Lawyering in Crisis: The Emerging Homelessness Clinic

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Session Type: Concurrent Sessions

Session Capacity: N/A

Hotel: N/A

Room: Plaza A

Floor: Lobby Level

Working on behalf of people experiencing homelessness sometimes feels hopeless. Fifty years following the onset of the modern-day homelessness crisis, our unhoused neighbors continue to reside on the streets and in vehicles, shelters, or other places unfit for human habitation. The solution – affordable housing – is obvious yet elusive. Unwilling to make the necessary investments, state actors turn to a variety of false narratives, including “danger,” “disease,” and “deservedness,” to “other” unhoused people and shift blame. The lawyer’s toolkit is both limited and expansive. Litigation largely cannot “house” people experiencing homelessness. However, a variety of civil, criminal, and administrative advocacy efforts can eliminate sometimes insurmountable barriers to housing and employment. Meanwhile, interdisciplinary, policy, and international human rights advocacy allows us to push for progress in administrative and legislative arenas, while informing and persuading lawmakers and the general public. On the one hand, Clinical Legal Education’s commitment to social justice and representing people who cannot afford legal services has always positioned it to address the homelessness crisis. However, Clinical Legal Education is beginning to chart a new course. In recent years, new “homelessness clinics” are being established at various law schools. The clinics are all unique: some focus on direct representation, and others impact litigation or policy advocacy. One represents unhoused veterans while another represents returning citizens. Some are embedded in shelters, and others are located within law schools. All, however, are committed to the right to housing and seek to inject hope into the legal services landscape by educating the next generation of attorneys who will radically reimagine the homeless response system.