Judith Liben

Judith Liben spent over 30 years working as a housing attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute (MLRI) before she retired.

Judith started her legal services practice in Lowell in 1976. Vacancy rates were high, rents were low, there were no Housing Courts, the Section 8 voucher program was brand new, evictions didn’t result in homelessness, progressive landlord-tenant laws were just emerging, and foreclosures were not a big problem. Decades later the legal framework has improved but the shortage of affordable housing is even more extreme, homelessness has become a shameful part of our landscape since the 1980s, and the persistent segregation and inequities amplified by COVID-19 are just now becoming widely recognized.

During her time as an attorney at MLRI, Judith worked on a variety of projects. She and her colleagues won the right for Section 8 voucher holders in Massachusetts to rent anywhere in the state or the country; successfully litigated to strike racially discriminatory local residency preferences; banned application procedures that discriminate against thousands of people with disabilities-transforming them from brutal “cattle calls” to lotteries; stopped the demolition without replacement of public housing and won language access rights for people involved in the state’s homeless programs. And during the foreclosure crisis in 2007 MLRI’s congressional testimony exposed the threat of eviction faced by millions of tenants in foreclosed properties and prompted the swift passage of the federal Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act and an analogous state law.

As an Access to Justice Fellow, Judith will continue to work with Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, supporting the organization’s critical housing work. MLRI provides statewide advocacy and leadership in advancing laws, policies, and practices that secure economic, racial, and social justice for low-income people and communities.