Poor people, particularly women of color with children, have always been at risk of eviction if they cannot make rent. Our nation’s conception of housing as a commodity exposes families to displacement if they cannot make rent – even if due to no fault of their own. The legal system is the location for the daily injustice of eviction, as the judicial summary process can take a family from wage loss to displacement in a matter of weeks. Clients have lived this trauma forever, yet attempts at reform have largely failed on neoliberalism’s familiar shoals.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented visibility to this disturbing American reality and a rash of policymaking and innovation, from the first federal eviction “moratorium” in the modern era to an influx of public dollars to make landlords whole for missed rent. Some jurisdictions have endorsed reforms such as a tenant’s right to counsel, eviction diversion, or pre-filing mediation (with wrap-around services). Activists, by contrast, call for a radical re-thinking of our nation’s approach to housing and the summary eviction process, with cries for the abolition or to “cancel the rent.”
How can lawyers leverage this moment to advance justice? How can clinical teachers, with a unique position at the intersection of the academy and the courts, move the policy needle and educate students as lawyers for justice? This workshop will consist of a moderated discussion among lawyer-teachers occupying different places on the reform continuum, and small groups for participants to share their own experiences/ ideas for housing justice in their clinical-lawyering space.