WestMetro HOME Consortium Fair Housing Workshop: Fair Housing Past to Present - Insights from the Field

Tuesday, April 26, 3-5pm

Attorneys Kelly Vieira and Jamie Langowski from Boston, Massachusetts’ Suffolk School of Law Housing Discrimination Testing Program, examine the historical role of the real estate industry and government in racial discrimination as well as current trends in housing discrimination. Vieira and Langowski shared results from recent research on race and source of income discrimination and discuss how this research reflects America’s history of segregation and the current state of housing. They also present information on how to mitigate our implicit biases so that we can collectively ensure that everyone has fair and equal access to housing. The workshop began with remarks by City of Newton’s Mayor Ruthanne Fuller.

The remaining events and workshops are listed by calendar date.

54th Annual Fair Housing Month Ceremony                                                         

Tuesday, April 5, 2022, 2-3:05pm 

The ceremony will highlight HUD’s efforts to further the Fair Housing Act and conclude with a Table Talk conversation on disparate impact between multiple leaders from HUD, U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Housing and Urban Development, Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity office, and the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity (PAVE). Click here to register.

16th Fair Housing & Civil Rights Conference

Tuesday - Thursday, April 5-7, 2022, 9am-3:30pm

Join this three-day virtual conference, featuring twelve workshops highlighting fair housing and civil rights and keynote speakers Demetria McCain, Matthew Desmond, and Eleanor Holmes Norton. Click here to register. Click here to register.

Fair Housing: More Than Just Words’ Lunch and Learn Series // Training 1: Limited English Proficiency (LEP)

Wednesday, April 6, 2022, 12-1pm

HUD’s Field Policy and Management will be hosting a Lunch and Learn series for Public Housing Authorities, Multifamily Owners, and Management Agents on a variety of Fair Housing topics. This one features Gregory Kanaan, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. Find the link to this event in this document.

Resources for People at Risk of Housing Discrimination 

Friday, April 8, 10am-3:30pm

The MCAD (Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination) is excited to host its second virtual Fair Housing and Anti-Discrimination Education Conference! We’ve chosen this year's theme to raise awareness about the resources available to residents of Massachusetts and its neighboring Native nations who are facing or have faced housing discrimination, a topic that grows increasingly urgent as the COVID-19 pandemic continues. Click here to register.

Fair Housing: More Than Just Words’ Lunch and Learn Series // Training 2: Sexual Harassment in HUD Housing

Wednesday, April 13, 2022, 12-1pm

HUD’s Field Policy and Management will be hosting a Lunch and Learn series for Public Housing Authorities, Multifamily Owners, and Management Agents on a variety of Fair Housing topics. This one features Damainique Bruce, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. Find the link to this event in this document.

Fair Housing: More Than Just Words’ Lunch and Learn Series // Training 3: Assistance Animals and Reasonable Accommodation

Wednesday, April 20, 2022, 12-1pm

HUD’s Field Policy and Management will be hosting a Lunch and Learn series for Public Housing Authorities, Multifamily Owners, and Management Agents on a variety of Fair Housing topics. This one features Vera Schneider & Beth Crosby, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity. Find the link to this event in this document.

Introduction to Affordable Housing Development

Tuesday, April 26, 9am-12pm

Designed for newcomers to affordable housing development, this course will provide an overview of the process of affordable housing development, from site selection to occupancy. Hosted by the Mel King Institute and led by Louise Elving, principal of VIVA Consulting and was previously Vice President of Housing Development for Community Builders. Click here to register.

WestMetro HOME Consortium Fair Housing Workshop: Fair Housing Past to Present - Insights from the Field

Tuesday, April 26, 3-5pm

Join attorneys from Boston, Massachusetts’ Suffolk School of Law Housing Discrimination Testing Program, in examining the historical role of the real estate industry and government in racial discrimination as well as current trends in housing discrimination. Attorneys will share results from recent research on race and source of income discrimination and discuss how this research reflects America’s history of segregation and the current state of housing. Attorneys will also present information on how to mitigate our implicit biases so that we can collectively ensure that everyone has fair and equal access to housing. The workshop will begin with remarks by City of Newton’s Mayor Ruthanne Fuller.

Click here for the presentation recording. Click here for the presentation's slides.

FORJ of Newton’s Event: The New MBTA Communities Law

Wednesday, April 27, 7:30-9pm

Our region has a lot of work to do to create enough housing for all the people who need it. Recently, Massachusetts passed a law that will make it easier for cities like Newton to change zoning laws and build more housing. Hosted by Newton’s FORJ Housing Committee,* Kathy Pillsbury of Engine 6 will give a presentation after which we will discuss the new law through a racial justice lens. Click here to register. 

*FORJ Housing Committee is a subgroup of FORJ (Families Organizing for Racial Justice) who are interested in learning more about housing and viewing it through a racial justice lens.

While Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act in 1968, the true catalyst for this foundational policy lies in the Chicago Freedom Movement. Learn more about how this movement, as well as other community organizing in the Boston area and the U.S., have achieved housing justice. 

Chicago Freedom Movement: This movement, also known as the Chicago open housing movement, was one of the most robust civil rights campaigns in the North of the U.S. It is largely accredited to have catalyzed the Fair Housing Act. Martin Luther King Jr., James Bevel, and Al Raby led it with the Chicago-based Coordinating Council of Community Organizations and the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference.) It consisted of community organizing, rent strikes, boycotts, a large rally and marches.

It’s demands ranged from open housing (banning discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, or national origin in the sale, lease, and finance of housing, and in the furnishing of real estate brokerage services); quality education; transportation; job access; and so much more. Ultimately, it was the tragic assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. that finally pushed Lyndon B. Johnson to sign the Fair Housing Act.  Learn more in an NLIHC overview.

How the Civil Rights Movement Influenced the Disability Rights Movement: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement (including the Chicago Freedom Movement) was one of the major influences and inspirations for the disability rights movement, in particular the use of non-violent direct action. This included a 25 day takeover of a federal building in San Francisco in 1977 and blocking intersections to protest the lack of accessible public transportation in 1978. These and other actions led to the 1988 amendment to the Fair Housing Act to protect people with disabilities. And in 1990, more than 60 activists conjured the “Capitol Crawl,” leaving their wheelchairs and mobility devices to climb the 83 steps to the U.S. Capitol Building, demanding the passage of the ADA and seen as the major catalyst to President George Bush signing it in 1990. 

Columbia Point Public Housing: Tenants of public housing at Columbia Point in Boston carried out multiple actions to achieve housing and health justice. This includes multiracial mothers shutting down an incarcerator through blocking the passage of dump trucks, and tenants and doctors creating the first community health center in the U.S. (the CP Health Center). Learn more in the People’s History podcast or A People’s Guide to Greater Boston.

Tenant Unions: Tenant unions are renter-led organizations that advocate for tenant rights, build renter power, and push for renter-friendly policy change. These unions may affiliate based on living in the same building, renting from the same landlord (but in different buildings), or experiencing similar negative living conditions in the same neighborhood. The Boston area and Massachusetts have local examples of tenant unions and associations to learn from! Such as Boston’s longstanding City Life/ Vida Urbana and the state-wide Mass Alliance of HUD Tenants. Several tenant unions have recently emerged in Boston, especially in response to the pandemic and some as part of the Greater Boston Tenants Union. Lastly, learn more about tenant unions through the inspiring story of KC Tenants in Kansas City.

Dudley Square Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI): In the 1980s, Dudley Street neighborhood in Roxbury, Boston had the lowest incomes in the city and faced multiple challenges (and oppressions.) Through community organizing, DSNI was formed as a community land trust (CLT), a legal entity that owns the land with its residents designated as the beneficiaries of ownership. Learn about CLTs in the ‘Creative Housing Models’ section. It has eminent domain powers delegated to it by the City of Boston and has a democratic structure. Click here to watch a short video and read more about DSNI’s history.

Cultivating a collaborative and tenant-led approach to housing: HUD Exchange created a Citizen Participation & Equitable Engagement (CPEE Toolkit).

Moms 4 Housing: A collective of homeless and marginally housed mothers occupied an uninhabited Oakland, California home out of “...absolute desperation'. These are the times we’re living in, where your only option is to occupy a house or live with your children on the street” (interview on KALW.) While this took place in California, this is an inspiring story of those most impacted taking the action they need, against real estate systems, to secure the right of housing. They ultimately got the house in 2020. 

Want to stay up-to-date on the new affordable housing opportunities in Newton as they become available for rent or purchase? Click here for a current listing of affordable opportunities and sign up to receive emails newsletters about timely affordable housing lotteries:

https://www.newtonma.gov/government/planning/housing-community-development/housing/current-affordable-housing-opportunities 

Email newsletter sign-up:

https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001JdpTMeML5NJJRN91OZKcvcBpV5zJjWHYlyfJ_CbYk9zP2Co4Hu3HeSgENBogJxqxuTt8J7_HyFyHh2y73baZhO14Sr9u3Zlgj3ddZYwxRItSu-hX0cp9XjU1qROD_0fpScjTLspEfEqQfvW6bfC4zgUmpWNRzoKr 

Housing Navigator is also a great resource for those looking for income-restricted rentals across the state of Massachusetts: 

https://www.housingnavigatorma.org/ 

MassAccess Housing Registry is also another tool for those searching for affordable housing in the region: https://www.massaccesshousingregistry.org/ 

If you are having difficulty paying rent or are facing eviction, please visit the City of Newton’s Housing Assistance & Eviction Diversion webpage for a list of resources to help you navigate this difficult moment: 

https://www.newtonma.gov/government/planning/housing-community-development/housing/housing-assistance-eviction-diversion 

You can also contact the City of Newton’s Social Services at 617-796-1420 to work with city staff on which resources may be the best fit for you. 

Community Land Trusts (CLTs): A great definition is provided by the Boston-based Dudley Square Neighborhood Initiative, one of the most successful CLTs in the country: Community land trusts are non-profit organizations that own land and lease it out for mission-aligned uses… [this includes] parks, open space, affordable home ownership, rental housing, farm sites, affordable commercial space and community gardens. CLTs don’t sell our land - we remove it from the speculative market with a mandate to hold it permanently and protect it for community use… CLTs remove land from the private market, thus protecting it from the whims of “the free market.” The value of the land, instead, is inherent, iti’s not based on whether outside investors think it’s valuable or invaluable… Furthemore, CLTs are governed by groups of people who make decisions about how the land is used for community benefit.

Click here for a helpful graphic about how CLTs work. And click here to learn about the Greater Boston CLT Network. 

Social Housing: Social housing refers to government-owned or regulated affordable housing. Cities across the globe have turned their attention to the extensive social housing in Vienna as a possible example to follow. Vienna’s city government owns and manages 220k social housing units, and indirectly controls 200k units built and owned by limited-profit private developers through a city-regulated process. This HUD article describes the system’s inner workings, and this Bloomberg Quicktake’s video, “Vienna’s Radical Idea? Affordable Housing For All” situates social housing in the context of the U.S. 's history of public housing and takes into account the pandemic. 

Furthermore, social housing aims to achieve social equality and democratic residential control. This highlights one of the main ways that social housing can differ from public housing - tenants can be decision-makers in the design, maintenance and governance of their complex. For example, tenants are involved in the design or management of several complexes in Vienna. And in New York’s Mitchell-Lama coops, “residents elect the board of directors that hire the management companies that run their properties” (Community Service Society.)

This is seen as a more powerful alternative to the U.S.’s current system, where municipalities rely upon the private sector (including nonprofit developers) to build ‘affordable’ units through subsidies, and often has a cap on the amount of years the units need to remain affordable. Some legislators have proposed imposing a wealth tax, or a tax increase on high-dollar real estate transactions, to fund social housing. Learn more in this report by the Community Service Society or this comparative study of European social housing programs cited by HUD.

In many ways, the Fair Housing Act works to reverse the negative impacts of government sanctioned zoning and redlining across the nation. Actions fueled by racism and classism continue to exist throughout our communities, but the spirit and force of fair housing lives on. In Massachusetts, the state’s MBTA Communities bill is trying to amend the segregationist history created by discriminatory housing practices by enabling greater housing production.

Zoning as a Tool for Racial & Class Segregation: While the planning tool of zoning was partly created for timeless deliberations around problems of where things should be built, such as the proximity of residential housing to pollution sites like trash incinerators, it also had racist and classist motivations. It often assumed, incorrectly, that crowding produced by more density meant ‘poor public health.’ This led to a real-estate market and a wealthier, white public solidifying single-family zoning and covenants against people of color and immigrants via policy and law. The history of how single-family zoning came to be continues to have ripple effects in terms of housing prices and home ownership opportunities for people of color. While today’s problems may have been born a hundred years ago, the ramifications of those problems continue to live and compound today.

Click here to review a thorough and accessible presentation, titled ‘The Role of Race in Zoning: A History & Policy Review,’ by the Urban Institute. Additionally, click here to watch ‘Segregated By Design,’ a less than 20 minute-long poignant and visually rich video . 

MBTA Communities:  Massachusetts state legislature passed the ‘Housing Bill’ in January 2021, requiring ‘MBTA communities’ to develop at least one zoning district within a ½ mile of transit that legalizes construction of multi-family housing, defined as having three or more housing units in a building. This is also known as allowing multi-family housing ‘by right’ or ‘as-of-right,’ meaning, as long as a developer meets a check-list of requirements, they are allowed to build. 

The purpose of ‘MBTA Communities’ is to help increase housing supply amidst a dire need for new development, reduce gas emissions from vehicles by encouraging transit-oriented development, and battle the many years of racial and classist segregation materialized by zoning that only allows single-family homes. 

If a municipality does not already meet this requirement, and if it chooses to not comply with this new ‘MBTA communities’ bill, the state will withhold state grant money from three programs: the Housing Choice Initiative, the Local Capital Projects Fund, and the MassWorks infrastructure program.

To learn more about ‘The Basics’ of the bill’s draft guidelines by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), as well as what the guidelines may entail in terms of pros, cons and unknowns, click here to read this accessible breakdown by Boston Indicators.

At this moment, Newton does not comply with the MBTA Communities’ multi-family zoning requirement, as Newton does not allow any multi-family housing ‘by right,’ however, staff is working diligently with residents, stakeholder, and City Councilors to determine the best path forward for the city in terms of compliance with the new law.  Click here to learn more about what this new zoning requirement means for Newton.