From: Housing, Organizing, & Movement Empowerment Society
Date: October 7, 2025
Subject: HOMES - 10/07 Newsletter



Hi, everyone!


Good morning, and happy Tuesday! Apologies for the delay, as yours truly was feeling under the weather. With the semester ramping up, make sure to take a moment to reconnect with why we do this work: to make housing more accessible, equitable, and just.

Need a reminder? Join us this week at City Life/Vida Urbana for their weekly tenant organizing meetings! City Life is a 50+ year-old grassroots organization fighting for racial, social, and economic justice through direct action, coalition building, education, and advocacy. They hold meetings every Tuesday (in English) in Jamaica Plain and every Wednesday (in Spanish) in East Boston to build community and inform people about their housing rights!

Every Tuesday in Jamaica Plain, HOMES holds a 'Know Your Rights' training for tenants who have recently received a Notice to Quit, marking the first step in the legal eviction process. Speak Spanish? HOMES is starting a new initiative to provide translation services to legal aid attorneys at CL/VU's Wednesday night meetings in East Boston. Message us to find out more!

If you'd like to attend a meeting with HOMES members, please complete the Google form below. Let us know if you have any questions or transportation concerns, and we will be happy to help! The BU Public Interest Law Society pro bono transportation reimbursement form can be found here.

Weekly Sign Up for City Life/Vida Urbana Meetings

HONK! IMMIGRATION ACTIVIST FESTIVAL
"Join the MIRA Coalition at the 20th annual Honk Fest! This free event unites brass bands from all over the world to Somerville for a celebration of music, community and activism. Join us on Sunday, Oct. 12th as we march from Davis Square to Harvard Square, to advocate for immigrants' rights!" Find out more here!

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY
"The ACLU of MA Action Team is thrilled to participate in the 5th Annual Ceremonial Celebration for Indigenous Peoples Day 'Honoring Our Drums' in Newton, MA on October 13th! Join us to celebrate & uplift Indigenous peoples & voices on Indigenous Peoples Day in Newton, MA. All are welcome to this free, outdoor, family-friendly, Indigenous-led, volunteer-run event to enjoy great music, check out cultural dances & presentations, support local Indigenous vendors & non-profits, & eat delicious food. Rain or shine.​ We can't wait to see you there! Schedule of Events:
11:00 AM: Opening Ceremony
12:00-4:40 PM: Presentations, Speeches, Demonstrations, & Vendor Market
4:40-5:00 PM: Closing Ceremony​"
Learn more here!

OCTOBER COMMUNITY DEFENDER TRAINING
Join the National Immigration Project on Tuesday, October 14th, from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm for the virtual training: The Nuts and Bolts of Accompaniment: What's New & What You Can Do. "In this training, we welcome people with a range of experiences doing accompaniment. We will share what accompaniment is; legal updates that shape what people can expect in various accompaniment scenarios; the nuts and bolts of doing accompaniment; and helping community members prepare. National Immigration Project staff will be joined by two community presenters on this training.  This training will be presented in English with Spanish simultaneous interpretation and ASL available to participants.  Questions? Please contact events@nipnlg.org." 

LEXIS IS SELLING YOUR INFORMATION TO ICE
For more information, check out the linked Zine by the End the Contract Coalition, which is pushing LEXIS+ parent company RELX to cut its ties with ICE. For more information on the disappointing results of a recent lawsuit against Lexis for unjust enrichment upon selling customer data to ICE, click here. Further, click here to review an article by the University of Colorado Law School Law Review that investigates the basis of unjust enrichment claims for Lexis's cooperation with ICE.

Here are some more upcoming events that might be of interest to you all:

Take care!

In solidarity,

BU HOMES
Boston University School of Law
Sarah Birkhaeuser, Co-President
Josh Palackal, Co-President
Greg Bowe, Vice President
Angel Yi, Treasurer
​​​​​​​Zoie Valencia, Director of Community Partnerships
Chloe Buck, Secretary
Eliza Thorpe, Sub-secretary

Have you joined our GroupMe?
If not, click here to stay updated on important events and communications.


Sign up for City Life/Vida Urbana’s Action Alert emails!
Stay up-to-date with City Life’s organizing by joining their mailing list here. City Life sends out emails in both English and Spanish with time-critical event information.

Do you know who your landlord is?
If not, click here for more information on how to find out.

Want to check your landlord's housing code compliance?
Or do you just have some free time on your hands? Check out the following Housing Code Checklist. If you notice any issues, remember you have a right to unionize.

For more information on unionizing (either joining a pre-existing tenants union or building one with your neighbors), check out the Greater Boston Tenants Union here.

Do you know who your landlord is?
If not, click here for more information on how to find out.

Want to check your landlord's housing code compliance?
Or do you just have some free time on your hands? Check out the following Housing Code Checklist. If you notice any issues, remember you have a right to unionize.

For more information on unionizing (either joining a pre-existing tenants union or building one with your neighbors), check out the Greater Boston Tenants Union here.

Author Talk: Michael Glass on Debt and Inequality in Suburban America on Wednesday, 15 October 2025 At 12:30 PM. No image description provided

EVENT

Author Talk: Michael Glass on Debt and Inequality in Suburban America

clock Wednesday, October 15, 2025
12:30pm - 1:30pm
Location pinBoston Public Library - Commonwealth Salon, 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116, United States
Link
CalendarAdd to Google Cal, Outlook, Yahoo, iCal

Join Boston College historian Michael Glass for a conversation about his new book, Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America. The book explores how home mortgages and municipal bonds helped build postwar suburbs while also making them financially fragile, and how these tools entrenched disparities that still shape American life today.

Lunch will be served and registration is required to attend.

Michael Glass is an Assistant Professor of History at Boston College. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and previously worked as a public high school teacher in New York City. A political and urban historian of twentieth-century America, his work focuses on the intersections of race, metropolitan development, and capitalism.

His research examines how financial systems—such as credit markets, property taxes, and home insurance—generate inequality and shape everyday life, from housing and education to environmental risk. By making complex economic and policy systems tangible, his writing reveals their human consequences and historical roots.

In discussion with Glass is Lizabeth Cohen. Cohen is the Howard Mumford Jones Research Professor of American Studies and a Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of History at Harvard. From 2011-18 she was the dean of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. In addition to Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age, which won the 2020 Bancroft Prize in American History, previous books include Making a New Deal: Industrial Workers in Chicago, 1919-1939, also winner of the Bancroft Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer, and A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America.

She is also co-author with David Kennedy and Margaret O’Mara of a widely used college and advanced placement United States history textbook, The American Pageant. Her writings have appeared as well in many edited volumes, academic journals, and popular venues, including The Atlantic, New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the American Prospect.
VIEW EVENT
Beyond Exclusion: Redlining in the Suburbs on Monday, 27 October 2025 At 1:00 PM. No image description provided

EVENT

Beyond Exclusion: Redlining in the Suburbs

clock Monday, October 27, 2025
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Location pinPrivate Location (sign in to display)
CalendarAdd to Google Cal, Outlook, Yahoo, iCal

Building a working knowledge of the law requires understanding the historical underpinnings of the structures of the present. To this end, BU HOMES and ASPIRE welcomes Professor Michael Glass to campus to discuss redlining and racial inequality in housing. Professor Glass is a political and urban historian at Boston College and the author of Cracked Foundations: Debt and Inequality in Suburban America. If you have an interest in housing justice or want to gain insight into the context of the current housing landscape, please register for the event and join us on Monday, October 27 in Room 204 from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. Pizza will be available!
REGISTER
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