In early Fall 2023, three University of New Mexico School of Law Professors launched the New Mexico Center for Housing Law (NMCHL). The Center focuses on pressing housing issues affecting the lives of New Mexicans from both a legal and policy perspective, and works in collaboration with state legislators, city council members, grassroots organizations, nonprofits, and housing justice organizations and advocates to promote and implement policies and initiatives that address and improve housing stability across the state.
NMCHL’s mission and work stems from the clinical and hands-on experiences we have had with our students, and the recognition that direct representation is often best served when paired with legislative and policy initiatives that help address underlying systemic issues. Further, given the strong backlash to affordable housing initiatives and reforms to landlord-tenant laws in New Mexico from landlords and NIMBY groups, NMCHL’s goals can only be accomplished through partnership with other individuals and groups working on housing issues.
This poster presents NMCHL, including its mission, partners, and how it was developed, as well as our ideas for how clinics can effectively partner with organizations outside the law school to advance housing justice. The poster also shares lessons learned during the first year of this project, including our observations about the power of grassroots organizing, the importance of community investment, and how nonprofit work can help enhance clinical pedagogy. We hope this poster will help encourage collaboration across multiple spaces and disciplines, while encouraging resistance and resilience building and centering the non-legal work that is often at the heart of the clinical work we engage in. Exposing clinical law students to these ideas and themes can help further a future generation of justice-seeking lawyers.