Resources for Housing Equity

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ORGANIZATIONS to join, suppport, receive newsletters or action alerts from:

LEGISLATION to support in MA:

  • COVID-19 Housing Equity Bill  H 1434/S 891
    • (Call legislators or go to homesforall.org to sign letter to legislators on website)
  • Lift the Ban on Rent Control
  • Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA)  H 1426/ S 890
  • An Act Enabling Local Options for Tenant Protections H 1378/ S 886
  • Stabilization of Rents and Evictions H 1440/ S 889

READING 

Joint Reports from MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning & City Life/Vida Urbana on racial disparities in Boston eviction filing patterns during COVID-19 Pandemic: 

  • 2021: “Housing Is The Cure: Eviction Filing Patterns In Boston’s Communities of Color During COVID-19” (covidevictions.org)    Findings: 70% of Boston eviction filings during the first year of the pandemic were in parts of the city where most renters are people of color. 
  • 2020: “The Disproportionate Effects of Forced Moves on Communities of Color”  (bostonevictions.org)    Findings: 70% of market rate evictions are in census tracts where the majority of residents are people of color, even though only half of the city’s rental housing is in these neighborhoods.

Evicted by Matthew Desmond

FOLLOW-UP TO THE THEODORE PARKER LECTURE — “HOUSING: THE KEY TO COMMUNITY”

At our talk on March 20, 2022, we missed arriving at the question: “What are some of the successes of City Life?  What are some successful models across the country to address the housing issue?”

Here are a few examples: 

  • Tenant Associations (TAs): tenants in many buildings with over 10 units in many areas of Boston are organized into Tenant Associations/unions, with CL support.  
  • TAs forging bonds: multiple buildings owned by the same corporate landlord evidence similar bad housing conditions within all the buildings the landlord owns.  Tenants have organized not only within each of these buildings, but have also formed solidarity alliances among the buildings — even when the buildings are spread throughout the city.  Strength in numbers.
  • Negotiated leases: CL has helped TAs negotiate leases with landlords threatening to evict or rapidly raise rents.  Leases have been negotiated to provide for no more than 3% rise in rent/year for 5 years; this relieves the pressure of facing hundreds of dollars rental rise with only 30 days’ notice, and reduces displacement due to inability to pay for sudden, large rent increases.This also reduces rent burden (owing more than 30% of one’s income for housing).
  • NY State: Statewide Rent Control legislation passed several years ago.  Successful.
  • Housing as a Human Right Legislation: currently being crafted in Sacramento.
  • Land Trusts: Boston Neighborhood Community Land Trust — growing.  #9 Humphries St., location of multi-year fight (w/ CL help) against displacement by landlord of a small number of tenants in the building won a victory — tenants can now stay; building is transitioning into a Land Trust.