Undoing the Damage:
Massachusetts Tenants Push Anti-Eviction Initiative
By Franz Lehman

Since most of Massachusetts’ tenant-protection laws were wiped out in 1994, the state has experienced thousands of evictions. In 1996 alone there were over 37,000 eviction cases, nearly 10,000 more than there were half a decade ago. Rents have skyrocketed, cases of harassment have doubled —tripled in Cambridge—and housing subsidies have all but dried up.

But a movement “for justice and compassion… in the rental housing market… inspired by people of conscience” has sprung up. TRIM stands for Tenants Rights Initiative of Massachusetts. The organization seeks to enact a just-cause eviction law through an initiative on the November state ballot.

If approved by the voters, the law would limit the causes for which a tenant could legally be removed from an apartment to those it listed. Tenants would also be guaranteed the right to counsel.

TRIM believes that “for the vulnerable…the act would reaffirm their democratic right to fairness in a civil society.” A pamphlet issues by TRIM lists more than 60 residents and several elected officials who have become supporters of the movement.