The Center for Housing Justice & Policy (CHJP) is a groundbreaking initiative at Suffolk University Law School aimed at addressing the challenges of the multifaceted housing crisis. CHJP will bring together faculty, staff, and students across Suffolk University to tackle a wide range of housing issues, from affordability, supply, and accessibility, to environmental sustainability, housing discrimination, and community development.CHJP will impact future housing policy through empirical research, education, community outreach, and advocacy.
The establishment of the CHJP comes at a crucial time, positioning Suffolk Law and its students at the forefront of tackling the affordable, fair, and safe housing crisis. In 2023, homelessness surged to its highest level on record according to federal data. In 2024, a Massachusetts minimum wage worker would need to work 98 hours a week to afford a modest 1-bedroom rental home at fair market rent. The housing crisis has far-reaching impacts on health, education, safety, and economic opportunity across the U.S.
The Center for Housing Justice and Policy (CHJP) is focused on inclusionary, affordable, and fair housing policies that increase supply and access. CHJP’s vision is a future with equal access to safe and affordable housing for all.
The Center aims to:
- Examine policy solutions that increase affordable housing supply and combat discrimination
- Collaborate with community partners to address a broad range of challenges to fair and affordable housing
- Conduct research and intervention on complex housing issues such as appraisal bias and discrimination against veterans
- Conduct housing discrimination tests and empirical studies to reveal patterns in housing discrimination
- Provide test-based evidence for individual victims of discrimination
- Represent clients who have been victims of housing discrimination with Suffolk Law students
- Educate the community about their rights and responsibilities in the housing market, and
- Train the next generation of housing law and policy advocates
Building on a Strong Foundation
CHJP builds on the 12-year legacy of Suffolk Law's Housing Discrimination Testing Program (HDTP), one of only two university-based housing testing programs in the nation. HDTP will continue to combat discrimination and promote fair housing practices as a part of CHJP’s expanded footprint in the field.
To date, housing advocates, faculty, and students at Suffolk Law have:
- Conducted groundbreaking empirical research studies that have made national impacts
- Trained thousands of people on their housing rights, including through fair housing trainings for first time homebuyers throughout Metro Boston
- Provided legal representation to hundreds of victims of housing discrimination
- Helped scores of families stay in their homes and improved living conditions for many others
- Coordinated more than 1,300 undercover housing discrimination tests
- Led a consortium of housing advocates in Massachusetts to create a state-wide public education campaign about public housing voucher discrimination
- Secured more than $6 million in grant funding since 2012 from organizations including the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the City of Boston, the Boston Foundation, and the WestMetro Home Consortium
- Trained scores of Suffolk Law graduates who have gone on to serve as fair housing advocates, civil rights lawyers, and legal services providers
For information related to giving opportunities, please contact Suffolk’s Development Office at [email protected].