21-05-2025
Housing conference held at Western New England University
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Western New England University hosted the fair housing and civil rights conference Tuesday morning.
The event shines a light on how people can protect themselves from discriminatory housing practices. This is the conference's 19th year of promoting strategies to protect marginalized communities.
Western Massachusetts population drops as state numbers rise
Lawyers and civil rights leaders from around New England gathered in the Rivers Memorial Auditorium to share their experiences in combating discrimination. The conference also hosted a workshop where people could discuss current struggles with finding affordable housing for low-income residents.
Tess Dudek with the Connecticut Fair Housing Center told 22News it's the smaller organizations that start big changes, ''We are a very collaborative and supportive community not only as advocates, but also as community members and we have also highlighted the work of grassroots advocates this year and we are so grateful for the folks who are on the ground.'
Massachusetts low-income residents often spend over half their income on housing, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Despite recent efforts to generate low-income housing, Massachusetts is currently at a deficit of over 100,000 units.
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
