Reflections on the Rule of Law and the Role of the Lawyer
Lately, the “rule of law” has been in the news, prompting many of us to think more critically about the law’s role in our democracy, as well as a lawyer’s role in preserving the rule of law. On May 1, many of us at the Legal Clinic attended the DC Law Day rally at the Supreme Court organized by Lawyers for Good Government. It was a great rally, with inspirational speakers, creative signs, and hundreds of lawyers reciting their oath of office. It is a strange time to be a lawyer (or perhaps it is just a strange time to be, unrelated to...
read more2025 Funding and Reform Priorities: D.C. Must Choose to Support Its People
2025 Funding and Reform Priorities: D.C. Must Choose to Support Its People Over the years, we have seen two categories of harmful responses when D.C. elected leaders claim, rightfully or not, that there are not enough resources to meet the pressing needs in the community: 1) cuts or underfunding of housing and human services programs, and 2) tightening of eligibility or reduction in legal rights of participants in those programs. Both of those responses reduce the number of people served without reducing the number of people in need of...
read moreStatement on D.C. Encampments: Destroying Communities Will Not Make D.C. Great
Hurting unhoused people with encampment clearings hurts our entire community and does nothing to end homelessness.
read moreWe Give Thanks for Legal Clinic Volunteers
With their commitment to housing justice and the mission of our organization, each of our volunteers carries on the spirit that brought the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless into existence in the 1980s.
read morePress Release: Emergency Class Action Lawsuit Challenges Hundreds of Housing Assistance Terminations
Children’s Law Center, The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, and three prominent D.C. law firms filed a class action lawsuit this week with the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings, requesting emergency relief for over 800 D.C. families facing an inevitable loss of housing due to the District’s unlawful mass terminations in the rapid re-housing program.
read moreDC Council’s Proposed “Fix” Will Increase Rent Arrears and Evictions
We urge DC Council to vote no on the Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Emergency Act of 2024 to be voted on Tuesday, October 1. The bill is bad for tenants and landlords. If passed, it will increase evictions and housing insecurity and make it harder for tenants to pay, and landlords to collect, rent. The Emergency Rental Assistance Reform Emergency Act of 2024 does not: 1. Help tenants pay rent. 2. Help landlords pay their mortgages or operating costs. 3. Remedy, or even acknowledge, the rising cost of living in D.C.—most critically that...
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