Boston Council Committee Hears Ordinance to Mandate Racial Equity Data in Affordable Housing

BOSTON — June 14, 2024 — Boston City Council committee hears proposal to require annual racial equity reporting on affordable housing access. The Committee on Government Operations, chaired by Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata, held a June 14 remote hearing on Docket 0471, an ordinance sponsored by Councilor Tanya Fernandez-Anderson, Councilor Brian Worrell, and Council President Ruthzee Louijeune that would amend the Boston Municipal Code to mandate demographic reporting on who applies for, receives, and waits for the city's affordable housing. Sheila Dillon, chief of the Mayor's Office of Housing, confirmed that 66,000 low-income rent-burdened households exist in Boston and that more than 72 percent are BIPOC, while the city's median home sale price now exceeds $765,000. Karina Oliver-Milchman, director of policy and research at the Mayor's Office of Housing, said application data is currently stored across dozens of incompatible spreadsheets and cannot support the intersectional analysis the ordinance demands. Researcher Dr. Nina Estrella Luna testified that high-income Black mortgage applicants in Boston are more than 32 percent more likely to be denied than low-income white applicants — proof, she said, that disparities are "about race, it's not about income." The matter remains in committee pending a working session between the council and the administration.