From: Housing, Organizing, & Movement Empowerment Society
Date: September 8, 2025
Subject: HOMES - 09/08 Newsletter



Hi, everyone!


Good morning, and happy Monday! Congratulations on surviving the first week of classes, and welcome to week two. We are sending well wishes to everyone as readings and assignments start to really ramp up. For all of the 1Ls just getting into the thick of classes, you got this! Make sure to care of yourselves and don't forget why you came to law school in the first place. 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.

If you'd like to attend a meeting with HOMES members, please complete the Google form below. Please 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

BOSTON RENT CONTROL CAMPAIGN KICK-OFF
"Save the date for the Boston-area Rent Control Campaign kickoff at Town Field, 1565 Dorchester Ave, in Fields Corner on Saturday, September 13, from 11am - 2pm. Whether we own or rent, everyone should be able to afford a place to call home. It’s time to get AMPED and ready to organize to collect 75,000 signatures to put rent control on the ballot for 2026! Get ready to be trained on how to collect petition signatures to put rent control on the ballot, and get ready to make art for rent control, because it’s time to galvanize to put rent control on the ballot." Click here for more information, and register to volunteer here.

VOLUNTEER WITH BU MADE PRO BONO EVICTION DEFENSE
As part of the MADE project, law students help tenants exercise their rights in the face of eviction while learning the basics of landlord/tenant law, how to counsel clients, and how to create pleadings. If you are interested in being a MADE volunteer, you must attend one of the mandatory training sessions. The final training session is TOMORROW, Tuesday, September 9, at 12:45 pm in Room 204. If you cannot participate in either training but still wish to be part of the MADE project, please email Angel Yi at angely@bu.edu.

The training will last about 1 hour and will cover client counseling and tenant rights. Once you are trained, you can sign up to help tenants respond to their eviction case through the MADE portal. MADE interviews count for pro bono hours if you are looking to complete the Pro Bono Pledge! All law students, including 1Ls and LLMs, are encouraged to take part. Please submit an application at tinyurl.com/bumade2025 by Friday, September 12 at 12 pm to be considered for a volunteer position.

TRENDS IN THE FEMINIST MOVEMENT: AN OVERVIEW AND COMMUNITY DISCUSSION, PART 1 OF 3
"Join us on Sunday, September 14th from 2:30pm to 4:30pm at the @lucyparsonscenter for the first in a three part presentation and discussion based on the seminal work of Indian communist Anuradha Ghandy, the contributions and limitations of the main currents of the feminist movement, and how we can build a revolutionary, working-class feminism in the present situation. Address is 358a Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts!" Click here for more information.

MUTUAL AID IS MAGIC 101: SKILL SHARE FOR MOBILIZING DIRECT AID
"We know things are increasingly overwhelming for our communities ♥️ And, we are not helpless and can support each other in mobilizing and organizing around supporting folks in getting their needs met! Whether you’re someone who wants to make an ask on behalf of yourself, or you’re someone who wants to support others with their asks: this space is for you. <3 We’re gonna go over the basics of making a community care ask, and have space to practice and support each other IN the workshop!" Find more information and register here!
Tuesday, September 16, 6 pm ET on Zoom

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.

MAURA HEALEY: MAKE MASSACHUSETTS A SANCTUARY STATE
"Gov. Maura Healy said in December that Mass. is 'not a sanctuary state.' She doubled down on these comments the week of Donald Trump’s Inauguration after intensified ICE raids had already begun across the country, including in Mass. Healey has done nothing but parrot Trump and his racist anti-immigrant agenda while cutting housing access for all working-class families. These are pro-billionaire attacks on the whole working class — and Healey is siding with the billionaires.

It is up to us, as working people of Massachusetts, immigrant and non-immigrant alike, to stand together to demand the governor does everything in her power to protect our communities.
We Demand:
❌ No state or local law enforcement collaboration with ICE!
❌ Stop the racist demonization of immigrants!
❌ No new restrictions on housing assistance!
❌ No ICE in Massachusetts public schools or other public institutions!
Add your name, or endorse as an organization.
SIGN THE PETITION: SanctuaryStateMA.org"

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
Chloe Buck, Secretary
Zoie Valencia, Director of Community Partnerships
Eliza Thorpe, Outreach Chair

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.

MADE Eviction Defense Pro Bono Volunteer Training on Tuesday, 09 September 2025 At 12:45 PM. No image description provided

EVENT

MADE Eviction Defense Pro Bono Volunteer Training

clock Tuesday, September 9, 2025
12:45pm - 2:00pm
Location pinPrivate Location (sign in to display)
CalendarAdd to Google Cal, Outlook, Yahoo, iCal

As part of the MADE project, law students help tenants exercise their rights in the face of eviction while learning the basics of landlord/tenant law, how to counsel clients, and how to create pleadings. If you are interested in being a MADE volunteer, you must attend one of the mandatory training sessions on Thursday, September 4, at 12:45 pm or Tuesday, September 9, at 12:45 pm. If you cannot attend either training but still wish to be part of the MADE project, please email Angel Yi at angely@bu.edu. The training will last about 1 hour and will cover client counseling and tenant rights. Once you are trained, you can sign up to help tenants respond to their eviction case through the MADE portal. MADE interviews count for pro bono hours if you are looking to complete the Pro Bono Pledge! All law students, including 1Ls and LLMs, are encouraged to take part. Please submit an application at tinyurl.com/bumade2025 by Friday, September 12 at 12 pm to be considered for a volunteer position.
REGISTER
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.
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