For Peaceful Community, We Can Prevent Bullying
Do you want to stop bullying in public and subsidized housing? The Stop Bullying Coalition has submitted a petition to create an agency to take complaints, investigate, protect victims of bullying; and where needed, propose legal action to hold the landlord to account.
You can help! Your elected legislators on Beacon Hill are waiting to hear from you. (see below for how to contact them). Ask them to sponsor the bill.
Make your voice heard on Beacon Hill
Find your state legislators by entering your street address, city/town, and ZIP code.
https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator
You will get a list with your senator and your representative, click on their names and get their contact information including email, mail, and phone. You can reach their staff people at their district offices or on Beacon Hill.
Ask them to please sponsor An Act Relative to Bullying in Housing sponsored by Senator Joan B. Lovely and Representative Brad Hill.
A Bill Protecting Elderly Persons and Persons With Disability From Bullying, Mobbing, and Hostile Environment Harassment in Multifamily Subsidized and Public Housing
Why we need this law
Bullying deprives us of our human and civil rights. We experience isolation, exclusion, rejection, malicious gossip, emotional abuse, and even violence. Our lives are consumed by conflict and stress, causing both emotional and physical illness. We live in fear of unfair eviction and the peril of homelessness.
Bullying prevents a healthy community life; it is harmful to managers, staff, and visitors, as well as residents.
Mobbing is a reign of terror, when landlord and management join with residents to bully victims as a means of control.
But some facilities are free of bullying, and some turn from mobbing to become bully-free. Landlord, management, and residents can work together to stop bullying and build a healthy community. We can learn from their example.
We propose a law that can protect us and make it possible for all of us to have peace and safety.
An Act Relative to Bullying in Housing
A Bill Protecting Elderly Persons and Persons With Disability From Bullying, Mobbing, and Hostile Environment Harassment in Multifamily Subsidized and Public Housing
This bill establishes the Tenant Protective Services Agency to investigate complaints about bullying of tenants who are elderly or persons with disability, provide protection to targets of bullying, and to refer situations of hostile environment harassment or residential community mobbing to the Attorney General or District Attorney for civil action against the landlord to protect the rights of residents, including the right of peaceful enjoyment.
“Hostile environment harassment” is unwelcome conduct creating a situation that makes it difficult or impossible for victims to have the peaceful enjoyment of their residency.
We created this bill to provide protection for victims; assure that landlords are accountable; and make possible the creation of peaceful, healthy community life. Implementing the protections of this bill is only a beginning, and is the essential base on which everyone can work towards developing and strengthening a healthy, peaceful residential community.
We know how to stop bullying
Together, three building blocks are demonstrated to help, together or separately, to prevent bullying:
- management is present on site; provided, however, that they do not engage in or condone bullying;
- there is a resident service coordinator on site who creates a welcoming and inclusive environment;
- official rules and policies are known to all.
The constructive role of tenants in governance is a resource often neglected and should be developed as the fourth building block.
The need is urgent
Almost half of the respondents to a statewide survey of bullying in the Commonwealth experience bullying in the housing developments where they live or work. Respondents, 178/617 or 29%, live in residential communities that likely have mobbing—they reported being bullied and seeing others bullied. Slightly more than half of the respondents did not report experiencing bullying. About 30% of respondents live in bully-free communities—not only did they not report being bullied, but they did not report observing others who were bullied. The agents of the landlord—managers and staff—as well as residents perpetrated bullying, but they also reported being bullied.
Bullying and mobbing are communal behaviors
While an individual may use bullying, the culture, social norms, formal rules, and the leadership of the community will either enable the bullying to spread, or inhibit it.
“Mobbing,” is bullying by a group targeting members of the community, resulting in inappropriate control of one or more targets. Tactics used to mobilize members of the residential community against the target include using malicious gossip, social pressure, and isolation against targets.
“Residential community mobbing” consists of the landlord and their agents participating in, condoning, or ignoring bullying or mobbing.
“Hostile environment harassment” is unwelcome conduct creating a situation that makes it difficult or impossible for victims to have the peaceful enjoyment of their residency.
Bullying and mobbing in residential communities
We have identified three social and administrative situations in residential communities.
- Bullying-free Residential Community where landlord is diligent, acts to prevents bullying;
- Residential Community Mobbing where landlord & agents condone bullying—bullying takes place but is ignored by the landlord and their agents; and
- Residential Community Mobbing where landlord & agents use and enable bullying.
Solutions: protection and prevent mobbing
The solution must include protecting the victim, stopping the mobbing, empowering the tenants, and having ongoing communication and collaboration by the landlord, social worker, other professionals, and tenants.
Remedying the failure of a housing provider to enforce the legal and contracted right of all tenants to “peaceful enjoyment” is the keystone to stopping bullying. Therefore, we need oversight, accountability, and enforcement to protect the rights of all tenants. The legislation will create a new agency, commission, or department, the Tenant Protective Services Agency. The Agency will have trained investigators to provide protection for victims and will forward reports on hostile environment harassment to the Attorney General or District Attorney for action.
Some residential communities have little or no bullying, and their landlords and tenants deserve recognition and encouragement. We should determine what enables this good result, develop guidelines and best practices, and encourage and enable landlords to adapt such methods to their own situations. We need continuing research to evaluate and measure existing programs, better understand how to prevent bullying. We need to encourage and evaluate pilot programs to enable residential communities to develop new strategies and to adapt proven strategies.
Tenants who are targeted must have an external agency to offer protection and mobbing must be eliminated.
Only in the absence of fear and retaliation can tenants be free.
Only then can an individual or group seek to stop bullying and develop a healthy community. Only then can constructive suggestions become relevant and make it possible for everyone—including tenants, social workers, mental health and other experts, community organizers, and the landlord—to collaborate for a healthy and peaceful community.
For more information and to offer your ideas
Write using the link at http://stopbullyingcoalition.org/contact and ask to see the most current draft text of the law as well as the Exhibits containing the research basis for the conclusions on which the proposed law is based.
Make your voice heard on Beacon Hill
Find your state legislators by entering your street address, city/town, and ZIP code.
https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator
You will get a list with your senator and your representative, click on their names and get their contact information including email, mail, and phone. You can reach their staff people at their district offices or on Beacon Hill.
Ask them to please sponsor An Act Relative to Bullying in Housing sponsored by Senator Joan B. Lovely and Representative Brad Hill.
A Bill Protecting Elderly Persons and Persons With Disability From Bullying, Mobbing, and Hostile Environment Harassment in Multifamily Subsidized and Public Housing
Thank you for what you do.
This is democracy. This is what we do.
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