Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) was found through her annual financial disclosure to have received thousands of dollars in rental income last year despite advocating for cancelling rent after many Americans struggled to make payments due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pressley's 2020 financial disclosure showed that she and her husband made between $5,000 and $15,000 from rental payments from an apartment in Boston, FOX News reported. The property, reported to be under her husband's name, helped Pressley rack in the same amount, $5,000 and $15,000, in rental income in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the congresswoman's disclosure.
This comes despite the Massachusetts representative being a staunch advocate for cancelling rent.
"Keeping families housed is a matter of public health. We must cancel rent, extend eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, provide rental assistance, and offer legal representation for those at risk of eviction," Pressley said in a tweet last December.
In March 2021, Pressley joined fellow progressive "Squad" member Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and other Democrats in introducing a bill that would have canceled rent and mortgage payments for renters across the country.
"Housing is a critical determinant of health, economic opportunity and social mobility," Pressley said in a March 11 press release. "With the economic impact of this pandemic worsening and the threat of eviction and homelessness looming large for families nationwide, we must take every measure possible to keep families safely housed, forgive all rental debt, and ensure that the credit scores of hard hit families are not forever tarnished."
Missed rental payments would have been paid by the federal government during the pandemic if the bill had passed.
Pressley has also advocated for the extension of the eviction moratorium, which President Joe Biden extended earlier this month, putting landlords nationwide in a financial hole.