Eviction in the winter with children? (section 8, city hall, renters)

[longtallsally]

My sister has not paid her rent in three months. She is a working, yet struggling, single parent. She received a notice to quit previously for being behind in her rent, but was able to catch up the rent with her tax returns prior to falling behind again.

She is under the impression that she can't be evicted because the winter is coming and she has a 2.5 year old at home. I am fairly sure that she is wrong, but I am hoping someone can clarify that for me. if there is a website that lays out the law that anyone knows of that would be great. She won't listen to me, but if I can show it to her in print, she might believe it.

I feel for my sister, but at the same time, she does not listen to anyone. We told her two years ago to get on the waiting list for public housing. it can be years of waiting, but she never did that. Now I think she thinks that if she gets evicted the state MUST house her. I want to clarify this for her. I can't house her either, so I just want her to know what type of options she is looking at.

[brightdoglover]

I'd suggest checking with the Mass Housing Authority, the state office at City Hall, and so on.
It's hard to evict someone in Massachusetts, even for non-payment of rent. It can certainly take longer than three months. However, I don't think there is any provision whatsoever regarding winter, young children, public housing, or the like. A private landlord is under no rulings to house people for free, regardless of their circumstances and difficulties. After all, that landlord is paying his/her own mortgage, or the owner company is.

[CaseyB]

It takes some time for the landlord to give her the notice to quit, then go to court to get a judge to order an eviction. How much time? That may depend on where in the state she lives, some of the courts are bogged down and who knows what a given judge will do. As brightdoglover said, she needs to check on her options with either a housing authority, or a tennants organization, start applying for section 8 or whatever.

[haberstroh]

Completely agree with the previous posters. In MA renters have all kinds of rights and protections, although in general you have to pay rent, no matter the season, marital status or number of kids. But you can drag the eviction process out I'd say at least 6 months from beginning to end. But that is of course not really what she wants to know ;-)

[hpesoj]

the state seems very generous with section 8 -- I personally hear stories from people saying they are surprised they qualified (hinting they really didn't need it). She sounds like she could really use it.