The Community Development Project - The Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law - News Feed

CDP Launches New Initiative with the University of District Columbia School of Law Community Development Law Clinic

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0600

CDP kicked off a new initiative in January to partner with community development clinics at local law schools. The inaugural effort in collaboration with the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law affords law students the opportunity to assist in meaningful work while gaining real-world experience. CDP staff and UDC clinical law professors Louise Howells and Laurie Morin are jointly supervising four clinical students on various CDP matters.

Two of the students, Eva Seidelman and Debbie Aston, are assisting two of CDP’s newest clients. Providence Community Housing is an affordable housing developer in New Orleans and is in the midst of redeveloping the Lafitte public housing development, one of the “Big Four” public housing projects demolished in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. As part of this effort, Providence, with the assistance of CDP and the clinical students, is working with residents to form a tenants’ association and a homeowners’ association.

These students are also assisting the Rose Community Development Corporation (CDC) with applying for tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) status. Rose CDC is redeveloping a site in the Tremé neighborhood that will include a charter school, space for artists and cultural entrepreneurs, and a community development financial institution.

Two other students, Emily Citkowski and Stephon Patterson, are assisting another new client, the Broadmoor Development Corporation (BDC), which is working to revitalize the Broadmoor neighborhood in New Orleans, on matters related to board governance. They are also working with long-time CDP client North Gulfport Community Land Trust (CLT) in Mississippi on developing an affordable housing finance and development plan on a number of parcels of land that it currently owns.

CDP expects to expand this partnership in the fall to include the Community Economic Development Law Clinic at American University’s Washington College of the Law.

Lawyers' Committee and Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center Release "People's Analysis of Impediments (AI) to Fair Housing for New Orleans"

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0600

NEW ORLEANS, LA - On December 21, 2011, the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law released a report entitled “People's Analysis of Impediments (AI) to Fair Housing for New Orleans .”

The report is the result of a collaboration among the Lawyers' Committee, GNOFHAC, and more than a dozen local, state, and national service providers, affordable housing developers, and advocates. The "People's AI" provides recommendations, based on best practices and guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), on how the City of New Orleans can draft a thorough and effective Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice, as required by the Fair Housing Act. It also provides a thorough critique of the City's current Analysis of Impediments and suggests steps to improve it.

In April of this year, GNOFHAC and the Lawyers' Committee had released a handbook entitled "Strategies to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing: Proposals for the City of New Orleans Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance (CZO) and Beyond." The handbook recommended strategies the City Planning Commission could adopt in the new zoning ordinance to overcome impediments to fair housing choice.

In addition to promoting integration and healthier communities, understanding and overcoming barriers to housing choice and drafting an effective AI would help the city fulfill its duty to affirmatively further fair housing, as required with federal funds such as Community Development Block Grants.

The "People's AI" is the latest product of an innovative partnership between GNOFHAC and the Lawyers' Committee, which, among other things, enforces fair housing laws throughout the country and provides legal assistance to nonprofit organizations, particularly in the Gulf Coast region.

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The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice under law, particularly in the areas of fair housing and fair lending, community development, employment; voting; education and environmental justice.

The Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center (GNOFHAC) is a private nonprofit organization. GNOFHAC is dedicated to eliminating housing discrimination and furthering equal housing opportunities through education, outreach, advocacy, and enforcement of fair housing laws across the metro New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas. The activities described in this release were privately funded.

Title Clearing Collaborative Has Reached Over 120 Clients And Counting!

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The New Orleans Title Clearing Collaborative provides pro bono legal assistance to homeowners in Orleans Parish that need help clearing title to their land. Once homeowners get clear title, they will be able to access federal and state aid money to repair and return to their homes that were damaged during Hurricane Katrina.

Attorneys with the Collaborative are working with more than 120 clients, far outpacing initial expectations, and they have already cleared title to a number of properties. More than 1,000 people have attended one of the 20 community education and intake events held throughout New Orleans.

The impact on Orleans Parish residents is demonstrable. “Ramon,”* a 61-year-old Hispanic man bought property with his now-deceased parents in the Broadmoor section of New Orleans that was badly flooded by the hurricane. Although Ramon was able to make enough repairs to move back into the home, he was still obligated to fulfill specific rebuilding requirements in order to reduce future flood damage, which would include costs that he could not afford. Attorneys prepared a small succession affidavit for his deceased parents, and he was able to finally gain access to Increased Cost of Compliance grants to help cover these additional costs.

“Bessie,”* a 91-year-old African American woman who lived in the Upper Ninth Ward neighborhood of New Orleans, owned property with her two brothers, both of whom are now deceased. Her home was badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, and five years later it remains uninhabitable. Without clear title for the land, she has not been able to repair or sell the property. The Collaborative completed two small succession affidavits for the deceased brothers, placing their shares in the possession of their combined 16 children. Bessie’s attorneys are in the process of contacting all 16 heirs to get Power of Attorney forms so that she is able to sell her property to the Louisiana Road Home Program.

The New Orleans Title Clearing Collaborative was formed by the Community Development Project of the Lawyers’ Committee, Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, Louisiana Appleseed, and The Pro Bono Project, and is funded by the Greater New Orleans Foundation. For more information, visit www.savenolahomes.org.

*Names have been changed to protect identities.

CDP Partner Louisiana Appleseed Discusses Title Clearing Initiative on Law Out Loud

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Community Development Project partners Christy Kane and Jessie Haynes of Louisiana Appleseed were featured on "Law Out Loud with Jen" on WGSO 990 AM this week. Christy and Jessie spoke about the "Save New Orleans Homes" title clearing collaborative launched this summer with the Lawyers' Committee, Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, and The Pro Bono Project. The initative provides pro bono assistance for homeowners suffering from rebuilding and repair issues that follow from unclear title, an especially intractable problem since Hurricane Katrina detroyed many homes in the region.

Listen to the podcast here. The fourth and final segment discusses the NOLA Title Clearing Initative.

Other LOL podcasts from this month can be found here.

Heirs' Property Retention Coalition (HPRC) Partner Mentioned in NYT Book Review

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0500

The Lawyers' Committee is engaged in work on land loss prevention and heirs' property issues across the country (see our focus regions here). One of these focus areas is the Heirs' Property Retention Coalition (HPRC), formed in the summer of 2006 as an organization of lawyers, advocates, and academics heavily involved in litigation, legislative reform, and/or scholarly study related to heirs' property, and in particular to the preservation of heirs' property within low income African-American communities.

One of our partners in the HPRC, the Center for Heirs' Property Preservation, is mentioned in a recent NY Times book review of "If Sons, Then Heirs", a fiction novel that highlights the troubles with heirs' property. Click through the link above to read more about the interesting portrayal of modern property and inheritance issues in the South.

To read more about the HPRC and its work, please click here.

Barbara Arnwine Speaks as a Panelist at EPA's Environmental Justice Conference in Detroit, Discusses Agency Failure to Enforce Title VI

Thu, 01 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Activists and officials gathered in Detroit for four days this August to discuss and share tools for addressing the environmental justice concerns in many communities across the nation. The conference was open to the public and about 500 stakeholders attended. Sessions included trainings on how communities could understand environmental laws, leverage private funding, and engage in environmental assessments.

Lawyers’ Committee Executive Director Barbara Arnwine participated on a panel called “Tools for Agency Accountability and Community Resolution: Civil Rights, Human Rights, Environmental Benefits Agreements, SEPs and Other Tools.” A poignant theme that emerged from the conversations was the longstanding failure of EPA to enforce Title VI environmental justice complaints. “We’re here in this frustration because we’ve been talking about this for decades," Barbara noted.

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex, or ethnicity by any agency that receives federal funds or permits. At the conference, Barbara distributed the Lawyers’ Committee’s most recent EJ report, Now is the Time, which was released in June 2010. The report can be viewed online on the EJ Project’s Publications and Resources page. More information on the EJ Conference can be accessed at its website.

More press on this conference can be accessed here.

'Left Out': Post-Katrina Housing Battle Continues

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500

"Six years ago Monday, Hurricane Katrina blew up the U.S. Gulf Coast, killed more than 1,800 people and left hundreds of thousands homeless. The story of the coast's recovery varies from place to place.

For some, life is back to normal. Along the Mississippi coast, thousands affected by Katrina still live in battered houses. They've been trapped by a technicality. Their homes were damaged by wind gusts rather than Katrina's storm surge. [...]

Activists say it was predominantly African-Americans communities that were affected by wind. As with many situations related to Katrina's recovery, Gaulden says, race is part of the story.

"I think there would have been a different response if elderly white people had been the only folks affected," she says.

Back in 2008, civil rights groups sued the federal housing department to compel Mississippi to spend recovery money on poor and minority residents who they said were left out. The lawsuit documented clusters of unmet needs: people living in substandard homes with makeshift plumbing, faulty electricity, and mold and mildew problems.

"The core allegation of the complaint was the state had failed to extend assistance to wind-damaged homeowners and that the effect of that was to disproportionately leave out of the recovery African-American households," says Reilly Morse, who is with the Mississippi Center for Justice, one of the groups that sued.

After much negotiating and an agreement to drop the suit, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the state and civil rights groups announced a $132 million settlement last November..."

Click here to read the full article.

Community Land Trusts Go Commercial

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500

By MIRIAM AXEL-LUTE

"In San Francisco’s Japantown, many of the businesses that give the storied neighborhood its cultural theme are on month-to-month leases with an absentee landlord. In post-Katrina New Orleans, entire neighborhood commercial strips lie vacant or contain only salons and furniture rental stores. In Albuquerque, stakeholders in the Arbolera de Vida development have turned away a charter school, but now have to figure out what they do want as they plan on the non-residential portion of their 27-acre site.

These sorts of problems are not new. But what is new is an increasing interest in adapting the community land trust model of shared equity homeownership to address economic development goals like these. In a residential CLT, the trust retains ownership of the land and sells the home, retaining any initial subsidy for the next homeowner through shared-equity resale restrictions that balance affordability and asset-building and maintaining a stewardship interest in the home. These ideas of an ownership stake, community control of land, and retaining subsidy have a clear appeal beyond housing—but those looking into it are realizing just how many unanswered questions there are out there about how the model will have to change to make that leap..."

Click here to read the full article at Shelterforce.org.

New Orleans unveils fresh model for housing the poor

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500

By Jonathan E. Bachman, for USA TODAY

"The decaying brick buildings of what was known as the Magnolia Projects are now rows of freshly painted town homes with ornate balconies and manicured lawns. Stoops where dealers once sold dope and shot at rivals have been replaced by a clubhouse featuring a flat-screen TV and a pool where neighborhood kids splash.

The Magnolia Projects, once one of the city's most notorious public housing complexes, today is Harmony Oaks Apartments, a 460-unit mix of government-subsidized and market-priced apartments. It replaces one of six public housing projects across the city recently razed to make room for new apartments and a fresh approach to housing the city's poor..."

Click here to read the full article.

CDP visits Clients on the Gulf Coast

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Last week, CDP’s legal interns, legal assistant and associate counsel visited clients in New Orleans and Mississippi (slideshow below).

The group had performed weeks of research and writing, which was presented to several clients, including Jane Place Neighborhood Sustainability Initiative (housing finance options), Crescent City CLT (internal corporate policies and 501c3 status), and Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance (bylaws and articles of incorporation).

CDP also co-hosted a roundtable to announce its new Title Clearing Collaborative and to build partnerships with other community-based groups that will help with outreach, education, and referrals. About 35 people from 20 organizations participated in a productive discussion about outreach strategies and collaboration.

In addition, the Lawyers’ Committee, in partnership with the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center, convened the first People’s Analysis of Impediments Working Group meeting with around 20 local advocates. The partners discussed their upcoming report and ideas to encourage the City of New Orleans to adopt strategies to “affirmatively further fair housing.” In addition to helping the client prepare for this discussion, the CDP interns also helped present a PowerPoint to the group, explaining best practices for performing an analysis of impediments.

CDP's New Orleans clients and partners also provided tours of the Lower 9^th Ward, Treme, and Central City.

In Mississippi, friends from the Steps Coalition and North Gulfport Community Land Trust gave a tour of North Gulfport and Turkey Creek. Reilly Morse from the Mississippi Center for Justice mentored the team about environmental justice law and helped convene a group of key stakeholders, including Steps, North Gulfport CLT, and Gulfport NAACP, to discuss the ongoing work around the Port of Gulfport expansion.

CDP appreciates all the help the interns have contributed this summer and wishes them luck as they pursue the next steps in their civil rights and community development careers.

Blight-fighting projects are awarded $1.5 million in grants

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Featured in the Times-Picayune, "The Community Revitalization Fund on Friday announced it will give $1.5 million in grants to four organizations that work on countering blight and rebuilding neighborhoods:

$592,000 to Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, formerly NOLAC, in partnership with the Pro Bono Project, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Louisiana Appleseed. The organization's lawyers will address title or succession problems that homeowners must resolve before they can rehabilitate their blighted homes."

Click here to see the full news clip.

Also, in the Gambit:

"A local legal collaborative formed by Southeast Louisiana Legal Services, the Pro Bono Project, Louisiana Appleseed and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law will be working to help low-income homeowners in Orleans Parish clear the titles to their homes. Financing for the project is provided by a grant from the Greater New Orleans Foundation's (GNOF) Community Revitalization Fund. For help, call the group at 529-1000..."

Click here to read the full news clip.

Turkey Creek Community Initiatives, a CDP client, is Featured on the Daily Show

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 00:00:00 -0600

Derrick Evans, the head of Turkey Creek Community Initiatives - one of the Lawyers' Committee's oldest clients - was featured on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart during the January 24 episode. In the segment, Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac briefly discusses the important history of Turkey Creek, which is located in Gulfport, Mississippi and was founded by freed slaves. The community is still predominantly African American today, though Cenac points out the irony that birds' habitats seem to get more attention and protection than African American heritage and homes. (Head over to TheDailyShow.com to see the segment.)

As a part of its initiative to provide much-needed pro bono legal assistance on the Gulf Coast, CDP is currently representing the Steps Coalition on its campaign to ensure that the port expansion planned in Gulfport is safe and healthy for the surrounding communities. Turkey Creek Community Initiatives and North Gulfport Community Land Trust - also a long-time client in a predominantly African American community in Gulfport - are members of the Steps Coalition and important allies in this campaign.

Lawyers' Committee Announces Katrina Recovery Settlement with HUD & Miss.

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 00:00:00 -0600

CONTACTS:

Mississippi Center for Justice
Sharon Garrison (601) 352-2269, ext. 306
e-mail: sgarrison@mscenterforjustice.org

Mintz Levin
Gina Addis (617) 348-4413
e-mail: Gaddis@mintz.com Committee for Civil Rights Under Law

Lawyers' Committee
Stacie Royster (202) 662-8317
e-mail: sroyster@lawyerscommittee.org

MISSISSIPPI HOUSING ADVOCATES PRAISE KATRINA RECOVERY SETTLEMENT WITH HUD AND MISSISSIPPI

Biloxi, Miss. - Two years after filing suit against the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Mississippi housing advocates are praising the settlement reached today with HUD and the State of Mississippi. The plan calls for the state to direct $132 million to disaster housing recovery of lower-income households in south Mississippi whose needs were not served by the State's previous programs.

The funding, provided primarily through HUD's Community Development Block Grant program, supports the long-term disaster recovery in the wake of the 2005 hurricane. The plan includes a new Neighborhood Home program that will repair lower-income homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina, either as a result of wind or flooding, and programs for qualified low-income persons to occupy Mississippi Cottages and rental housing.

"Our focus always has been to get Mississippi to finish housing first," said James Crowell, Treasurer of the Mississippi State Conference NAACP and a member of the national board of directors NAACP, one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in 2008 against HUD that challenged the agency's approval of Mississippi's diversion of $570 million in housing funds toward the expansion of the State Port at Gulfport. "With this plan, Mississippi has committed to repair low-income households, regardless of whether the damage was caused by wind or flood. We can now make progress toward repairing and rebuilding housing in low-income African American neighborhoods that have been neglected for the past five years."

As a result of the agreement, attorneys for the plaintiffs will dismiss the appeal now pending in the U. S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

"Safe, affordable housing was touted as the hallmark of Mississippi's recovery efforts. This agreement provides another opportunity to fulfill that commitment. For the first time, the State of Mississippi has agreed to help make wind damaged households, which were primarily occupied by the elderly, the disabled and African-Americans, whole." Charmel Gaulden, executive director, Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center. "Another important aspect of this plan is that it also extends eligibility to previously-unserved storm-damaged households as far north as Hattiesburg and Laurel."

The Neighborhood Home program will provide up to $75,000-and possibly more depending upon certain hardship considerations-worth of repairs, rehabilitation, or reconstruction to lower-income homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Other programs will provide assistance to qualified households seeking to permanently occupy cottages and to qualified renters whose apartments were damaged by Hurricane Katrina.

"This is a major victory for the Plaintiffs in the lawsuit as well as the thousands of households previously denied assistance who will now be eligible for the federal aid they have always needed. It is a testament to the commitment of these Plaintiffs and the willingness of all parties to work toward a pragmatic and satisfactory solution," said Larry Schoen, attorney with Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo, P.C., who, together with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Mississippi Center for Justice, filed the lawsuit in December 2008, on behalf of the Mississippi State Conference NAACP, the Gulf Coast Fair Housing Center and four individual plaintiffs.

To increase public awareness and identify further unmet recovery needs, the State will undertake an outreach campaign across Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, Stone, George, Lamar, Forrest, and Jones counties through January 15, 2011. Applications are being accepted immediately at designated intake centers identified in the attachment to this press release. Applications will be received through January 31, 2011. For more information about program details, go to www.msdisasterrecovery.com. Residents can also call the United Way 211 Call Center to access information about the intake center closest to them. Simply dial 211 from any landline or cell phone.

"We believe this new housing program is a major step in fulfilling the unmet needs of the low-income homeowners and renters for whom we have been advocating since shortly after Hurricane Katrina, said Joe Rich, the Director of the Fair Housing Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "The persistence and dedication of both our clients and our affiliate, the Mississippi Center for Justice, has been truly inspiring to us."

Mississippi Development Authority's Disaster Recovery Division (MDA-DRD) will administer the program and perform outreach, with case management provided by the State's Housing Resource Centers and outreach support from community organizations.

"We are particularly grateful to HUD's Assistant Secretary Mercedes Márquez and Special Adviser Fred Tombar for bringing their on-the-ground observations of Mississippi's unfinished housing business into the discussion and resolution of this matter," said Reilly Morse, Mississippi Center for Justice senior attorney. "Over the next 60 days, we will support and monitor the outreach campaign to ensure that everyone who is eligible for consideration is made aware of this important final opportunity to complete their housing recovery."

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Background information regarding the lawsuit is available online: please click here for more information.

For more information about housing recovery and the organizations involved, please visit:

www.mscenterforjustice.org
www.lawyerscommittee.org
www.mintz.com
www.naacp.org
www.makeitfair.com

Lawyers' Committee Holds Heirs' Property Workshops on the Eastern Shore in Maryland on September 24 and 25.

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:00:00 -0500

The Lawyers' Committee, in partnership with Mid-Shore Pro Bono, held two successful heirs' property workshops in Cambridge and Denton, Maryland, on Friday, September 24th, and Saturday, September 25th.

Did you miss them? Click here for a summary of the events.

Click here for more details about these events.

Click here to learn more about our work on the Eastern Shore.