Sen. Edwards Secures Passage of the Homes Act
Late Thursday night one of the few housing policies that made it into the Economic Development bill, the HOMES Act Housing Opportunity and Mobility Eviction Sealing) and passed the Senate, supported by a bipartisan group of Senators. “For the second time, the Senate has passed this bill to ensure that hundreds of thousands of people will get a second chance. This bill does many things but most importantly it takes a giant step towards social, racial, economic, and gender justice. Many people have been waiting for this day, and I am so excited to add another tool to our housing toolbox, that allows people greater access to housing†said State Senator Lydia Edwards
The Homes ACT allows individuals to petition to have records of certain evictions sealed. It protects personal identifying information from commercial use and makes sealed records only available at the discretion of the court for public safety, scholarly, educational, journalistic, or governmental purposes. Pre pandemic there were over 1 million eviction records in the Commonwealth. On average there are 40,000 evictions filed a year. This act would help those who were no fault evictions or who satisfied their judgment to seal their records.
“In this this moment, we are called to do more, to ultimately challenge the way the system works. This is one of those changes that does that, by allowing hundreds of thousands of people to have a second chance and remove the scarlet “E†from their records, we are making our system more just and equitable. I want to thank Representative Mike Moran, and Former Senator Joe Boncore, and MLRI especially, you will see on the Homes Act website that the coalition includes over one hundred organizations, from unions, to activist networks, as well as cities and towns†said State Senator Lydia Edwards.
RBC’s Beautiful Home Is a Sanctuary
When passing by this week’s “Beautiful Homeâ€, one will see a house with flower boxes overflowing with bright pink petunias, two large pots filled with petunias and white impatiens, and ground cover consisting of pink petunias, yellow marigolds, and white impatiens creating a beautiful and welcoming feel.
But, if one just passed by, they would have no idea of what the back of this beautifully maintained home looked like. Entering along the side of the house through a mass of red/orange impatiens leads to a set of stairs that take one to a spectacular back yard that can only be described as a sanctuary.
The entire area is covered with granite slabs instead of grass. A raised area covered by a pergola has furniture for sitting and relaxing and a dining area that has a large table and chairs. There is also a fire pit surrounded by seating where one can relax and have quiet conversation. All sides of the area have flowers growing on waist high walls.
And the work continues as an outdoor kitchen is in the process of being installed and a charming miniature greenhouse has just been completed but not yet utilized.
Frankie Ippolito, the son of the homeowner, informed us that all of the work on the property has been done to allow his mother to be able to entertain the many family members that live in the area comfortably.
The Revere Beautification Committee (RBC) commends Mr. Ippolito for setting an example of what a property owner can do to make it beautiful and urges all Revere residents to emulate Erankie Ippolito so that Revere becomes a lovelier place in which to live.
Please check out our website (www.reverebeautification.org) and social media pages (Instagram & Facebook: RBC_02151) for more information and pictures of our continued dedication to keeping Revere clean and beautiful.
