For Immediate Release
New Data Show Regional Inequity In Access to Housing And Services
Report: State Assisted Housing and Rental Assistance in Massachusetts:
Who is Served and Where
Boston, MA (Jan. 13, 2010) On the eve of Martin Luther King's birthday and the recent re-inauguration of the commonwealth's first African American governor, Action for Regional Equity released an analysis mapping the trend of racial segregation in state assisted housing and rental programs with their report State Assisted Housing and Rental Assistance in Massachusetts: Who is Served and Where?.
Action for Regional Equity is a coalition of 11 Massachusetts organizations working toward regional solutions to economic, environmental and social inequities, including creating more opportunities for housing that is affordable to Massachusetts' increasingly diverse population.
Who is Served and Where? is the first systematic look at data collected in accord with legislation promoted by Action for Regional Equity. The report raises important policy questions concerning how and where to target our housing resources to effectively eliminate social, economic, health and educational disparities throughout the Commonwealth. The Patrick administration will be meeting with Action! in the weeks ahead to examine policy strategies to address these inequities.
Using information collected by the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) in 2008 the report examines major state-assisted rental housing and rental assistance program types that provide direct subsidies including those tied to specific units as well as subsidy vouchers. The report tabulates residents according to their race/ethnicity, family composition, and income level. It also identifies cities and towns with large numbers and shares of assisted units, and found concentrations that differ by tenant and unit characteristics. To determine the degree to which opportunities are available to residents, based on a composite index of characteristics created by the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Justice at The Ohio State University. That index includes selected characteristics including, but not limited to, crime and poverty rates, proximity to toxic waste release sites, employment stability and proximity, mean commute time, student test scores and graduation rates.
Among the report's major findings:
- Assisted rental housing is disproportionately located in lower-opportunity areas of the state, defined as neighborhoods whose cumulative score of economic, education, and neighborhood indicators ranks in the lowest 40% of all communities.
- There is a racial dimension to this disparity. Even when accounting for income and family composition, research shows that larger shares of households of color living in federal or state subsidized housing, particularly Hispanics, reside in these lower-opportunity neighborhoods as compared to white households receiving assistance.
- The state public housing program serves two distinctly different demographic groups in greatly different locations. 61% of households in family public housing units are headed by a person of color, compared with just 13% of households in elderly/disabled public housing units. Over half (61%) of these family units are located in lower opportunity areas as compared with just under a third (27%) of households in elderly units.
- Ironically, less than half (42%) of assisted households with children live in areas with moderate to high educational opportunities, compared with two-thirds of households without children.
Before a filled room, Marvin Martin, Executive Director of Greater Four Corners Action Coalition spoke to seeing the human faces affected by these trends.
David Harris, Managing Director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, provided context for the work saying that "the data in this report give us cautious optimism. Where you live should not determine your access to opportunity."
Other advocates shared tools and possible avenues for policy change including Tracy Brown, Executive Director, Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston; Nancy McArdle, Researcher and author of the report and Tim Davis, Independent researcher Consultant and author of the analysis of impediments to fair housing.
Polly Dickson, a long time activist in the suburb of Weston, wealthy western suburb, exclaimed that the suburbs should have the opportunity to increase opportunities for those who don't have access. She has fought for more affordable housing in her community for over 50 years.
Patrick Murphy, a member of the Burbank Apartments Tenant Association in the Fenway, is living in a subsidized development which may be converted to market rate units and lose its long-term affordability. "We must keep these apartments affordable," says Patrick. "I work at the MFA, a nonprofit organization. The lower rent at Burbank is the only way I can afford to live in the same neighborhood as my job. People of all incomes should be able to live in a neighborhood with the opportunities of the Fenway."
Action For Regional Equity's Lead Member Organizations
- Alternatives for Community and the Environment
- Asian Community Development Corporation
- Boston Tenants Coalition
- Chinese Progressive Association
- Citizens' Housing and Planning Association
- City Life/Vida Urbana
- Conservation Law Foundation
- Fair Housing Center of Greater Boston
- Greater Four Corners Action Coalition
- Somerville Community Corporation
- Tri-City Community Action Program
