By Chris Caesar
law briefs
The current housing landscape in the United States “didn’t happen by accident,” says Kelly Vieira, JD ’19, director of investigations for Suffolk Law’s Housing Discrimination Testing Program (HDTP). “It was designed both by the government and by private actors working in prejudice.”
Vieira and other members of the HDTP lay out the history and current-day impact of discriminatory housing laws in the new documentary Roxbury. The film takes its name from a majority Black and Hispanic neighborhood 5 miles south of the Law School that was hard-hit by redlining—the discriminatory practice of denying home loans to residents of certain ZIP codes based on their race or ethnicity. Banks literally drew a red line on the map around the areas where they wouldn’t provide loans.
The film, directed by Dan Weidknecht, a professor in Suffolk University’s College of Arts & Sciences, features conversations with many Boston residents, including former Boston Acting Mayor Kim Janey and Leslie Reid, CEO of the Madison Park Development Corporation, a neighborhood organization and a major developer of affordable housing.
Reid points out that when looking at maps of historically redlined areas and overlaying those lines onto a current map, it’s no coincidence that these areas often have older housing stock and more environmental hazards—such as lead paint, bus yards, landfills, and power plants. Redlining has resulted in “layers and layers of legacy,” she says of the generations of systemic abuses.
The documentary, a partnership between the HDTP and Suffolk’s College of Arts & Sciences, was funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Urban Development. View the film at www.bit.ly/RoxburyFilm.
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Photo courtesy of Roxbury Film
winter 2024
