language is really important.
The extension gives MAAPL time to strengthen understanding across our efforts so that any extension language for a moratorium includes the foreclosure options that best serve all of us.
Thanks to these great efforts by all, we have a real win that can fuel our work over the next few months and lead to better, more lasting changes for MA homeowners, especially for homeowners and communities of color!
