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RUBRIC
The coalition has come together around a central task: to develop a rubric for racial equity in housing. We sought to not only change internal and sector-wide practices and procedures, but to enable deeper accountability, cultural shifts, and concrete indicators to measure success.
The rubric is designed to:
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Contribute to massive cultural change within the affordable housing ecosystem
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Serve as a point of agreement and collaboration, further pushing those already centering racial equity, and inviting new stakeholders into the work
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Highlight best practices, dismantle problematic ones, and build a foundation for a new path forward
EMBRACING THE JOURNEY
COALITION MEMBERS
Black people, particularly those with low to moderate incomes, will rent, own, and participate in housing development in ways that allow them to build wealth.
Black Wealth Building
Housing sector policy and planning decisions are made with the explicit goals of 1. remedying historic and contemporary housing injustices that have harmed Black and brown people and communities and 2. creating access and choice in communities they have been excluded from.
Inclusive housing opportunities and development without displacement
Black and brown people will shape the types of housing, infrastructure, and resources that should exist in their communities.
Self-determination and agency for marginalized Black and brown communities
Policies and plans will be reviewed with a fair housing lens and the analysis shared publicly.
Transparency and public accountability for the racialized harms and benefits of policy and planning decisions
Sector leadership will reflect the rich racial/ethnic diversity of the communities they serve and will lead their organizations to center equity in all organization actions.
Diverse sector leadership and equity-centered organizations
Housing sector policy and planning decisions are made with the explicit goal of remedying historic housing injustices that have harmed or excluded Black communities.
Reparative housing policies and practices
RUBRIC RECOMMENDATIONS
This rubric offers two types of recommendations to shift the housing and community development sectors to advance racial justice in and through our work across the state of Massachusetts in the next three years.
FOUNDATIONAL COMMITMENTS
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These steps are the foundation of a “new normal” for all partners in the housing and community development ecosystem. They intentionally and explicitly enable the elimination of racial disparities in housing.
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They establish leadership, prioritize practices, and enable new ways of working and knowing.
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Some users will have progressed further than others in enacting racial justice principles, yet we all have further to go.
CATALYTIC STEPS
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These are key high-impact, transformative steps each user group can take to disrupt the status quo and make significant progress within individual sectors.
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These steps enable catalytic change across the Massachusetts housing and community development ecosystems. They require us to stretch, reimagine, and collaborate in new ways.
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Not every user can achieve these within three years. Successes will prove feasibility and possibility and shed more light on what it takes to enact catalytic steps at scale.
