HOUSING

In 2020, ECCO decided to use a Participatory Action Research Model to choose a primary campaign that addressed the biggest issues facing people of color on the North Shore. Guided by our Core Strategy Team, in 2021, ECCO leaders of color designed and collected hundreds of surveys to learn the most pressing issues facing people of color in our communities. What we discovered was that affordable housing was the most salient issue on the hearts of our Black, Latinx, and Cambodian communities.

We then brought these disparate communities together around this common challenge, and listening to testimonies from within our communities and gaining knowledge from local partners like the New Lynn Coalition, Lynn United for Change, North Shore CDC, and Harborlight Community Partners. Together, we learned that lack of affordable housing has been a key driver of racial inequality for generations. We discovered the presence of racist housing policies in our very own towns, including the existance of “sundown” towns where Blacks and Jews were advised to keep out after dark up until the 1980s!

Since then, ECCO has been working to advance affordable housing policy on the North Shore in Essex County through eight local teams. We strive not only to create more housing in our towns, but to do so in a way that lifts up affordable housing as an urgent racial justice issue, strengthens civil engagement and public accountability, and fosters relationship-building and community healing. Our teams are currently working to pass legislation to lift the current ban on rent stabilization in Massachusetts.