Credit: (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
File photo: An advocate demonstrates in Boston in support of relief for tenants hurt financially by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whatever happened to “The People’s Bill”?
The legislation (S2340/A4034) that’s designed to prevent mass evictions of renters who have been unable to pay because of the COVID-19 pandemic was resoundingly passed by the Assembly last July, then amended and sent back to the Senate where it has been since November, with no plans for a vote anytime soon.
The bill’s advocates who call it “The People’s Bill” say it is the only way of stopping thousands of people becoming homeless whenever Gov. Phil Murphy’s current moratorium on evictions is lifted. Its foes say that codifying the eviction ban and giving delinquent tenants a long time to pay rent arrears would unfairly shift the financial burden on to landlords, forcing some into bankruptcy.