The Housing Law and Policy Clinic is an experiential learning environment where students learn through client representation, readings, guest lecturers, weekly lectures, reflective assignments, workshops, case rounds, role play, field experiences and individual supervision. The Clinic explores various models of lawyering including but not limited to; community, trauma-informed, holistic, movement, and client-centered lawyering. The Clinic’s legal work involves representing indigent tenants and working alongside community-based housing organizations on a variety of matters: including direct representation, strategic litigation, and working on a policy project. The course also includes attending South LA community-based organizations’ tenants’ rights clinics, meetings with advocates and legislative staff on tenant protection policies and visits to LA Superior Court/Federal Court for observation, practice and relevant litigation proceedings. The clinic students will interact with tenants, coalitions, organizers and community-based organizations on a regular basis. In the class sessions, guest lecturers will present and will include LA superior court judges, organizers from different movements, fair Housing Attorneys, government attorneys, legal aid attorneys. By the conclusion of this clinic, students will gain a profound understanding of the complex ways in which the housing crisis is a symptom of greater institutional injustices including economic and racial. Mainly, students will also likely leave inspired by the clients, advocates and stories they encounter. The Clinic is designed to provide a substantive introduction to housing law and policy, and allow students to build a tool-kit of practical lawyering and advocacy skills. We will engage with the work in terms of substantive law, the ethical considerations that arise when representing indigent clients, the respective statutes, ordinances and current court orders that govern housing law, the seminal housing discrimination cases, and the rules and procedures for the unlawful detainer process. In addition, students will understand the interworking of the court process, and the role it plays in the web of systems our clients face. The Clinic consists of two parts: a weekly classroom component and casework
