Image via City Life/Vida Urbana Mass uses questionable tools to investigate eviction relief applicants State officials are spending more than $750,000 of COVID-19 aid on corporate consultants who will investigate applicants for eviction relief by running analytics on applications that housing advocates say can prevent residents from getting the relief they need. And while officials […]
PHONE CHECK
Mass is still gouging the families of prisoners on phone fees. Will lawmakers finally change that? For the past 10 years, Beverly Ross has spent hundreds of dollars a month on a middle-school teacher’s salary to ensure that her son knows his father, who is incarcerated in a Massachusetts prison. “My husband has been […]
A WIN FOR TRANSPARENCY AND POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY IN MASS
“We don’t go into things looking to file lawsuits, but when we feel like people have not followed the law, we challenge them.” A judge excoriated Worcester for its unlawful three-year campaign to keep police misconduct records secret from a local newspaper, writing in a recent ruling that a city lawyer attempted to mislead the […]
A NEW AMERICAN PROJECT
In the nationwide bipartisan blitz to privatize public housing, Boston’s giving billions worth of benefits to some of America’s largest developers, financiers, and property management firms. Politicians are applauding, but for many residents caught in the transition, their housing future is unclear BY CHRIS FARAONE with research and reporting by ZACK HUFFMAN New rules “Sidewalks, […]
PANDEMIC HOUSING RELIEF: END OF AN ERA
Governor Charlie Baker tours the new Heights at Haverhill apartment community on Nov. 5, 2020. Joshua Qualls/Governor’s Press Office Mass diverts eviction relief funds to investigate fraudulent applications As thousands of Massachusetts residents face eviction, the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker is cutting back aid payments designed to keep people in their homes, saying the […]