RWU Law students gain legal experience helping low-income tenants avoid eviction, while also forging longer-term solutions to Rhode Island’s ongoing housing crisis

Bowden, Michael M.

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RI Tenant Stabilization Project Aims to Help Eviction and Homelessness Issues for Low-Income Tenants

DOCS@RWU

Roger Williams UniversityDOCS@RWUFeatured News Story The Week at Roger4-6-2018RI Tenant Stabilization Project Aims to HelpEviction and Homelessness Issues for Low-IncomeTenantsMichael M. BowdenRoger Williams UniversityFollow this and additional works at: https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_newsPart of the Education Law Commons, and the Higher Education CommonsThis News Article is brought to you for free and open access by the The Week at Roger at DOCS@RWU. It has been accepted for inclusion in FeaturedNews Story by an authorized administrator of DOCS@RWU. For more information, please contact mwu@rwu.edu.Recommended CitationBowden, Michael M., "RI Tenant Stabilization Project Aims to Help Eviction and Homelessness Issues for Low-Income Tenants"(2018). Featured News Story. 65.https://docs.rwu.edu/weekatroger_featured_news/655/16/2018 RI Tenant Stabilization Project Aims to Help Eviction and Homelessness Issues for Low-Income Tenants | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/ri-tenant-stabilization-project-aims-help-eviction-and-homelessness-issues-low-income-tenants 1/4Home News News Archive RI Tenant Stabilization Project Aims to Help Eviction and Homelessness Issues for Low-Income TenantsRI Tenant Stabilization Project Aims to HelpEviction and Homelessness Issues for Low-Income TenantsRWU Law students gain legal experience helping low-incometenants avoid eviction, while also forging longer-term solutionsto Rhode Island’s ongoing housing crisisRWU Law student Camille Capraro (le ) and sta attorney Jordan Mickman of the Rhode IslandCenter for Justice at a meeting on the RI TenantStabilization Project. Image Credit: Jim KarpeichikApril 6, 2018 Michael M. BowdenPROVIDENCE, R.I. – Our homes are the solid ground upon which we build our lives – safe, secure, healthy spaces where we can eat,sleep, and spend time with our families; bases from which we travel to work or school; conducive, reliable environments in which we canthrive and grow.Yet for many Rhode Islanders, this basic resource remains persistently out of reach. It’s a crisis that students at Roger Williams UniversitySchool of Law are addressing head-on through the Rhode Island Tenant Stabilization Project, aimed at helping low-income tenants whoface eviction and possible homelessness.Law students get involved through RWU Law’s Pro Bono Collaborative, in partnership with the Center for Justice, HousingWorks RI andthe Access to Justice Lab at Harvard Law School.“For us, RWU Law students are a force-multiplier,” says Jennifer L. Wood, executive director of the Center for Justice. “Having theminvolved is a critical factor for us to be able to reach the volume of cases we need in order to draw meaningful conclusions about the bestway to help families sustain their tenancies, stabilize their housing, and stabilize their lives.”As HousingWorks director Brenda Clement explains, “The path to economic opportunity begins at our front door. Nothing else worksright if we don’t have that safe place to get up from and go home to every day. By providing legal and housing assistance, the TenantStabilization Project aims to help level the playing  eld and change the outcome for tenants in a positive way.”It also places RWU Law students at the center of the action.“Students get some practical application of the things they’re learning in the classroom – and we get those extra boots on the ground thatthe law students provide,” Wood says. “They interact with our clients, they write, and they do research – basic factual research, gettingout on the street to visit a property and see what the conditions are; interviewing tenants about their circumstances. Both of these arecritical aspects to us in developing cases, and also critical learning experiences for the students.”5/16/2018 RI Tenant Stabilization Project Aims to Help Eviction and Homelessness Issues for Low-Income Tenants | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/ri-tenant-stabilization-project-aims-help-eviction-and-homelessness-issues-low-income-tenants 2/4Indeed, second-year law student Stephanie Diorio says her work with the project has been eye-opening and gratifying.“It’s a tremendously valuable experience,” she said. “We’re in the  eld working with actual attorneys and clients; researching, writing,dra ing pleadings. And along the way, we have a wonderful opportunity here to help people who would otherwise not have legalrepresentation.”An Eviction CrisisWhile many advocacy groups assist tenants in public housing and Section 8 housing, no parallel resources exist for those in the privaterental market. The Tenant Stabilization Project is an e ort to change that dynamic.“Our review of the docket at the 6th District Court [in Providence] revealed that more than 400 evictions are  led every month in that courtalone,” Wood notes. “With no other attorneys dedicated to this work, hundreds of tenants face eviction proceedings without anattorney.”As a result, most never get the chance to raise legitimate counterclaims and a rmative defenses based on substandard health and safetyconditions – and landlords wind up with revolving-door tenancies.What’s needed is someone who can dig down and identify these underlying issues. Evicted tenants “want to talk; they want to tell theirstories,” says law student Diorio, who has interviewed many of them at the courthouse following eviction hearings. “Even when they’vehad a negative outcome, they still want to tell us about the housing issues they’ve been facing.”The Tenant Stabilization Project aims to prove that when such matters are e ectively brought to the court’s attention, positive change canhappen.“That’s the ultimate goal of our project – that tenants in Rhode Island are able to live in a ordable, safe, healthy housing,” Wood says. “Forus, it makes sense for the tenant to be able to stay in their housing – perhaps through a negotiation with the landlord in the context of aneviction proceeding; and for the landlord to upgrade the housing with some needed repairs to make the unit code-compliant. So thelandlord wins, because there’s an upgraded apartment, and a stable tenant who’s paying the rent; and the tenants win, because they’reable to avoid dislocation and all of its negative downstream consequences – from loss of education stability for the children in the family,to potential loss of employment.” ‘Absolutely Inspired’By working together, RWU Law, the Center for Justice, HousingWorks and Harvard’s Access to Justice Lab “hope to make some prettypowerful policy arguments about how these types of cases should be handled in the future,” Wood said.Laurie Barron, director of RWU Law’s Feinstein Center for Pro Bono & Experiential Education, says the initiative is also a perfect  t for theschool’s social justice focus.“It’s collaborative. It’s in our community. It’s partnering HousingWorks, the Center for Justice, and the Pro Bono Collaborative with our lawstudents. And we also have Harvard’s Access to Justice Lab on our team, dedicating its wisdom, expertise and resources to helping low-income tenants in our community,” Barron explains. “It’s a way of leveraging resources that we just don’t have on our own.”Eliza Vorenberg, RWU Law’s Director of Pro Bono & Community Partnerships, explains, “This is, at its core, an access-to-justice project,through which many, many low-income people will get representation in eviction cases, and many more will get access to self-helpmaterials. And my guess is that, when the CFJ begins doing these cases on a high-volume basis, we’ll have yet another dimension of workfor our law students, which will be supporting the work of the attorneys as they conduct this high-volume eviction defense.”Part of the project’s synergy comes from the fact that the Pro Bono Collaborative, the Center for Justice and Housing Works are allheadquartered at RWU Law’s experiential campus in downtown Providence. “Co-locating us in the same building, in the same city, was astroke of genius by Roger Williams University,” Clement says, noting that participants from each organization regularly drop by oneanother’s o ce for impromptu brainstorming sessions. “It’s an absolutely inspired situation.”5/16/2018 RI Tenant Stabilization Project Aims to Help Eviction and Homelessness Issues for Low-Income Tenants | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/ri-tenant-stabilization-project-aims-help-eviction-and-homelessness-issues-low-income-tenants 3/4Wood adds that “a small nonpro t center like ours really bene ts at every level from having participation from law students. We also havea commitment and a partnership with the law school to employ RWU Law graduates, who come to us for two-year fellowships so that theirexperiential learning and practical training continues beyond graduation from law school.”Law student Diorio says the entire project has added a new depth and dimension to her law school experience.“I’m able to take what I’ve learned in class, and put it to work in a reasonably useful fashion,” she says. “Then I can take that experienceback to the classroom and share it with my peers and professors. And because these pro bono programs allow law students, under thesupervision of attorneys, to represent clients who might otherwise go unrepresented, we can have a huge impact. It’s a really importantpiece of what we do here at the law school, and I feel very fortunate to be able to participate in these programs.”The Rhode Island Tenant Stabilization Project program is made possible through a gi  from Hassenfeld Family Initiatives LLC, whichestablished the Hassenfeld Projects – an intensive, three-year initiative to expand and enhance innovative work in experiential education. At RWU, we develop Civic Scholars who believe in community-engaged work. That’s why we commit to providing every student anopportunity that empowers them to put their knowledge and skills to the test solving real-world problems and creating meaningful changewith community partners. Learn more about the Civic Scholars program and how to help us reach our goal of every student participating incivic scholarship.ACADEMICS CIVIC SCHOLARS LIFE @ RWU SCHOOL OF LAWShare This: REQUEST INFO  VISIT CAMPUS  APPLY  MAKE A GIFTOne Old Ferry Road, Bristol, RI 028095/16/2018 RI Tenant Stabilization Project Aims to Help Eviction and Homelessness Issues for Low-Income Tenants | Roger Williams Universityhttps://www.rwu.edu/news/news-archive/ri-tenant-stabilization-project-aims-help-eviction-and-homelessness-issues-low-income-tenants 4/4Map & DirectionsContact UsDirectoryNewsEventsAthleticsrwu.eduUndergraduate SiteGraduate SiteSchool of LawSchool of Continuing Studies    © 2018 Roger Williams University. All rights reserved.  GMAIL AT RWU BRIDGES MY RWU IT HELP SITE POLICIES WORK AT RWU1-800-458-7144

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RI Tenant Stabilization Project Aims to Help Eviction and Homelessness Issues for Low-Income Tenants

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