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Comments
Great Article
The T has become a moving homeless shelter. If the Governor and Mayor want people to return to work by public transportation they have to come up with a more humane approach to dealing with the homeless than having their police toss them off buses and trains as if they were less than human.
first and last months rent.
the first sentance got to me.
even section-8 holders have a hard time g'ing up on: first month, last month, security deposit, real estate fee. at an average of $1,750 each (the first three arguably go towards rent/reimbursed if nothing broken at move out but the last one is extraneous income never to be seen again), this system is designed for rich students from foreign states/countries and not us.
Experiment
The city should offer no-interest easy-to-obtain loans that cover the security deposit and last month rent for people below a certain income or no income.
They should also offer a tax credit and additional damage loss protection for small landlords who agree to rent to those coming from homeless and low-income status.
hmm
What do you think the default rate would be on loans to people with no income?
Who knows
It's about giving these people a chance. If they can find the $ for monthly rent then they obviously have a job or some source of income. As other commenters have said, there is a big group of people who can afford rent but not afford rent x 3 which is entry fee to rent an apartment.
Even if the default rate was 25% it still would be better than having forgo paying jobs because they can't afford the last month + security needed to rent a place.
It's a big chunk of change
Back in the summer of '84, I lived in a shitty sub-let over the Allston Unos and worked part time doing telephone opinion polls. I was as close to hand-to-mouth as I hope I ever am. In mid-August I decided that, rather than move back home, I needed to get a place to live in September. Searching via the Boston Phoenix (that's how it was done back then) I found a place with 4 other roommates in Lower Allston. I suddenly needed to come up with $1200 for first, last, and security. Had it not been for a loan from my good friend Cheryl, there is no way I could have fronted that money and I would have moved away and had a totally different life.