Fair Housing

The City has various programs to ensure affordable and fair housing. The current analysis of fair housing was completed in 2019 by PVPC and can be found at: Unlocking Opportunity: An Assessment of Barriers to Fair Housing in Northampton (2019) PVPC identified 38 short- and long-term-actions steps that different stakeholders across the City should work towards addressing fair housing in Northampton. Northampton residents who wish to address the issues identified in this assessment are encouraged to attend the Northampton Housing Partnership meetings held on the first Monday of every month.

Legal Resources

MassLegalHelp is a great resource to educate and support people who are searching for housing, facing foreclosure or eviction, or are experiencing homelessness. Other resources on their site include tenants rights, housing discrimination, and checklists for tenants before a move-in. 

Community Legal Aid provides free civil legal services to low-income and elderly residents Central and Western Massachusetts and the Mass Fair Housing Center is oldest fair housing center in Massachusetts. They offer free legal services and accept housing discrimination complaints from protected classes of people.

A by topic list of laws in Massachusetts regarding renters, homeowners, foreclosures, evictions, and many other topics can be viewed on the Mass.gov website.