Town of Arlington, Fair Housing Action Plan (July 2021)

Citation: Town of Arlington, Fair Housing Action Plan (July 2021)
Jurisdiction: Arlington (municipal)
Source: Official source
Original Source: https://www.arlingtonma.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/57214/637641171662530000 ↗

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Fair Housing Education and Enforcement
• Enforcement of fair housing law is an impediment to fair housing choice in Arlington. The federal
government has delegated most enforcement responsibility to the Massachusetts Commission Against
Discrimination (MCAD), which has limited funding to pursue fair housing complaints across the
Commonwealth.
• There is currently only one area nonprofit organization working on fair housing issues that regularly
receives HUD funding: the Suffolk University Law School Housing Discrimination Testing Program. Until
2018, the Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston was another regular HUD-funding recipient, but it
closed due to funding constraints. Greater Boston now lacks a standalone fair housing organization.
• The limited funding for both MCAD and nonprofits ensures that most enforcement will be reactive to
complaints by victims of discrimination, rather than proactive. A reactive enforcement regime also
requires wide education of fair housing rights, and a reasonable assumption that fair housing complaints
will help and not hinder victims’ efforts to secure safe and accessible housing.