The White House and the Justice Department announced Friday that 99 law schools across 35 states and Puerto Rico answered the attorney general’s call for action to help communities during the housing and eviction crisis.
In August 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a letter to the legal community calling for help. He noted that as federal and local eviction moratoriums were set to expire, over six million households were behind on rent. He asked that lawyers and law students alike step up to help households apply for the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program, volunteer with legal aid providers, and assist courts in implementing eviction diversion programs.
The response from the legal profession has helped keep eviction filings below 60 percent of their historical average. Over 2,100 law students spent more than 81,000 hours assisting over 10,000 households. In addition to law students, major legal organizations including the American Bar Association, National Bar Association, Hispanic National Bar Association, National Conference of Bar Presidents, and Legal Services Corporation adopted eviction prevention as a priority issue and called upon their members to act.
By the end of 2021, over three million households received ERA assistance with approximately $25-$30 billion in funds spent or allocated. Garland noted that law students and lawyers worked to establish pop-up clinics to help people stay in their homes and developed new digital platforms to help carry out housing court proceedings fairly. “You have assisted your clients and your communities at a time when they needed it the most, when our country needed it the most,” he said.
However, he noted that even before the pandemic, over 85 percent of low-income Americans facing civil legal problems received little or no legal assistance. To help rectify the situation, the Justice Department in October restored a stand-alone Office for Access to Justice, to work to identify the most urgent legal needs in communities across the nation. The newly restored office will soon release information about opportunities for partnership proposals with lawyers, law schools, and legal aid organizations.
Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta also thanked law students, their deans, and their clinical instructors for answering the call: “It is no exaggeration to say that the work you have done and are doing has saved lives. Please keep working for equal justice for all and stay hopeful.”
