A group of Stratford District Secondary School students recently launched a website aimed at educating local voters about the candidates in the city s upcoming…
WILLIAMSTOWN â As affordable housing advocates, renters and homeowners brace for expiration of federal and state coronavirus pandemic protections against evictions and foreclosures, the townâs Affordable Housing Trust is ready and able to help.
On June 29, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a plea from landlords to end the Centers for Disease Control and Preventionâs moratorium on evicting tenants who fail to pay rent during the pandemic, keeping the ban in place until July 31.
Massachusetts pandemic eviction protections expired in October, but a new law extends hardship protections by continuing the practice of offering temporary continuances to tenants who have filed applications for rental assistance to prevent evictions in cases where tenants are unable to pay rent because of pandemic-related financial hardship until April 2022.
Mirroring the Williamstown Emergency Rental Assistance Program the board created last summer, the new program will provide grants of up to $15,000 to help homeowners economically impacted by the pandemic stay in their homes. Like the emergency rental program, the emergency mortgage grants will be administered by Pittsfield s Berkshire Housing Development Corp., which will screen applicants for eligibility and need. The seven-person trust board Wednesday authorized a three-member subcommittee to communicate the board s decisions about the program to BHDC, sign an agreement and get the program live so it can start accepting applications. Trustee Daniel Gura, a member of that subcommittee that has been building the program with the Pittsfield non-profit, said he expects the final agreement can be signed before the trustees April meeting.
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. The board of the town s Affordable Housing Trust on Wednesday decided to move ahead with an emergency mortgage assistance program for residents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, approved a solution for a problem vexing a different town committee and learned that one of its members will be rotating off after May s town election. The board member in question is Anne O Connor, who made her colleagues on that panel the first to learn that she will not seek another three-year term on the Select Board this spring. O Connor, who occupies the trustee position designated for a member of the Select Board, noted that she brings a particular perspective to her work with the trust and all her town service: that of a resident who is a lifelong renter and who lives in Williamstown housing that was created to be affordable.
Board member Liz Costley, who has been the point person working with Berkshire Housing Development, shared the Williamstown Emergency Rental Assistance Program developed this summer was able recently to help a family stay in their home. One renter is going to utilize $10,000 in a grant from WERAP, Costley said. She owes $12,500, but the landlord, once [BHDC s] Jane Pixley got people talking, decided that $10,000 is better than nothing. So the landlord was willing to drop the $2,500 in return for getting $10,000 in back rent. That s the kind of thing Berkshire Housing is so versed in, and the kind of thing we were hoping to hear. The renter is free and clear going forward. The landlord is fairly happy. And this is how our money is being utilized.