Evicted Families Face Long Waits, Emergency Placements Far From Home

…As COVID-19 drives up the need for emergency housing, advocates fear many more families will have to be placed farther away from the lifelines of their home communities. The state has to piece together priority placements and available housing, so it’s a bit like a “jigsaw puzzle,” said Andrea Park, attorney with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute…

“Homelessness and eviction can spiral a family in a way that has really long-lasting repercussions on the children, [and] the family itself. It’s a really destabilizing force,” said Stephanie Herron Rice, a housing benefits attorney with the Justice Center of Southeast Massachusetts. “Once a family has been destabilized in that way, it’s very hard to get them rehoused in a stable way in a state like ours with such high rent and such little affordable housing.”

Read more at WGBH.org