CT-REQ-2995 Advancing Racial Justice Pro Bono Report 01 TW V3 - Flipbook - Page 14
committed to improve their administration
of the voucher relocation process to afford
displaced residents meaningful neighborhood
choice. Moreover, the City agreed to amend
its fair housing law to prevent landlords from
discriminating against residents with vouchers
and to take serious steps to enforce the new
law.
On the other side of the U.S., in Lahaina,
Hawai’i, we received a federal court decision
that prevented stripping long-term tenants
of rent controls. Without our court challenge,
low-income, indigenous tenants living in the
Lahaina Front Street Apartments, one of the
few affordable housing complexes left on
Maui, would have faced doubling or tripling
of rents and eviction.
On the individual representation front, we
partner with nonprofits such as the Children’s
Law Center and the Washington Legal Clinic
for the Homeless to advocate for safer living
conditions for our clients and their families,
defend against evictions, and help unhoused
clients obtain stable housing. For example,
we represented a D.C. tenant who became
homeless after a gas explosion rendered her
building uninhabitable. We negotiated with the
landlord’s insurance company for a significant
cash award for our client, who used those
funds to secure a new housing arrangement.
Crafting an inclusive economy
In London, we assisted individuals applying
to the Windrush Compensation Scheme, a
fund designed to compensate the “Windrush
generation” who were encouraged to emigrate
to the U.K. from the Caribbean islands in
response to U.K. labor shortages following
World War II. Even though many had been
living in the U.K. legally for most, if not all, of
their lives, the British Home Office destroyed
evidence of these individuals’ lawful status
and then denied their residency rights and
citizenship. For example, we obtained a
substantial award for a client who legally
emigrated to the U.K. from Jamaica as a child
with his family in the 1960s and later faced
10 years of homelessness as a result of being
unable to receive housing assistance because
evidence of his lawful residency had been
destroyed by government officials.
As part of HL BaSE, our international social
enterprise and social finance practice, we
partner with organizations such as Leading
Black Social lnnovators to support Black
entrepreneurs pioneering innovative solutions
to inequality. One such example includes
supporting a local music producer and former
London bus driver who turned a double decker
bus into a music studio for young people
trying to escape gang violence and find a
career in music.
