Housing Headlines

An undercover investigation released by Suffolk University Law School has found high levels of discrimination by Greater Boston landlords and real estate brokers against Black renters. Two hundred testers were trained to conduct 50 tests at properties across Greater Boston in 2018-2019. Black testers were assigned names such as Aisha, Hakim and Darnell while whites were identified as Jill, Allison and Brad. The study - funded by the Boston Foundation and the Racial Justice Fund - found that Black renters experienced discrimination 71 percent of the time and were shown apartments 48 percent of the time whereas whites were able to view apartments 80 percent of the time.

A new bill filed by Reps. Mike Connolly of Cambridge and Kevin Honan of Brighton would extend the current eviction moratorium into next year, freeze rents and prohibit foreclosures on homeowners. The bill - written with help from the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, the Chinese Progressive Association and other advocacy groups - also proposes to compensate some landlords for loss of rental income, with priority given to owner-occupant landlords, elderly landlords on fixed incomes, non-profit landlords, and Massachusetts-based commercial landlords owning 15 or fewer units,

A new report from City Life and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology predicts that a surge of evictions due to COVID-19 and rising unemployment are likely to strike Black communities hardest. In a study of evictions in Boston between 2014 and 2016, the report found that an outsize number of evictions occurred in communities of color. For example, eviction rates are seven times higher in Roxbury than Allston/Brighton. Nearly 90 percent of Roxbury residents are people of color, while Allston/Brighton is 62 percent white.

WORCESTER --- Significant in the state's recent funding awards for supportive housing is the $2.2 million it awarded to the Worcester Housing Authority for the construction of 25 studio apartments for formerly homeless households. The project - to be developed on WHA land - will be the first time the state will use modular construction to build micro units for the homeless. The $3 million project is receiving additional support from the city and the Massachusetts Housing and Shelter Alliance.

SPRINGFIELD --- An experienced housing executive has been named executive director of Way Finders, the leading nonprofit housing provider in Springfield and the western part of the state. Keith Fairey takes over for Peter Gagliardi, who has led Way Finders for many years. Fairey most recently served as senior vice president at Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., where he led the management, oversight and strategic guidance of Enterprise’s 11 regional market teams across the United States.

BOSTON --- A few days after writing an organizational "Statement on Anti-Blackness," Asian CDC Executive Director Angie Liou discusses the issue with Boston Globe columnist Adrian Walker after a similar statement by the state's Asian-American Commission was disavowed by some of its members. "It’s not enough to express loudly and unequivocally our solidarity with the Black community,” Lious said. “We have a lot of work to do internally confronting our own racism. It’s not enough to put out a statement and think I've done my job. The hard work has just begun.”