Overview

Public Counsel’s Homelessness Prevention Law Project identifies recurring legal barriers to housing and works with government agencies and community partners to create better opportunities for permanency. We partner with community-based organizations and tenants to organize and fight back against unlawful housing practices.

We engage in local, state, and national advocacy efforts on issues important to our clients. And when necessary, we initiate litigation to benefit both individual clients as well as the affected population as a whole. We advocate for policy that pertains to discrimination and fair housing, access to housing subsidies and government benefits, habitability, rent control, and access to justice before courts and administrative agencies.

In a recent groundbreaking case, we brought a successful action against private landlords who were alleged to have engaged in illegal discrimination on the basis of national origin, familial status, and disability to “flip” properties in a gentrifying neighborhood. Our representation prevented our clients and others from being displaced and secured a commitment to reserve several units for tenants with Section 8 vouchers in Defendants’ buildings.