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 the attorney general's office to notify the Board of Registration of Real Estate Brokers and Salespersons when a Massachusetts court determines a real-estate professional engaged in unlawful housing discrimination; once notified, the board would be required to use existing authority to impose a temporary license suspension.

Kelly Viera, director of investigations and outreach at Suffolk University's housing discrimination testing program, said testing work shows high rates of discrimination and that many contacts occur with real-estate professionals acting on behalf of landlords. "The average person with a housing voucher, if they wanted to tour one apartment, would need to call 10," she said, summarizing testing results and arguing the bill would increase the attorney general's referral capacity and strengthen professional consequences for repeat offenders.

Several residents offered personal testimony. Nikkita Haywood, a Dorchester resident, recounted repeated difficulty locating safe housing between 2010 and 2022 and said she was told by a broker that her voice "sounds very ethnic and scary" before the caller hung up. Elaine Minahan of Quincy described a showing in Newton where the landlord's demeanour changed when she disclosed a Section 8 voucher. Cheryl Ricketts, a licensed realtor, described both seeing voucher-holder inquiries ignored and having an application she submitted on behalf of her family rescinded after an in-person meeting.

The bill also would require fair-housing training for new license applicants, add a fair-housing expert or a voucher-holder representative to the real-estate board, publish quarterly disciplinary actions and increase the maximum suspension for a second violation from 90 to 180 days, supporters said.

Supporters urged the committee to move the bill so that the regulatory board and the attorney general's office can coordinate and apply meaningful professional consequences when discrimination is proven in court. No committee vote was recorded during the hearing.