" ‘An extinction level event.’ Federal bailout funds split struggling restaurant industry"
"For 16 months, while scrambling to stay afloat, the restaurant industry has begged the federal government for money to help recover from the pandemic. But the $28.6 billion Restaurant Relief Fund didn’t play out as they’d intended. The funds became mired in legal challenges, and then ran out far too quickly, leaving more than 200,000 applicants — nearly two in every three restaurants that applied — in the lurch.
Now, food service workers say, it’s splitting the industry in two: the haves, and the have-nots.
“Imagine you live on a street and all the houses burn down, and the government says, ‘You’re going to be okay and we’re going to help you rebuild,’ ” said chef Steve “Nookie” Postal of Commonwealth in Cambridge, which didn’t receive any funds. “And then the government turns around and says, ‘We’re just going to give it to 30 percent of the houses on your block.’ They can rebuild their house. You’re [out of luck].”
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"End of eviction moratorium brings worry"
"ANXIETY IS HIGH among tenants, landlords, and housing advocates as the midnight Saturday expiration date for the federal eviction moratorium looms, but what the end of the tenant protection will actually mean is uncertain.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions 11 months ago. The state had earlier put in place its own stricter ban. The state measure, which precluded landlords from filing nearly all eviction actions, expired in October, but the federal ban remained in place until now."
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.png?itok=DapanwwY "Baker-Polito Administration Extends Moratorium on Evictions and Foreclosures to October 17")