A coalition of housing advocates launched a $500,000 state-funded consciousness marketing campaign Wednesday that appears to struggle again in opposition to unlawful voucher-based housing discrimination.
The Fair Housing Alliance of Massachusetts, an umbrella group for 4 non-profit organizations, stated it’s trying to educate individuals about on their voucher-related rights, housing legal guidelines, and free providers out there to these going through discrimination.
Housing Secretary Ed Augustus stated there are greater than 100,000 rental help vouchers in Massachusetts.
“Rental vouchers are not only among the most effective and evidence-based interventions to end family homelessness, rental vouchers keep people housed,” Augustus stated. “Vouchers ensure that low income families, seniors and people with disabilities can afford a home in Massachusetts.”
A examine from Suffolk University Law School and The Boston Foundation discovered individuals utilizing a voucher for Section 8 housing had a low likelihood of touring an house. Nearly 90% of “undercover fair housing testers” who have been utilizing a voucher indicated they confronted discrimination, in keeping with the examine.
“Some brokers told testers outright that the owner was not accepting voucher participants,” an announcement on the examine from the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities stated. “Agents showed Black testers about half the number of apartments shown to white testers and were far less likely to return Black testers’ calls — just 62% of the time versus 92% for white testers.”
The media marketing campaign will embrace placement of public service bulletins on social media, in print and on-line media, and on public transportation “to raise awareness of housing discrimination and to encourage residents to take action.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”