Local Initiatives Support Coalition (LISC) announced that Jennifer Maddox, undersecretary of the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), received the 2021 LISC Community Impact Award in recognition of her leadership of the statewide Eviction Diversion Initiative.
The Eviction Diversion Initiative led by Maddox and her team provides deep assistance to tenants and landlords, including funding for rent and overdue utilities with state and federal funding, as well as free and low-cost legal aid and professional mediation services to help households avoid evictions. Through October of this year, more than 50,000unique households had received $360 million to avoid eviction, and eviction filings and executions continue to remain below pre-pandemic levels, LISC said.
Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy credits Maddox for these outcomes: “You don’t get these kinds of results without a leader with incredible vision, compassion, commitment, and desire to improve the lives of others, with a tenacity—quiet tenacity in Jennifer’s case—to get things done and make things better.”
