• Why Do We Need this Petition?

  Massachusetts must finally face the reality that inequality is woven into the very fabric of our lives. The murder of George Floyd has sparked an incredible movement to eliminate racial and social injustices all around the United States. As the Black Lives Matter movement has swelled to become the single largest, organized protest in modern history, we must all do our part maintain the momentum this important moment in history has created.
  
  We must recognize that our housing policies have been at the core of racial and social justice in Massachusetts. It is time to change.
  
  Barriers to property ownership and rental availability are some of the oldest ways of preserving discrimination in Massachusetts. In fact, a recent study by Suffolk University paired prospective white renters with prospective black renters to illustrate the egregious discriminatory practices that still exist in our communities. In an absurd 71% of these test cases, the race of the prospective renter was a direct cause of discrimination. White renters were shown more properties and given preferential treatment with access to discounts, while Black renters were often ignored, shown fewer apartments, or were not offered similar discounts.
  
  This is simply unacceptable. Clearly, our current laws are doing little to solve the decades-old problem of housing discrimination.
  
  We know that there is no panacea. We have a lot of work ahead of us to solve the racial and social injustices that are woven into the fabric of our lives.
  
  But we must start somewhere. Help us be the change we need to see in Massachusetts.

• Why Should I Sign the “Restoring Racial & Social Justice in Housing Petition”?

  By signing your name, we will show our elected officials that residents will fight for real change in Massachusetts. With your support, our petition will:

   

  FIGHT to stop discriminatory zoning practices and remove housing barriers that exacerbate racial and social injustice

   

  FIGHT to address housing instability and income inequality to create better opportunities for all residents

   

  FIGHT to create more affordable homes utilizing 40B’s, 40R’s, and inclusionary building permits that mandate that all new housing units include affordable units

   

  By lending your voice to our movement, we can all speak as one to demand that racial and social justice be taken seriously in every corner of our state.

   

  Help fight for the change we need in Massachusetts by signing your name today!

What Does the Restoring Racial & Social Justice in Housing Petition Say?

Download a PDF version of MHC’s Restoring Racial & Social Justice in Housing Petition Here

We, the citizens and residents of Massachusetts, petition the Governor, the Great and General Court, and all 351 incorporated municipalities of the Commonwealth to respectfully demand that the Commonwealth and its municipalities deliberate in each of their respective administrative and legislative bodies the following principles and policy changes; determine the method and manner that such principles and policy changes can be implemented within their jurisdiction with all due speed; and make publicly available the results of such deliberations as soon as practicable.

• Stop the Legacy of Discrimination

  Throughout the 20^th Century our governments, our leaders, and even our own neighbors, successfully wrote discrimination into our laws, regulations, and business practices.

   

  While these policies have been dismantled, their legacy of injustice still carries on.  In fact, a recent study by Suffolk University showed that discriminatory barriers to property ownership and rental availability are alive and well in Massachusetts.

   

  By pairing prospective white renters with prospective black renters, the study was able to illustrate the egregious discriminatory practices that still exist in our communities. White renters were shown more properties, offered more discounts, and were given preferential treatment overall. Black renters, on the other hand, often had contact cut off with real estate agents simply for giving a black-sounding name and were only shown a limited number of properties. In an astounding 71% of test cases, the race of a prospective renter was found to be the determine factor in the treatment that was received.

   

  These appalling conditions must come to an end. Clearly, our laws do little, if anything, to address the problem of housing discrimination.

   

   

  We demand that municipalities throughout the state follow the lead of the Boston City Council and institute real-time data collection on discriminatory practices. Massachusetts must proactively address these egregious practices by demonstrating that discrimination, in any form, will not be tolerated.

   

  We further demand sweeping changes to the systems that we have in place by making current anti-discrimination laws more enforceable. The existence of these laws has evidently stopped no one from continuing their biased housing policies. In order to end discrimination, we must all be accountable through enforcement mechanisms that create significant disincentives for anyone who wishes to continue their discriminatory practices.

   

  Sadly, the social and racial injustice highlighted here isn’t the only problem we face. Our own neighbors promote housing injustice as well.

   

  A virulent, Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) mentality in Massachusetts is one of the most harmful movements to our communities. While some resident say they housing built for those who need it, they actively oppose that housing in their own communities and neighborhoods.

   

  As a result, restrictive and discriminatory zoning laws, regulations, and practices have been put in place to slow down production and has intensified housing inequality and insecurity. We must do better for our residents and for the people that need our laws to work for them, not against them.

   

  This NIMBY mentality must come to an end in Massachusetts. Creating more housing is one of the first steps we need to take in order to have a society free of housing injustice and we must create that housing in every neighborhood in the Commonwealth.

• End Discriminatory Zoning Regulations

  Our zoning policies are deeply rooted in a philosophy of exclusion, dating back to the early 20th Century. Despite the progress of history, housing equity has never been a public priority, and our present-day crisis demonstrates the inadequacy of our response to housing as basic need for all people. We must not let the failed policies of the past dictate our future.

  Instead of inhibiting construction, zoning ordinances should allow housing to thrive by making it an economically viable and sustainable model for public, non-profit, as well as private interests. Unfortunately, developers, homeowners, and even municipalities often choose the path of least resistance during the local approval process in order to reduce their exposure to increased project costs and construction delays.

  For instance, renovations of existing properties for market rate housing carry few regulatory barriers, as opposed to new construction of units, whose zoning changes face unpredictable timelines and numerous additional regulatory hurdles - not to mention the typical NIMBY opposition. This ultimately creates an unintended incentive for the rehabilitation of existing housing to be sold at substantially higher prices, without expanding the amount of homes that are available.

  Preserving the status quo in current zoning ordinances is what is preventing or own progress in increasing available homes and reducing housing costs. There are several ways that we can break through the status quo, and we place particular value on a model that initiates the proper development where affordability is prioritized, and project incentives are repeatable throughout the Commonwealth so that others can engage similarly in the future. 

  Cities and towns in Massachusetts that are attempting to do the right thing and allow more housing are being thwarted by outdated laws that require a supermajority vote of their governing bodies to approve zoning changes. Governor Baker’s Housing Choice Bill requires a simple majority to pass changes to local zoning – an incremental step that Massachusetts must take to loosen the decades-old Not In My Backyard mentality that drives up costs and reduces the availability of housing. 

  When it comes to zoning, we must resolve to get out of our own way. Of course, regulations should exist for the protection of the rights of abutters, however, overly restrictive barriers to success should be eliminated for the sake of increasing desperately needed housing stock. We must reduce the uncertainty in local processes in order to reduce the eventual costs passed along to residents. The longer it takes to develop housing units increases the cost of production and therefore the cost of each unit - exacerbating our housing crisis.

• Mitigate Tenant & Landlord Disputes

  Many tenants, through no fault of their own, are struggling with rising rents, poor conditions, and irresponsible landlords. There are bad actors in our real estate market and we must find the resources to enforce fairness and penalize those landlords who cause unnecessary and unfair hardship. We believe that Massachusetts must implement a system that can actively mitigate tenant and landlord disputes and modify unsustainable rent increases based on need.

  Fairness must be our first principle. For too long, Massachusetts has allowed the benefits of housing to flow to those who can afford it the most. Throughout the 20th Century, the advantages of homeownership and rental relief overwhelmingly favored the well-connected, young, white, college-educated residents who did not need the benefit of scarce government resources. Those who did need those resources were left out. It’s time to bring our relief efforts into the twenty-first century and leave behind these unfair and unjust practices.

  Tenant protections and assistance should go directly to the neediest among us first. There is no room in our housing policies for allowing those of means to skip to the front of the line and obtain relief ahead of others. Tenants should be protected from not just bad landlords, but from the institutional and political bias that would cause them to be forgotten when other tenants of higher means enter into disputes.  

• Build, Build, Build

  We believe that the next decade in Massachusetts is crucial to creating housing that can be available to all who need it. Without reasonable changes to state and local housing regulations, we risk runaway price increases, limited options to build in areas convenient to job opportunities, and little, if any, housing availability even for those who can afford it today.

   

  We are calling for the Commonwealth to double-down on its commitment to build housing throughout the state by creating 100,000 new units of housing by 2030.

   

  There are numerous options for housing units where market forces have created areas unreachable or unwelcoming to affordable, workforce and even market-rate housing. We must address this inequality head on, understanding that Not In My Backyard (NIMBY)-ism will be a powerful lobby against inclusionary construction in nearly every area of our cities and towns.

   

  Many housing construction methods are underutilized or largely ignored in the housing debate, partially because current zoning creates insurmountable barriers and unpredictable timelines. It is time to look at these types of developments in a new light and with a renewed sense of urgency. Infill projects, for example, are under-valued. These projects would not just be revitalizing old units, but also adding new ones, which all goes back to the creation of new homes in order to lower prices. Additionally, focusing on Transit Oriented Development would allow more homes in a wider range of neighborhoods, access to reliable transit and job opportunities, while also lowering carbon emissions.

   

  Brand new units – affordable, workforce and market rate – should be prioritized in every corner of the Commonwealth with the intention of bringing an end to the excuse that the ‘character of a neighborhood’ should stop residents from moving in. With countless ways to create new homes, Massachusetts communities should default to building housing units, instead of searching for thin justifications to prevent them.