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Fair Housing

Lawyers for Civil Rights promotes housing equity by taking legal action against fair housing violations and advancing policies that expand equal housing opportunities.

We focus on cases involving race and national origin discrimination, while also addressing discrimination based on family status and disability. Our recent work includes cases involving:

  • Refusals by landlords and realtors to rent to people of color, Section 8 recipients, and families impacted by lead paint;

  • Representation of residents in trailer parks facing unfair treatment; and

  • Enforcement of zoning laws to expand housing opportunities—particularly affordable housing—near public transit hubs in both urban and suburban communities.

Upholding the MBTA Communities Act: A Massachusetts Superior Court judge squarely rejected a series of legal challenges to the MBTA Communities Act, and upheld that all MBTA Communities must do their part to alleviate Massachusetts’ affordable housing shortage by allowing multi-family housing to be built more freely. The ruling adopts arguments first made by LCR in its case on behalf of the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance against the Town of Holden, one of the recalcitrant jurisdictions that has refused to comply with the zoning law. 

Protecting Affordable Housing in Mobile Home Parks: LCR filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of the residents of two mobile home parks in Auburn, Massachusetts. The plaintiffs—all senior citizens and others living on low incomes due to disability or retirement—sued the parks’ owner, alleging widespread exploitation of vulnerable residents, including through unconscionable rent increases and misleading claims. Our case high- lighted a national issue affecting mobile home residents in many other states. LCR aims to hold the owner accountable while preserving mobile home parks as one of the last bastions of affordable housing in America. LEARN MORE

Income Discrimination in Housing Access: LCR and the Housing Rights Initiative (HRI) filed a mammoth lawsuit against 20 Boston-area landlords and real estate brokers, challenging pervasive discrimination against low-income tenants. The groundbreaking lawsuit, the first of its kind in Massachusetts, focused on landlords who refuse to rent apartments to tenants who rely on government-subsidized housing vouchers. The lawsuit was modeled after civil rights-era “testing” cases, which media refer to as a “sting” operation, with the HRI deploying fair housing “testers” to expose the illegal conduct. LEARN MORE

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