Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) joined fellow Democrats last week in calling for the passage of the Housing Emergencies Lifeline Program (HELP) Act to “crack down” on some evictions while barring the use of evictions on credit reports. Pressley declared that “evictions are an act of policy violence.”
Promoting the act, Pressley said:
“Eviction is an act of violence, and we have to do everything to prevent it. It is devastating for the families. It degrades the health of communities. There is great stigma associated with it. It affects your credit score. Housing is a human right. It is a predictor of health outcomes. It’s essential for social and economic mobility…”
The HELP Act would prohibit the credit reporting of evictions and utility debt. That is a major indicator for credit companies and would deny access to the information for those reviewing the financial history of people seeking loans and other benefits.
It would also fund legal counsel for people contesting evictions. It is co-sponsored by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.) and Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D., Cal.)
Critics ripped into Pressley over her family’s reported millions held in rental properties.
The true concern, however, should be in Congress dictating the removal of key financial history from debt reports. It is one thing to provide assistance to renters. However, these companies play a key role in allowing a wide array of businesses to judge the risk of individuals seeking contracts, leases, or loans. Forcing the non-reporting of such records undermines the faith and utility of such reports.
The manipulation of financial reports is a dangerous precedent in politics. Not long ago, some states, like New York, mandated the expungement or sealing of criminal justice records to help people secure jobs.
Yet this is an effort by Democrats to artificially improve credit reports by removing evidence of past evictions or lease defaults.
At the same time, landlords and others are dealing with a squatting crisis where people use existing evictions laws to delay their removal from properties.
In New York, socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s previously called to seize unoccupied luxury condos in New York and give them to the homeless. After this election, he then appointed Cea Weaver as the new director of the Office to Protect Tenants. Weaver previously stated a need to ‘impoverish the white middle-class’ and called homeownership “racist” while demanding the seizure of private property.
The videos Weaver echoed thread-worn socialist mantras:
“I think the reality is, that for centuries we’ve really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good…And transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require that we think about it differently and it will mean that families – especially white families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well – are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.”
Weaver and others in the Mamdani administration view “private property, including and kind of ESPECIALLY homeownership is a weapon of White supremacy masquerading as ‘wealth building’ public policy.”
Pressley’s view of evictions as an act of violence adds to this rising rhetoric at a time when more young people are embracing socialism. In my book, “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.” I discuss this trend in Western countries.
Recent polls show sixty-five percent of Democratic voters have a favorable view of socialism. An even greater percentage of young Britons want to live under socialism, and 72 percent favor nationalization of industries.
As my book discusses, the work of Adam Smith was immediately embraced by the founders as the perfect economic theory to advance their political theory. Smith’s idea of the “invisible hand” offered an idea of individual economic freedom where whole economies were driven by the individual tastes and choices of citizens.
The free market was viewed not as “violence” but liberation for individual citizens in achieving true independence.
‘Squatting is an act of violence, and we have to do everything to prevent it. It is devastating for the families searching for housing. It degrades the health of communities. There is great stigma associated with it and rightfully so. It affects your credit score. Buying housing is a human right. It is a predictor of health outcomes. It’s essential for social and economic mobility…’
I’m not a socialist by any means. But I think the threat of homelessness hanging over everyone’s head (not just renters) is extremely unhealthy and the biggest threat to freedom in the world. I suggested years ago that the constitution be amended to prohibit encumbrances on residential real property (e.g., mortgages) and prohibit evictions from one’s principal residence. I still think it’s a good idea, and nowhere near as radical as it might seem. Effectively, that kind of amendment would restore rather than undermine property rights.
I would truly hate to see what you would admit to be socialism.
You haven’t thought about it at all. The system we currently have is much more like socialism than what I proposed. What I was proposing, in essence, is that once you own a home it can never be taken from you legally, and that you can never be evicted from a principal residence for non-payment, even if you’re renting. People should be secure in the place they live. That is the most basic aspect of the “right to property”. As it is, no one is really secure in their place of residence and that is extremely unhealthy. And very socialist in its way, also.
@JMRJ
People who rent are living on someone else’s paid for property per an agreement. You’re not a socialist? Tell us another. 😂😂 You have also clearly never rented out a property yourself and had to deal with the repercussions of bad tenants. You trolls are getting really pathetic.
Renting of residential real estate would not necessarily be all that difficult, but it would be very different. The main difference, since evictions for “non-payment” would be prohibited, is that – obviously – landlords would have to get the rent for whatever term the lease is for up front. Or, take the risk that the tenant will not pay. Evictions for other reasons, such as that tenants are a nusiance or damaging the property or are holdovers on the lease would not be prohibited. Again, this is not “socialism” at all, and if you think so you don’t know what socialism is.
“That is the most basic aspect of the “right to property””
If you mortgage your home, you sign a contract agreeing to pay off the mortgage, or to forfeit the home securing it. That is the typical essence of a contractual agreement: both parties agree to meet obligations; and to penalties if those obligations go unmet. I see no justification for home ownership to be an exception. Your proposal for non-eviction of renters is pure Marxism. Absent that threat, where is there an incentive for anyone to pay the rent they agreed to if they don’t happen to feel like doing that? As a libertarian, I could possibly be convinced that eviction should never occur because of failure to pay property tax, although the argument could be advanced that those payments are a known consequence of the real estate transaction before it is settled.
/|\ I Don Wannutono /|\
You apparently can’t see how unhealthy and abnormal it is for the roof over one’s head to be in constant doubt (you actually use the term “threat”). Also, the incoherence and deceptiveness of the current regime: you have a “right” to property, but you have no right to an income. A job can be lost at any time. If the roof over your head depends on an income (i.e., there’s a mortgage on your house) you have no real right to your house, although everyone talks that way, including you I’m sure.
“. . . you can never be evicted from a principal residence for non-payment . . .”
So who makes those payments, if you don’t? Or does the lender just go bankrupt?
Most “landlords” would be wise to collect all of the rent for whatever the term is upfront. So in that case the problem wouldn’t arise, would it?
The issue is the nonpayment of a *mortgage*. Who pays for that, if you don’t? Or does the lender just take a massive loss?
You sound like a five year-old. Unless you have something intelligent to say, there is no requirement to post every dumb idea that comes into your head. How many tenants do you think have twelve months of rent set aside to pay in advance. So I don’t see your idiotic plan working, would it?
Some states, like Florida, already have broad homestead protections against general creditors already in place, but they don’t protect you from foreclosure for not paying mortgage payments. Landlord are going to evict you if you damage their property or are in breach of your lease.
“. . . prohibit encumbrances on residential real property (e.g., mortgages) . . .”
How would a person buy a home? And what would the collateral be for a lender? A pinky promise to repay a loan is not collateral.
Homes would be bought only with cash from the buyer. The government would be prohibited from taxing residential real estate. In other words, people really would own their homes, instead of the situation we have now, where almost everyone’s home is in hock to a lender.
“Homes would be bought only with cash from the buyer.”
Please tell me you’re joking.
The median sales price of a home in the U.S. is about $400,000. Who has that kind of cash lying around?
Your scheme is worse than socialism. It’s delusional.
Rose DeLauro is from Connecticut and not California although based on her looks she should be.
Amazing: missing rent is now ‘violence,’ but forcing taxpayers to fund lawyers for chronic nonpayment is somehow justice. At this rate, contracts will be optional and consequences will be considered human‑rights violations.
The socialist and communist wing of the modern Democrat party is too devoid of common sense — and economic and historic literacy — to understand the reckless folly of the policies they advocate to pander to their base. Pressley is a venial, divisive, hateful, and (above all things) hypocritical demagogue who, along with other empty heads spewing vitriol (AOC, Warren, Markey) need to go the way of the dodo bird.
Just more fools and the fools who lead them. If they could read, then they would know the idiocy of which they speak. I suppose that they forgot that Labor in England tried to socialize the economy and tanked it and then Margaret Thatcher brought their nation back but got little credit for it except to be in turn tanked by John Major. Now you really can’t tell the Laborites from the Conservatives and both are hapless.
I suspect Illinois, Massachusetts, California, and other blue states like them will soon have properties selling for bargain basement prices as the great migration continues to the South and Midwest (except Illinois and Minnesota). I doubt that AG’s in red states will let any such national law about hiding evictions and utility debt survive.
I think it will be interesting to see the legal maneuvers and battles over exit fees from states also. Just another means of trying to trap your money in a failed state. But by all means get out while the getting is good.
Are you a economist? Find your less than astute analysis unconvincing.
Didn’t think so. Strange that you would use the UK as an example – it’s socialist, always was.
Dad, Please come up out of the basement, take a shower and get dressed. Sitting in the basement all day dreaming up contrived remarks and not looking for a job since your unemployment ran out is taking a toll on the family. And your constant plotting to get disability is setting a bad example for the other kids.
Oh GEB stop whining. Think, you put yourself in a public forum, you didn’t like the response, so now you’re hiding behind the anon meme to get back at anon. I swear, you old farts are worse than Karens.
Not even a nice try, Dad! Basement dwelling has not paid off for you or your family. Please stop!
Does downs syndrome run in your tribe? Please stop!
Aww, c’mon Dad! Now you are not only shaming your own family but your show off your lack of understanding of Down Syndrome inheritance? This is what dwelling in the basement does to people like you, Dad, they divert attention from themselves and start showing off their Google knowledge. Please stop!
Anon is absolutely right. Polling has advanced light years since GEB was alive.
“Polling has advanced light years”
Yes, the pollsters no can guarantee results before conducting the poll, and guarantee them by carefully wording questions and selecting the polled group.
Democrats are fascists who want to control YOU!
we OWE THESE PEOPLE Nothing!
End all Federal Aid to cities, states, non-profits and colleges
Ban public unions the democrats political army!
Destroy the Democrat Party!
Being bald didn’t get Pressley enough attention! So she made some noise about a dumber-than-dirt piece of legislation with a nonsensical acronym for a title. Just give the family’s rental empire to a non-profit and move somewhere else and seek ruin there.
As long as the collectivists breathe they will not stop. They’re kind of like terminators.
On the other end of the two-headed poisonous snake, we have the State merging with the likes of palantir, google and others. What did Musdolini call that?
We need to cut off both heads.
Yeah, sure, exercise of 4th Amendment (*and* common law) property rights = acts of violence. The Wokists/Marxists continue their attempted demolition of civilization by attempting to redefine any word or term they chose, in ways that make it appear that their idiotic positions are supported by the very language they despise. This is why I keep a full Webster’s International 2nd Edition dictionary beside my desk. If you allow these cretins to own the language, you will find that they will shortly own or control everything else, as well.
* SARCASM here for you fools that don’t get it! * Oh Hell Yeah – CANCEL THE RENT here we come again!! Landlords (a colonialist term for sure with LORD in the word!) are oppressors that keep THE (WO)MAN (THEY/THEM) down by committing economic violence every month! HOUSING is a human right that should be charity for anyone that wants it and donated by those filthy capitalists that actual earned money and took on risk to invest. A lack of intelligence, ambition, morals, and work ethic are no reason to deny FREEBIES to everyone! Mamdani The Commie and President AOC agree that those with money need confiscatory taxing to redistribute everything to those who want it for nothing! VOTE COMMUNIST IF YOU LIKE FREEBIES THAT ARE WORTH WHAT YOU PAID FOR THEM!!! Haha!
This radical fool says “eviction is an act of violence” and it “degrades the health of communities” and both are completely the reverse of reality. Violence is having a deadbeat, violent, dirty and LOUD tenant in the building you own that bothers and scares the other tenants every day. The health of the community is improved by removing the violent, dirty and LOUD family that disrupts the entire neighborhood.
If you can’t give a landlord a true credit report then guess what…they will have to require 2 months deposit rather than 1 in order to be able to recoup the expected and usual losses.
Removing evictions from credit reports is just another step in the dumbing down of society. We had too many kids that couldn’t excel in school, end tests and AP classes. We have to many criminals committing violent crimes, don’t allow employers to know who has been in prison. Too many idiot kids getting useless degrees, pay off their loans. Too many of a favored group can’t excel at meeting college standards, lower the standards for them and do so for employment also. I.E. you see lower standards to complete police and fire courses in order to include women in these services and yet they don’t (thank heaven) lower nursing standards to employ more male nurses. (Just foreigners). Too many people committing crimes, redefine the criminal code or put in place radical prosecutors to make the crimes go away. Too many people skipping paying the fares, make buses free.
If our policy was being mandated by our biggest enemy how would it be different from what the Democrats are trying to do to us?
Here comes Mr. X, George, to tell us why we need to ban evictions and why Turley should write about something else.
X hasn’t posted, but this guy here is already on the attack. Why is it you keep bullying people here? Everyone has to conform to you brainless opinion or else you bully them?
X’s comments are always gainsaying for the sake of gainsaying. Do you really believe that we can expect anything different today?
True that. I’d take X any day he makes me laugh, unserious. Between delusion and fantasy. Hullbobby is … nutso.
Optim, why not try to rebut my comment? Ooh, ooh I know…you can’t.
HullBobby,
Two times months deposit? I think it would be more.
However, it is a moot point. As someone else pointed out, this is not a serious “act.” It is an act in the sense of political theater.
“Oh! Look at what I tired to do for the unwashed masses (even though I knew it would amount to nothing!)!! Woe is me! Those big bad capitalists!! Forever stopping us from achieving our socialist utopia (even though I cash in on that very same capitalist system)!!”
People are not listening. Myself and millions like me have been warning the general public of the attacks by democrats on our country for decades. Glenn Beck opened my eyes about twenty years ago. He made me aware of the writings of Saul Alinski and Cloward, Piven and Karl Marx. Glenn explained how the democrats have been using strategies laid out in Saul Alinski’s Rules for Radicals, Cloward and Piven’s Steps to Socialism and Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto against our system of Freedom. The democrat socialist party are leading us to a point where only a civil war can provide a proper reset. Im not calling for a civil war. I believe we can still fight this in the school system, ballot box and the Judiciary.
It was your generation who dropped the ball and put us in this situation.
Civil war, but looking at you moniker, you locked and loaded already.
“I believe we can still fight this in the school system, ballot box and the Judiciary.”
What is your strategy to achieve those ends? To turn the tide in the public school systems would require a take over or nearly total disenfranchisement of teachers’ unions. To say that is a long shot would be massively optimistic. At the ballot box, the requirement would be term limits and/or the revocation of qualified immunity while in office. The probability for success might be slightly higher than public school system reform, but still tremendously unlikely. Reforming the currently despicable state of the Federal judiciary is a task that falls to Congress, and would require a complete, veto-proof majority by not just Republicans, but by non-RINO, non-Deep State Republicans who value their integrity more than their reelection prospects, a tremendously improbable scenario (see my “ballot box” comment). I think the best bet would be to try to get unstoppable public momentum built for a Convention of States going before the entrenched interests can formulate an effective opposition. Since a CoS could potentially move us in the wrong direction, it would very much be a risk. But the clear benefit ameliorating that risk would be that the population/electoral college advantage of the blue states would be neutralized (every state would have a numerically equal vote on the outcome). In spite of the risk, and the odds against success, I strongly believe that this approach is our best, quite likely our only, real chance at reform. The alternative will be a choice between revolution and complete capitulation.
Democrats are always quick to force private companies to be instruments of their social and economic experiments. They rarely if ever want to live by the same rules they impose for others. Mamdani lived in a rent-stabilized apartment for years, despite his family’s great wealth and status as Ugandan oligarchs, and might still occupy it while living in Gracie Mansion, keeping it away from a truly poor family. Pressley could reach into her own pocket and allow families to live free in her vast rental empire. She won’t. It’s easier to demand the entire system bend to her will than to actually make a small personal sacrifice.
The end of being a private landlord…
No, the US Gov. will be the property manager.
So says the slumlord herself. Wish her renters turned that on her.
She started congress poor, net worth $12,000. In 2026 $6.5 million.
Socialism pays.
Be careful who you vote for.
“evictions are an act of policy violence.”
So eviction for not paying rent is bad.
But eviction for being an R governor is good.
I think I understand how this works.
This is 100% Communism they are pushing but America is a free market country. Sounds like they all need to find a communist country that suits them and move there.
Communism, not at all. Under communism, the state owns all property. Eventually the USA will be socialist.
Move? Where? Vietnam, Laos, Cuba, and North Korea. And Chinia. Or Washington state.
The USA doesn’t have to become socialist or communist. We don’t have to just sit back and give up our country to either ideology. We need to fight against it? Stop voting for these socialists and Communists for a start! Put stronger opposition candidates up against them who can actually WIN. Stop voting in weak spineless RINOs who work against the interests of Republicans who voted them into office!! Start researching the candidates find out their voting history, find out what they’re about. Texas has a Democrat Socialist/Communist whacko candidate running against incumbent John Cornyn who is in a run off against Texas AG Ken Paxton (who is fairly popular in Texas). The Dem challenger is trying to run as a Christian moderate. His political background says he’s far from moderate! His theology is warped to say the least! Even if you’re a moderate Democrat; RESEARCH YOUR CANDIDATE, CHECK THEIR POLITICS, RESEARCH THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA GOING BACK YEARS! If you don’t know how ASK someone who does. You would be surprised at what a whack job the Democrat candidate for TX Senator D23 is. He makes Jasmine Crockett look like a conservative. Start voting smart, get these socialists and communists out of our government – in ALL levels of government! You people seem to think we have no power to stop the train coming at us! So we’re supposed to just sit back and let it happen. Get up, get out and VOTE AGAINST them, VOTE THEM OUT!
Obama removed judgements from reports, now medical, then this. The report is not an accurate depiction of the consumer