Where community members gather to debate issues and make plans that affect tenants and survivors, AVLF is often at the table.

AVLF’s work on behalf of Atlanta’s most vulnerable tenants is guided by our vision of housing justice. But what does that actually mean?

If we pair our good intentions with deep understanding, then there is no limit to the ways that we can improve our clients’ lives and our community as a whole.

COLE THALER | August 28, 2018 The word “race” does not appear in AVLF’s mission statement or vision statement, but there’s no question that the work we do on behalf […]

We change lives one courtroom at a time, and the law is our tool. But the fight for housing justice will never be won by lawyers alone.

Every day in Atlanta, landlords carry out illegal evictions. They toss their tenants out without the benefit of court filings or a hearing, often because rent is a few days late. Most of the tenants who call AVLF have no prior warning of these “self-help” evictions. They simply return home to find that their key no longer fits in the lock, and peer through their own windows to see that all of their belongings have been removed or ransacked.

AVLF distributes children’s books during every Saturday Lawyer Clinic, where volunteer attorneys meet with clients about housing and employment issues. The reason why might surprise you. 

It never even occurred to me that My Atlanta wasn’t the Atlanta: that my perception was limited by my footprints, which were guided by my privilege.

Safe and Stable Homes Director Cole Thaler tells the story of veteran and mother Bobbi Ann Jones. 

Today, as an attorney working on behalf of low-income clients facing housing instability, there is something sanitized about my profession and my persona.  When I meet with clients, I presume that I can access all kinds of personal information about them – but that they will not learn anything about me.  I am neutral, unmarked, The Professional – not a human being with personality quirks, and certainly not a human being with a first-hand experience of poverty. Perhaps attorneys have more in common with our clients than we are used to looking for.  And perhaps sharing those stories, forging those connections, is worth the risk of letting our professional masks drop.

On October 20, AVLF honored the following award winners at the Atlanta Bar Association’s Celebrating Service Luncheon:

Safe Families Office Firm of the Year: Jones Day; Safe Families Office Volunteer of the Year: Richard G. Farnsworth, Farnsworth Law, LLC; Guardian ad Litem of the Year: Brandy Alexander, The Alexander Firm, LLC; Safe and Stable Homes Firm of the Year: PwC; Safe and Stable Homes Volunteer of the Year: John H. Rains IV of Bondurant, Mixson and Elmore 

AVLF is bringing its signature Saturday Lawyer Program into Fulton County’s highest-poverty neighborhoods.