Boston University School of Law Barbara Jordan Lecture featuring Yavilah McCoy

"Facing History, Uprooting Racial Inequality and Deepening Housing Justice within the Law."
Across America, states are increasingly struggling with an inability to provide the most basic human need to huge swaths of their populations -safe, stable, affordable housing. Millions of renter households are being charged more than they can afford for rent and the deteriorating state of populations without homes across the country has skyrocketed. While this problem affects growing numbers of Americans across the country, studies show people of color to be disproportionately homeless, housing insecure, and burdened by unaffordable rents in 2023. What has been and should be the role of law in reimagining housing not as a commodity that enriches investors, but as an essential and basic human need? Yavilah McCoy shares highlights from her work with contemporary advocates, support agencies and activists in the field of housing justice and will discuss the historical and emerging needs for just and equitable laws that lead to the outcome of just and equitable housing for all.