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Researchers, advocates and MCAD urge Boston to fund ongoing testing and enforcement to deter voucher discrimination
Summary
Suffolk University researchers, the Boston Foundation, legal advocates and MCAD told the council testing documented persistent voucher and race-based discrimination and called for sustained city funding for testing, enforcement and education.
Speakers from Suffolk University’s Center for Housing Justice and Policy, the Boston Foundation, Lawyers for Civil Rights and MCAD described local testing and enforcement work that followed the 2020 report and urged sustained city investment in paired testing and enforcement.
Kelly Vieira, who led a city-funded testing project from about 2020–2022, said Suffolk conducted roughly 100 paired tests in Boston after the 2020 research and that across more than 1,000 tests statewide the program documented repeated patterns: voucher holders and Black testers were ‘‘ignored or ghosted,’’ shown fewer units, asked for additional documentation or told units were no longer available. Vieira highlighted a paired-test example in which a white tester was offered incentives ‘‘that would total up to $4,440’’ that were not offered to a Black tester touring the same building.
Panelists warned that federal funding restrictions limit voucher-discrimination work and recommended the city continue the recently approved $100,000 testing allocation, create a rapid-response enforcement mechanism, expand landlord training, and compile cross-agency data to identify hotspots. MCAD’s Andrew Espinosa added that MCAD received 655 fair-housing claims in FY26 and that public-assistance claims numbered 70 that year, with about 30% of those involving properties in Boston.
