Person Facing Eviction (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
For several years, Massachusetts has been facing an affordable housing shortage.
In 2024, Governor Maura Healey passed the Affordable Homes Act in response. The act, which went into effect in May 2025, in part allows tenants to petition to seal their eviction records for a chance at a fresh start.
Eviction records—public documents detailing the process of a landlord removing a tenant—can hinder some people from securing housing again, according to the Mass.gov website. The law allows some people to eliminate at least one barrier to housing.
“Having any eviction on your record can bar you from finding housing,” said Daniel Jacobson, an attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services, as landlords may reject tenants with a past eviction.
The law helps people who are disenfranchised or marginalized, he said.
“We’re generally talking about a lot of single mothers, a lot of [working-class] families…frequently Black and Brown families,” said Jacobson.
He said the law has a significant social justice aspect because higher socioeconomic classes would not face eviction since, “[they’re more likely to be] paying for a mortgage.”
Aidan MacGowan, a student at Northeastern University who, along with his roommates, recently faced a $2000-a-month rent hike, agreed with Jacobson.
“It’s more likely that a person gets evicted due to economic and political influences that create … a need for renting,” he said.
There are two types of legal scenarios that result in the sealing of eviction records, according to Mass.gov. In the case where a tenant has not broken their lease agreement and a landlord decides to begin the eviction process to renovate or sell the property, the tenant can seal the record immediately after an initial appeal, according to the Boston.gov website. This is a no-fault eviction case.
No-faults often affect immigrants, said Jacobson. “A landlord might be looking to evict them so they can renovate the building and sell it for much higher,” he said.
In the second type of legal scenario, a case of non-payment, if a tenant satisfies the judgment and pays the amount owed, the tenant is able to seal his eviction record immediately.
However, when a tenant does not pay the agreed-upon amount, the eviction record can be sealed four years after the case ends.
Some landlords have voiced disappointment over the law. “The downsides to landlords are a little bit exaggerated," Jacobson said.
He said the idea of “the professional tenant,” those who move from property to property, sometimes not paying rent or even damaging a property, does not exist and that, “people are just trying to live.”
This law is only a “piece of the picture,” said Jacobson. It is one act in a series of movements to create greater opportunity and affordability in housing throughout the state.
There are, “pushes for things like rent stabilization to ensure that rents don’t continue to spiral further out of control,” he said.