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Legislators and testing program push bill to strengthen enforcement against housing discrimination
Summary
Senators, a Suffolk Law testing program and residents urged the committee to advance H.431 / S.245 to link court findings of discrimination with temporary license suspensions for brokers, require fair-housing training for new licensees and publish disciplinary actions
Legislators, legal advocates and residents told the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure the commonwealth should strengthen enforcement tools to curb housing discrimination against Black renters and voucher holders.
Senator Gomez, a bill sponsor, described findings from a 2020 report by the Boston Foundation and Suffolk University Law School's housing-discrimination testing program, saying "71 percent of Black testers encountered discrimination during the rental process" and "86 percent of testers who mentioned they had a housing voucher were discriminated against." Gomez said the bill S.245 would close an enforcement gap by authorizing…
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