Cleveland-Marshall law school is part of federal effort to prevent evictions - cleveland.com
WASHINGTON, D. C. -- Cleveland-Marshall College of Law is among 99 law schools that are assisting a U.S. Department of Justice effort to address the housing and eviction crisis by helping renters with applications for Emergency Rental Assistance, volunteering with legal aid providers and helping courts implement eviction diversion programs, among other activities, the White House announced on Friday.
The White House said a predicted tsunami of evictions in the wake of coronavirus-related economic disruption didn’t happen because of federal assistance. It said well over 3 million households received Emergency Rental Assistance, with approximately $25-$30 billion in ERA funds either spent or obligated by the end of 2021. Eviction filings remained below 60% of historic averages nationally and well below the 3.7 million evictions filed in a typical year.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday expressed gratitude to all the law school students, professors and deans who responded to his August 30 request to assist tenants and landlords in preventing evictions when federal and local eviction moratoriums expired last year. In an address to representatives of participating law schools, he urged them to continue working to “ensure equal access to justice.”
“We know that without equal access to justice, tenants are evicted; families are fractured; innocent people go to jail; jobs are lost; veterans are left helpless; immigrants are left homeless; consumers lose protection; debtors lose recourse; children lose support; and domestic-violence victims lose safety,” said Garland “Without equal access to justice, the promise of equal justice rings hollow.”
Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo told the group that research has found that housing instability increases the risk of job loss by as much as 22 percentage points. For children, studies show housing instability leads to poor health and lower educational attainment, effects that can compound over time to reinforce inequality.
“The opportunity to work directly with families facing eviction from their homes, to help them through the legal process and give them the opportunity to keep the roof over their heads, is something you will never forget,” said Adeyemo.
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Dean Lee Fisher said eviction and foreclosure work is a significant part of his school’s community advocacy legal clinic work, where law students help with active cases under faculty supervision. The clinic was the first in Cleveland to provide a renter’s hardship affidavit form that was made freely downloadable during the first phase of the coronavirus lockdown and distributed to local community-based nonprofits, said Fisher, a former Ohio Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor.
He said students also took a lead role in creating an updated landlord-tenant guide for distribution to homeless shelters and are drafting memoranda on how COVID-19 shelter orders impact Domestic Relations Court and visitation rights of non-custodial parents.
“We are working together to help those most adversely affected by this pandemic and uniting as a law school community in the face of a shared crisis,” said a statement from Fisher.
Other work the school has done includes legal research and due diligence work in eviction and foreclosure cases to track down who’s behind complex webs of corporate entities designed to shield landlords and property managers; assisting with mortgage foreclosure and tax foreclosure cases, and helping low and moderate-income households navigate rental assistance programs as well as the rent escrow process, said Fisher. His school has also partnered with Cleveland Legal Aid on its Right to Counsel Project.
“Drawing on resources such as our pro bono programs, clinical offerings, and the service of our larger law school communities, we will help ensure that families and individuals facing eviction have the legal representation, counseling, and assistance they need to exercise their rights, that those entitled to the support of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program are able to access it, and that eviction proceedings are conducted in a fair and just manner,” said a statement that Fisher signed in August with a large group of law school deans from throughout the United States.
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source: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/01/cleveland-marshall-law-school-is-part-of-federal-effort-to-prevent-evictions.html
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