The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Lawyers Committee

Community Development Project
Contact: David Tipson
Phone: (202) 662-8328
Fax: (202) 783-5113
E-mail: dtipson@lawyerscommittee.org

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The Lawyers' Committee's Community Development Project (CDP) is the first national transactional pro bono project that provides direct legal services to non-profit organizations in the most underserved regions of the country. The CDP's mission is to promote housing and economic opportunities in low-income communities through volunteer legal services. The unique national pro bono network of the Lawyers' Committee supplements dedicated resources with high-caliber legal talent to represent client organizations, develop legal materials and training, and advance opportunities in neighborhoods suffering from economic isolation and neglect. This legal assistance helps local community development corporations fulfill their mandate to revitalize impoverished minority neighborhoods and advance economic opportunity. The CDP has provided direct pro bono legal support to community-based organizations in Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, Virginia, Arkansas, and the District
of Columbia where we have ongoing relationships with local groups dedicated to neighborhood reinvestment.

The CDP works to achieve its mission by:

Facilitating the development of affordable housing;
Mississippi Delta: The CDP and its pro bono partners provide transactional legal assistance to two non-profit organizations in the Delta region. CDP partners with pro bono attorneys at Weil, Gotshal & Manges to work with the Tunica County Community Development Corporation (TCCDC), a Tunica, Mississippi-based organization dedicated to housing, community, and small business development. CDP works with pro bono attorneys at Dechert to assist Beacons and Bridges, located in Jonesboro, Arkansas. TCCDC has worked to establish affordable housing in North Tunica County, an especially impoverished and racially segregated community. Beacons and Bridges aids over three hundred residents per year through a combination of housing assistance and entrepreneur training. The CDP plans to expand its work in the
Mississippi Delta.

The North Gulfport Community Land Trust (NGCLT): NGCLT was created with the CDP's assistance to generate access to land and housing for low-income families. North Gulfport, located in coastal Mississippi, is a low-income, African-American community suffering from historic discrimination. In the wake of Katrina, the CDP expanded its legal assistance in North Gulfport to prevent foreclosures and housing speculation and to create new units of
affordable housing.

On December 15, 2007, the NGCLT held an open house to display its first completed house in North Gulfport. NGCLT successfully applied for a grant from the Mississippi Department of Archives & History to restore the house. A dynamic legal team from Sutherland, Asbill, and Brennan continues to work with the CDP to provide targeted legal assistance to NGCLT.

Unity Homes: Unity Homes, an emerging nonprofit, will provide green, modular, affordable housing and employment through the creation of a permanent modular housing facility with the capacity to build hundreds of affordable homes annually for residents of the Mississippi Delta and the Gulf Coast. Support from the CDP and our pro bono partners, Kilpatrick Stockton, Citigroup, and Nixon Peabody, to Unity Homes has included assistance with nonprofit formation, construction contracts, land-use applications, state licensing issues, and overall project coordination. Additionally, we have worked with Unity Homes to create three permanent staff positions and develop a Job Training Unit that will employ over 100 individuals from the region. To date, we have the first prototype house built and installed in North Gulfport, Mississippi.
Preserving historic communities;
Housing 2010: The CDP provides transactional legal support to Housing 2010, a Community Housing Development Organization (CDHO) in Moss Point, Mississippi, a low-income and historically African-American Community with many buildings that date back to the 19th century. Housing 2010 focuses its efforts on developing affordable housing, rebuilding and maintaining historic structures, and offering personalized counseling to community members who are recovering from the damage wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

With our assistance, Housing 2010 successfully spearheaded the passage of a Historic Preservation Ordinance in Moss Point. This legislation established a Historic Preservation Commission which held its opening meeting on November 28, 2007.
Addressing the wealth gap through asset building programs;
Land Rich: Asset Builders of America is a national organization that uses wealth-building strategies to increase the wellbeing and economic freedom of low- and moderate-income individuals. Its Land Rich Project will assist low-wealth and minority land owners located in the Southeastern United States to optimize the value of their land and thereby to begin building wealth. Land Rich plans to focus its efforts on communities in the fifteen southern most states. Land Rich will incorporate in North Carolina this year as a separate entity from Asset Builders. The CDP will help select and implement land-ownership structures and develop a resource manual for African-American land owners describing the risks associated with tenancies in common and strategies for stabilizing ownership.
Assisting non-profit health care clinics
Coastal Family Health Center (CFHC): CFHC operates 12 clinics that primarily serve low-income and minority residents on MississippiÕs coast and is the only health care provider available to low-income persons in that region. The CDP and Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll are assisting CFHC to establish a new health clinic in DÕIberville, Mississippi. The CDP helped CFHC to obtain a site for its new clinic and will provide comprehensive legal assistance during the construction process.

New Orleans WomenÕs Health Clinic: Since Hurricane Katrina, healthcare options have been limited in New Orleans, especially for people of limited financial means. The CDP and Arent Fox have assisted local community members in establishing the New Orleans WomenÕs Health Clinic, a community clinic in the cityÕs historic Treme neighborhood that provides low-cost health services to women.

Recent Activities

On February 22, Attorney Sarah Bookbinder gave a talk entitled, "Modular Housing as a Response to Challenging Markets and Disaster Areas" at Nixon Peabody's Institute for Professional and Executive Development conference on Innovative Transactions in Affordable Housing and Community Development in Miami, Florida. Her presentation was part of a panel on innovative green design for affordable housing, and she addressed the use of modular homes on the Gulf Coast, using the example of CDP client, Unity Homes.

Attorney David Tipson testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security on January 29. The Committee, chaired by Congressman Bennie Thompson, held hearings on the performance of FEMA, the status of the FEMA trailer program, and unmet housing needs on the Gulf Coast. Click here to watch the hearing.

CDP Attorney Sarah Bookbinder has been working with a broad-based coalition of Gulf Coast and Delta-based non-profit organizations in Mississippi to develop the first statewide Housing Trust Fund. Working with CDP, Nixon Peabody prepared a draft bill on behalf of the coalition, which was introduced in the current legislative session. The Mississippi legislature passed a version of the bill that will create a legislative task force to study the proposed trust fund, a positive first step toward building legislative support to ultimately create such an entity.

On January 10, CDP Attorney David Tipson traveled to the Gulf Coast to organize a workshop with attorneys from DLA Piper and the Mississippi Center for Justice. The workshop offered free legal assistance to owners of ÒheirsÕ properties' on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Heirs' Property (or land with multiple owners) and other title problems have represented a major barrier for property owners applying for public and private funds to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.

Resources

Your Risks, Your Rights, as a FEMA Trailer Resident
If you are a current FEMA trailer resident, this document will provide you with useful information about the presence of formaldehyde within FEMA-provided travel trailers and the imminent closure of trailer parks on the Gulf Coast. It also describes government programs and other resources that you may be able to use if you reside in Mississippi and want or need to move out of your trailer. Download Document here

Heirs' Property: What It Is and What to Do about It:
This brochure, which has been distributed widely on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi in connection with CDP's heirs' property work in conjunction with DLA Piper, offers a brief explanation of heirs' property and the risk of losing land that is held through tenancy-in-common. It also provides useful advice on what steps holders of heirs' property can take to repair the record of ownership and thereby avoid the multitude of problems that heirs' property can cause. Click here to access the brochure.

Video: Two Years and Counting
Mississippi's distribution of federal housing assistance continues to neglect the needs of low- and moderate-income families. Thousands of these families must soon leave their FEMA trailers but still have no place to go. Click here to watch and listen to a few individuals who are facing this dire housing shortage.

Video: The New Homeless
This short documentary, The New Homeless brings to the public images of the persistent Katrina housing crisis and advocates for a rebuilding effort that protects the rights of all segments of society. The video explains the housing challenges faced by low-income and minority Katrina survivors on Mississippi's Gulf Coast and suggests legal and policy solutions to the crisis. Click here to watch the video.

Mississippi and Park Model Cottages Brochure:
This brochure highlights the many benefits of the attractive and versatile Mississippi and Park Model Cottages. These cottages have truly raised the bar for home design and performance.
Download Brocure in PDF here

Hurricane Katrina

Career Opportunities