I have always loved living in Medford. As a Tufts undergrad I lived in the dorms and then off-campus housing, and as a post-college resident, I have lived in the same South Medford apartment since 2017. But right now, I am ashamed that Medford is failing to step up on behalf of its most vulnerable residents. Along with many of my neighbors across the city, I call upon the mayor’s office to issue a local eviction moratorium — immediately.
While it is a tragedy that anyone should be expelled from their home at any time, there has never been a more urgent moment than right now to ensure that all members of our community can remain safely housed. With the CDC eviction moratoriumset to expire on March 31, we find ourselves in the middle of a New England winter, and with the pandemic raging on, still dangerous and widespread.
At least 29 households in Medford had new eviction cases filed against them after the Massachusetts statewide eviction expired in October. When the CDC moratorium expires, those cases — plus any additional eviction proceedings initiated before the moratorium — are free to resume. The moratorium won’t resolve the threat of eviction for a household in Medford, merely push back the date when it can be acted upon again. And that still leaves, at the very least, 29 of our neighbors and their household members being made to experience the trauma, uncertainty, expense and legal rigmarole of avoiding being cast out of their homes — in the midst of a harrowing and unrelenting pandemic.
A local eviction moratorium could stop this from happening and remove the threat of eviction from many of our neighbors. And we need not reinvent the wheel: Somerville and Cambridge established emergency eviction moratorium orders in March and April of last year, respectively,andMalden established a local moratorium on eviction enforcement right before Christmas. There is no cause for saying that a similar action is somehow out of reach for Medford, when so many other cities have already used their executive power to ensure their residents can remain in their homes.
It is a terrible thing for anyone to experience housing insecurity at any time, for any reason. But allowing evictions to continue in the midst of a pandemic is a particularly egregious failure. Failing to prevent evictions runs counter to the public health measures that the city of Medford and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts expect (and depend on) people to follow.How are people to adhere to the stay-at-home advisory if they are evicted from their homes?How are they to avoid mingling with people from outside their households, or to quarantine if they have been exposed to the virus, if they have no recourse but to “couchsurf” or to stay in crowded shelters? Studies have demonstrated that housing instability and evictions increase COVID-19 transmission rates and deaths, and that these horrible consequences tend to disproportionately affect communities of color.
According to our city government’svery own declaration, we are still in a state of emergency; it is past time to start acting like it. Medford must follow the lead of our neighboring cities and take bold action to ensure that none of our neighbors endure the tragedy of eviction, or the threat of it, as we all continue to weather the damage of COVID-19.
If we do not seize this most urgent opportunity to demonstrate how much we value our neighbors and how deeply we care for their safety, then when will we? The time is now. Together with Our Revolution Medford and residents across the city, I call upon Mayor Lungo-Koehn to act swiftly to keep people in their homes. And I call upon my fellow community members, current Tufts students included, to join in urging Medford to implement a local eviction moratorium before even one more household is threatened with eviction. Call and email City Hall today!
— Kit Collins (LA'15), Peace & Justice Studies
Resident of Medford
Kit Collins (she/her) is a freelance illustrator and muralist and lives in South Medford. She graduated from Tufts University in 2015 with a B.A. in Peace & Justice Studies. Kit can be reached at kit.b.collins@gmail.com.
