MLRI staff regularly write and disseminate policy papers, reports and other publications on issues impacting economic, racial and social justice for low-income people.
Are 113 affordable units really coming to Fall River?
In October 2024 the Mass. Law Reform Institute (MLRI) published a report, Fall River Needs a Balanced Housing Strategy, followed by an article in Commonwealth-Beacon. The report documents the extreme scarcity and need for low cost rentals in Fall River and the city’s failure to develop affordable housing while prioritizing and supporting the boom in market rate and luxury projects.
Update on the Housing Development Incentive Program (HDIP): a subsidy for market rate housing
This update to the MLRI 2022 HDIP reportprovides troubling new data and continued concerns about this costly program that supports only higher priced housing. Advocates continue to urge legislators and the Healey administration to revise HDIP to support mixed income housing – both market rate and affordable. HDIP could become a “housing development incentive program” for ALL Gateway City residents.
Fall River Needs a Balanced Housing Strategy
Review of the city's housing policies with proposals for an equitable and inclusive approach.
Policy Recommendations: The Affordable Homes Act
On October 18, 2023, Governor Healey filed a $4 billion housing bond bill, The Affordable Homes Act, H.4138 (Bond Bill), calling for significant investments in housing as well as policies intended to protect tenants and provide new tools for local communities. We applaud the Administration for proposing critically needed investments in preserving and creating affordable housing, as well as important policies to allow inclusionary zoning in municipalities by simple majority vote and to pilot social housing models. In addition to these commendable goals, however, we must ensure that this Bond Bill emerges as the comprehensive vehicle we need to meet our housing emergency.
Models of Justice: MLRI Annual Report 2021-2022
Review of the Housing Development Incentive Program (“HDIP”)
Using information gathered from public records requests to the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), this report reviews the the Housing Development Incentive Program ("HDIP").
The Default Project: A Survey of the Reasons for Tenant Defaults in Housing Court Eviction Cases
Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) and the Justice Center of Southeast Massachusetts (JCSEM) have released an innovative report analyzing the high rate of eviction cases where tenants default, or do not appear, at a court hearing.
Family Voices
Families and youth shared essential insights into what services worked for them, both those they received through DCF and those they found outside of DCF. They also talked about the services they needed but did not get. Finally, they shared important information about the impact of the DCF system on the effectiveness of its services.