Open Classroom: Housing Justice & Civil Rights

Dr. Cara Bergstrom-Lynch, Professor of sociology, ecsu

Dr. Bergstrom-Lynch is Professor of Sociology at Eastern Connecticut State University. Her research and teaching interests focus on gender and sexuality, families, and interpersonal violence. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan and her B.A. in Sociology and Latin American Studies from Wellesley College.

Erin Boggs, executive director, open communities alliance

Erin Boggs, Esq. is the founding Executive Director of Open Communities Alliance, a Connecticut-based civil rights organization dedicated to confronting residential segregation and its impact. OCA leverages coalition-building, research, education and outreach, and litigation to realize the goals of the Fair Housing Act with a particular focus on equitable zoning and geographical balance in the location of government housing subsidy investments. Central to this work is ensuring that families relying on government housing support have access to areas that are healthy, safe, setting the stage for all children to reach their promise. OCA envisions a world in which lower-income families, who are disproportionately families of color, have housing choices in all neighborhoods – and all neighborhoods offer the resources needed for their residents to thrive.

OCA has been involved in a number of cases affecting state and national housing policies including OCA v. HUD which re-established Small Area Fair Market Rents in the Housing Choice Voucher Program, OCA v. Carson, challenging the rollback of the disparate impact rule, and Center for Leadership and Justice v. HUD addressing the right of relocating Project Based Rental Assistance tenants to have genuine choices in where they live. OCA has also challenged exclusionary municipal zoning in Open Communities Trust v. Woodbridge.

In 2022, OCA launched Growing Together CT, a coalition effort to promote housing choice in areas without affordability and investments in under-resourced communities. Ms. Boggs played a central role in advancing Connecticut zoning reform proposals to ensure that every municipality helps meet the state’s need for affordable housing, which served as the conceptual basis for Connecticut’s major 2025 housing bill.

Ms. Boggs is a frequent source for media on affordable housing, land use, and racial segregation issues, and has contributed to publications such as the American Bar Association’s Journal of Affordable Housing and Economic Development Law, The Furman Center at NYU’s Slow Debate on affordable housing and segregation, and Housing Policy Debate. Prior to launching OCA, Ms. Boggs focused on a range of fair housing policy issues at the CT Fair Housing Center and the CT ACLU. She is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, Wesleyan University, and the DC Public Schools.