By Robert Schlesinger
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winter 2025
Greater Boston faces a severe housing crisis: Among 45 metropolitan areas nationally, its homelessness rates rank second only to New York City, according to the Boston Globe. In the Boston area, a typical customer-service worker would need to work about 80 hours weekly, without vacations, to afford a modest one-bedroom apartment.
Policymakers have tried to address this issue legislatively, including through a $5.2 billion affordable housing bill and a 2021 law requiring MBTA communities to zone for multifamily housing, both of which were designed to increase affordable housing supply.
Suffolk Law’s new Center for Housing Justice & Policy (CHJP) will use both case-by-case advocacy and broader policy initiatives to address the safe and affordable housing crisis. It will offer in-depth analysis and practical approaches to affordable housing construction and preservation regulation, as well as exclusionary zoning (single-family zoning laws restricting residential development to detached houses on large lots).
“Lack of housing supply is a big part of the affordability crisis—and that is driven by zoning,” says Jamie Langowski, the center’s executive director. “We have a system nationwide where many local governments maintain zoning rules set up in a way that reduces the availability of affordable multifamily housing. The rules reduce the prevalence of more dense housing. There’s a lot of work to be done in this area that’s a good fit for Suffolk’s practical, data-driven approach.”
Center status will permit Suffolk Law’s team to expand the housing work it has already been doing through its nationally leading Housing Discrimination Testing Program (HDTP), applying its rigorous and methodical approach to issues like construction laws, mortgage rules, and zoning reform.
“Zoning and affordable housing are inextricably bound,” says Professor Bill Berman, the CHJP’s academic director. “We’ll bring policymakers, fair housing attorneys, community members, developers, and other stakeholders together, and we will drive change.”
Discrimination remains a factor that the CHJP will continue to address. The Center’s landmark studies have exposed the scope of the problem. For example, a 2020 HDTP report revealed that Black would-be renters faced discrimination 70% of the time when trying to view apartments or obtain rental applications.
“So much of housing discrimination is discrimination with a smile,” Langowski says. “Discriminatory rental agents that we’ve caught through undercover testing are polite, but they often ‘ghost’ people—meaning they don’t return phone calls. Or they’ll pretend that an apartment has been rented already—and they do that with a smile on their face.”
Discrimination takes other forms as well, including through undervalued appraisals. “Black homeowners who receive below-market appraisals solely because of their race have valuable equity stripped away and lose economic opportunities, contributing to the wealth gap,” Berman says. Such discrimination prevents homeowners from accessing equity and affects local tax bases and schools, ultimately limiting the creation of generational wealth for Black and brown families, he added.
Discrimination on the basis of voucher status can affect people from all backgrounds. Suffolk Law is launching a veterans legal advocacy project (see story, page 18) to help veterans receiving a special class of HUD housing assistance vouchers. The HDTP’s studies found that potential tenants with housing vouchers were turned away by rental agents about 90% of the time.
The new CHJP represents a significant step forward in addressing Greater Boston’s housing crisis through both direct advocacy and systemic change. “Housing justice is fundamental to human dignity and economic opportunity,” says Dean Andrew Perlman. “Through this new center, Suffolk Law will combine rigorous research, practical solutions, and direct advocacy to help ensure that safe, affordable housing is accessible to all members of our community.”
Photographs from left: Michael J. Clarke, Adobe
New Housing Center Takes Aim at Affordability Crisis
A force for housing change: Law students join Suffolk’s fair housing team to transform Greater Boston
When a Massachusetts tenant faced eviction, with a constable already at the door, the renter pulled out a phone or pecked the keys of a laptop, accessing a legal app created by Suffolk Law. Within minutes, a judge issued an emergency stay. The tenant was allowed to return to the property and eventually won the case on the merits.
This is what justice looks like in the digital age—and Suffolk Law’s Legal Innovation & Technology (LIT) Center is helping to write that future.
“Without the technology we built, that particular outcome simply wouldn’t have happened,” says David Colarusso, co-director of the Center’s LIT Lab. “A renter would have lost their home while waiting for traditional legal aid channels. Instead, they got justice after a few minutes through a digital tool.”
That case is just one among thousands. The Center’s Document Assembly Line—born during the pandemic when courthouses closed their doors—has now helped more than 50,000 people across the country navigate complex legal processes from their phones or laptops. Nearly 16,000 people facing eviction during the pandemic used one of the LIT Lab’s tools to file emergency papers with the CDC.
“People use these tools to access the courts on their own terms,” says Colarusso. “They don’t have to take time off work to drive to the court and fill out a form. They can use our tools at 2 a.m., or anytime their schedule allows. That’s access.”
The impact ripples far beyond direct services. Suffolk Law graduates are taking the skills they learned through Suffolk’s LIT programs to reshape legal access across the profession. Julia Rodgers, JD ’16, created HelloPrenup, making affordable prenuptial agreements accessible to thousands. Vedika Mehera, JD ’15, now runs Orrick Labs, where she consulted on AI with the legal teams at Apple, Oracle, and the Gates Foundation. Aubrie Souza, JD ’22, serves as a senior consultant at the National Center for State Courts, working on projects involving digital court access.
With tech like generative AI evolving at a dizzying pace, the Center focuses on teaching adaptability, as well as specific tools. “It really is a river of knowledge,” says Gabe Teninbaum, JD ’05, assistant dean for innovation. “You stand on the banks and it looks the same, but the water you were looking at an hour ago is now 2 miles downstream.”
That’s why the Center emphasizes discernment as much as technical skill. “We want our students to experiment with modern tools and understand through trial and error what technology can and can’t do,” says Professor Dyane O’Leary, JD ’05, director of the Center. “They need to recognize when human judgment is essential and when a machine can help. That combination makes them better lawyers.”
The approach is working. National Jurist has named Suffolk Law’s legal tech programs No. 1 in the country on multiple occasions, and the Center continues to innovate. Its newest initiative, an Online Dispute Resolution Clinic in partnership with the American Arbitration Association, will help the public navigate low-contest divorce proceedings affordably.
“These programs position Suffolk Law at the forefront of both legal education and access to justice,” says Dean Andrew Perlman. “Our students aren’t just learning about the future of law—they’re helping to create it. And they’re bringing that practical knowledge into a rapidly evolving legal marketplace, where such skills are in high demand.”
Suffolk’s New Legal Innovation Center Rewrites the Rules of Access
Training tomorrow’s tech-savvy leaders
Building on its nationally recognized strengths in legal innovation and housing law, Suffolk Law has launched two new academic centers that step up to face seemingly intractable challenges: the justice gap and the affordable housing crisis. Read on to learn about the bold plans of the Legal Innovation & Technology (LIT) Center and the Center for Housing Justice & Policy (CHJP).