1. A housing lawyer can make a real difference in improving a child’s school attendance and performance.
Studies show that having to move unexpectedly and involuntarily during a school year (for instance, due to an eviction or intolerable conditions) wreaks havoc on a child’s ability to succeed in school, even to the point of significantly bringing down graduation rates. Studies also link poor housing conditions – including the persistent presence of cockroaches, pesticides, and mold that can contribute significantly to the incidence of pediatric asthma – to increased absenteeism. And even for the child who makes it to school, he will often struggle if he has been up all night from an asthma attack or bed bugs or worrying about the eviction notice his mom received.
Even more directly, particularly in lower income communities, a significant reason families move out of the school zone year-to-year is that same housing instability (i.e., evictions or intolerable conditions). A tenant’s ability to stand up for healthy rental conditions or to stop an underserved eviction is dramatically strengthened by representation from a lawyer trained in landlord-tenant law. That is precisely what Atlanta Volunteer Lawyers Foundation provides: direct representation of low-income tenants struggling with landlord-tenant disputes.
2. We hired a full-time staff attorney and community advocate to promote our services to as many families as possible.
A hallmark of this initiative is more active outreach. We are working to make sure as many families as possible know about their rights and the availability of our services. To that end, AVLF is deploying multiple active outreach strategies, all lead by a full-time community advocate who coordinates closely with the elementary school staff.
We regularly promote our services within the school through flyers sent home to parents, announcements at school functions, posters, and other means. We educate relevant school staff about tenants’ rights and our services so that they may pass the information along. We maintain close relationships with and get direct referrals from school nurses, social workers, and teachers. Our Thomasville-dedicated staff has a regular presence and maintains office hours within the school and at other Thomasville locations.
Our staff also regularly attends community events to speak and disseminate information about our services. We conduct AVLF-sponsored know-your-rights talks and AVLF-sponsored pop up legal clinics at different locations within Thomasville, where more in-depth intakes and initial meetings with attorneys can occur.
Finally, our staff canvasses neighborhoods or blocks where our services may be needed and our staff and volunteers also make house calls for families with barriers to coming in for an intake.
3. This is the first time we’re focusing our work in a specific neighborhood and on a specific problem.
While AVLF is already the largest provider of tenant representation in the city, we have never before focused our services on a specific neighborhood (in this case, Thomasville) and on a specific problem (housing instability that is driving absenteeism and enrollment turnover). While we have worked hard to make our four-decade-old weekend legal clinic at Peachtree Center more accessible by providing MARTA assistance or validated parking to our clients, for example, we have never embedded our staff and our clinics in a neighborhood in this way before.
While we have always made outreach a priority, holding know-your-rights talks at public libraries and other locations, we have never dedicated a team of staff and volunteers to full-time active outreach in this way.
Finally, while we have always paid close attention to the impact of our services, tracking the outcomes of our cases and the benefits obtained by our clients, we have never measured the greater impact our services can have on related community challenges, as we are in measuring reduced enrollment turnover and absenteeism at Thomasville Heights Elementary.
4. Eight leading Atlanta law firms have committed to representing tenants.
Thanks to our trained volunteer attorneys from the eight leading law firms who have committed to this initiative, tenants in need don’t get just information or advice, they have an attorney assigned to their cases to stand with them, negotiate, and – as needed – litigate to enforce their rights. Clients of AVLF are represented by an attorney, free of charge, just as any paying client would be represented.
5. The holistic services we’re offering to clients include legal advocacy and representation, community education, and follow-up with families.
The focus of our services is legal advocacy and representation. AVLF’s legal advocacy in Thomasville Heights aims to halt evictions and resolve underlying issues – including heading off evictions before they are filed – force remediation of deplorable conditions, secure release for clients from dishonored leases, and/or secure compensation for lost property and other damages.
When a landlord is preventing basic steps to improve conditions or is unwilling to make necessary repairs, AVLF’s staff and volunteer attorneys offer legal advocacy ranging from cooperatively working with landlords, to litigation to ensure the family is living in safe and healthy conditions. Legal services are accessed through AVLF’s existing programs and pop-up clinics conducted in or near the Zone. As needed, AVLF will also draw on its expertise holding accountable repeat offender landlords through our innovative Dollars for Judgments Program which assigns expert collection attorneys to collect on judgments obtained against landlords who do not comply with the law and court orders.
Funding for the initiative includes dedicated funding from Kaiser Permanente for critical mold testing services. This includes expert analysis, consultation for volunteer attorneys and, as needed, expert testimony in resulting litigation. Thanks to support from Kaiser Permanente the Home Depot Foundation, AVLF clients also have access to free quality air filters, dehumidifiers, home “clean kits,” pest-control kits, CO detectors and other products related to healthy housing, on a case-by-case basis.
The initiative’s services include a significant community education component. AVLF’s Community Advocate works with community partners to educate families on how to promote effective repairs and avoid evictions, the right to safe and habitable housing, addressing issues such as indoor air quality, and the resources available to address those issues. This work includes a partnership with the Fulton Asthma Improvement & Reduction (FAIR) Coalition, supported by the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness, which contributes a wealth of expertise and education materials focused on improving housing conditions that exacerbate asthma. Their public health educational materials are integrated into AVLF’s community education work. AVLF also conducts monthly know-your-rights talks focused on avoiding and addressing common landlord tenant issues.
Finally, our services include real follow-up with families. AVLF’s Community Advocate works closely with families on the goal of keeping the family within Thomasville Heights Elementary School’s attendance zone and ensuring safe and healthy living conditions. If a family must relocate, the Advocate works to help the family avoid another bad situation. Whether a family relocates as a result of the advocacy or obtains repairs and remains, AVLF follows up to measure improved health and educational outcomes and check in with families to help avoid future instability.
6. This initiative is truly a team effort.
In addition to our project partner, Purpose Built Schools, eight of Atlanta’s leading law firms have joined the cause, dedicating themselves to standing with these neighborhoods as they stand to demand stability and better conditions. AVLF’s partner firms for this innovative initiative are Alston & Bird, Arnall Golden Gregory, Jones Day, Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton, King & Spalding, Nelson Mullins, Sutherland Asbill & Brennan, and Troutman Sanders.
This work includes a partnership with the Fulton Asthma Improvement & Reduction (FAIR) Coalition, supported by the Fulton County Department of Health and Wellness, which contributes a wealth of expertise and education materials focused on improving housing conditions that exacerbate asthma.
AVLF’s partnership with the Atlanta Legal Aid Society (ALAS) goes back to AVLF’s creation, and it continues into Standing with Our Neighbors. ALAS housing attorneys will assist with training of AVLF staff and volunteers, send and accept referrals of clients who need legal services, and coordinate with AVLF’s Thomasville Heights team on legal approaches to stability housing in that community.
FCS Ministries, which operates the Carver Community Market and the Community Grounds coffee shop in nearby Historic South Atlanta, has welcomed AVLF staff and volunteers to use their space for meetings. City of Atlanta officials have also pledged support of AVLF’s use of the Thomasville Heights Branch Library and the Thomasville Recreation Center for events and meetings as well.
Finally, it is through the generous support of the Cousins Family Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, and The Home Depot Foundation, that AVLF is able to expand and focus its services in Thomasville Heights in this comprehensive manner.
7. While Thomasville Heights is the first community where we offer these services, it won’t be the last.
Thanks to the generous support of the Cousins Family Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, and the Home Depot Foundation, the Thomasville Heights initiative is fully funded and launched for the 2016-2017 school year, with a new AVLF Staff Attorney and AVLF Community Advocate embedded in the community and working with seven of the initiative’s partner firms to help stabilize housing around one school – Thomasville Heights Elementary School – that is struggling with a 40% annual enrollment turnover rate.
Looking forward, with generous support from the Annie E. Casey Civic Site, the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, the Raoul Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, and the Home Depot Foundation, this initiative will soon expand into the neighborhoods of Neighborhood Planning Unit V, or NPU-V (e.g., Pittsburgh, Mechanicsville, Adair Park, Peoplestown, Summerhill).
AVLF’s expert advance team – the law firm of Alston & Bird – is piloting AVLF’s expansion into these neighborhoods. Basing our efforts out of Dunbar Elementary School, which Alston & Bird has been generously supporting for years, we are laying the foundation for this expansion for the 2017-2018 school year. At full launch, additional law firm partners will join the effort to stabilize rental housing in those historic Atlanta neighborhoods.
In addition to these neighborhoods, AVLF hopes to expand this model in the future and be an ally to other neighborhoods and movements to improve our community.