State to Seek Minority Tenants

This week, Massachusetts will become the first state in the nation to require local housing authorities to advertise to attract minority tenants.

The state policy that takes effect Friday will require the 220 authorities to recruit minority tenants from outside their borders and to attract a specific number, or goal, of minority tenants.

The goals are based on the number of minority residents in surrounding communities.

The state could take over local authorities that do not implement the regulation or impose a freeze on filling vacancies. But sanctions would not be imposed, even if goals are not met for years, if communities in good faith seek minority tenants. No tenants will be evicted to make room for minorities.

The policy is aimed at giving minorities a chance to move into largely white communities where state officials said there has been racial discrimination in housing.

Officials said it is needed to balance the right of communities to give preference to local residents.

Advocates see it leading to the integration of neighborhoods and schools, but others don't expect it to result in a large number of minorities moving out of inner city areas.

"I don't believe there is going to be a mad rush," Alex Rodriquez, chairman of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, told The Boston Globe.

"Hundreds upon hundreds of familes of color have moved to lily white communities," he said. "The logic of people is to seek housing wherever it is."

The Massachusetts Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials opposed the regulation and disagreed that local preference is discriminatory but pledged to cooperate.

"We feel housing authorities treat everyone the same. The implication is we are a bunch of racists and they are hitting us with the bigot stick," said Thomas Connelly Jr., association director.

"They are setting quotas," said Marilyn Tanner, director of the Yarmouth Housing Authority. "You can call them `goals' or anything you want, but they are still quotas."

"It will take many years in some cases to reach the goals," said Robert Pyne, deputy assistant secretary of the state Office of Communities and development. "But not many states are as progressive as Massachusetts."

Massachusetts is one of only five states that complements federally financed housing with its own housing program and, with 50,000 subsidized apartments, is operating the largest state-assisted program in the nation, said John Sidor, executive director of the Council of State Community Affairs Agencies.