So-called “Squad” member Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) reportedly shows thousands of dollars in rental income with her husband in her financial disclosure forms, despite being a cosponsor of the “cancel rent” bill.
Pressley’s annual financial disclosure, which every member files, shows she and her husband made up to $15,000 from rent, according to a report from Fox News. Her disclosure is from last year as the Chinese coronavirus was sweeping through the country.
The congresswoman’s 2020 financial disclosure forms showed she made between $5,000 and $15,000 in rental income from a Boston property, in her husband’s name, according to the disclosure, Fox News reported. After their property was purchased, it was converted into a multi-family apartment, the report noted.
The squad member also reportedly had disclosed the same amount of rental income in 2019, the year before the Chinese coronavirus closed down parts of the country.
Ayanna Pressley walks holding hands with her husband Conan Harris to the Adams Street Library in Boston, Massachusetts to vote on November 6, 2018. (Photo by Joseph PREZIOSO / AFP)
Despite making thousands in rent with her husband, she tried to show the public she was willing to fight for canceling rent. Pressley joined Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) in April of last year to co-sponsor Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) bill to “institute a nationwide cancellation of rents and home mortgage payments through the duration of the coronavirus pandemic.”
In December, she tweeted, “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. This is a public health emergency.” The tweet was attached to an article about evictions leading to Chinese coronavirus cases.
In March, Pressley with Omar reintroduced a bill to cancel rent and mortgage payments. Pressley, at the time, reportedly said that every measure needs to be taken to keep families safely housed:
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.
Her bill would conveniently require the federal government to reimburse landlords for the unpaid rent. Fox News asked Pressley’s office if she and her husband canceled any of their tenant’s rent in 2020 but did not get an immediate response.
Follow Jacob Bliss on Twitter @jacobmbliss.
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