Equal Justice Works Housing Justice Program Receives a Total of $1.93 Million in Grants to Provide Legal Services to Income-Eligible Clients Facing Eviction and Housing Instability

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 9, 2024— Equal Justice Works, the nation’s largest facilitator of opportunities in public interest law, has been awarded a total of $1.93 million in grants by the Maryland Legal Services Corporation (MLSC) and the South Carolina Bar Foundation. These grants build upon prior support to the Housing Program at Equal Justice Works, which increases capacity at host organizations throughout Maryland and South Carolina to provide legal services to income-eligible clients facing eviction and housing instability. Fellows will help bolster the civil legal aid network in Maryland, and work to continue expanding housing courts across South Carolina.

“We know that too many organizations across Maryland and South Carolina do not have the capacity to meet the needs of all low-income households seeking services for housing and eviction related issues,” said Laura Roach, senior program manager for the Housing Justice Program at Equal Justice Works. “We are so grateful for the continued support from the Maryland Legal Services Corporation and the South Carolina Bar Foundation that allows us to expand bandwidth of housing justice initiatives throughout these states.”

According to a needs assessment report published by Equal Justice Works in 2023, 93% of respondents indicated that their organization did not have the capacity to serve all eligible individuals seeking services for housing and eviction related issues. That is why Fellows like those funded through these grants are instrumental in providing free legal access to the communities served by the Housing Justice Program.

The grant from Maryland Legal Services Corporation will mobilize nine Attorney Fellows in Maryland to provide legal aid in eviction proceedings, conduct outreach, and build strategic partnerships. The main goal of these Fellows will be to build capacity across the state and address four key challenges that past Housing Justice Program Fellows and host organizations have identified: the large volume of cases throughout the state, a lack of tenant awareness of rights and resources, inconsistent court practices, and the extensive travel time required to work throughout large service areas.

“We are excited to fund another class of Housing Justice Program Fellows in Maryland,” said Karen Wabeke, Director of Special Programs at MLSC. “The Fellows will expand our grantees’ capacity to represent tenants facing eviction as part of the Access to Counsel in Evictions program and build a pipeline of eviction defense attorneys across the state.”

The South Carolina Bar Foundation also offered grant support which will help mobilize four Fellows in South Carolina to work in local legal services organizations and expand from Charleston and Richland Counties to Beaufort, Dorchester, and Jasper Counties, where services for eviction prevention legal services are sparse. This grant will help the program build on its 2023 expansion into South Carolina and continue to build a pipeline on housing-related legal services and advocacy network in the state.

Since 1993, Equal Justice Works has mobilized more than 40 Fellows to combat housing instability at the individual, community, and systemic levels. In 2019, the organization created the Housing Justice Program, placing eight Fellows at legal services organizations in the Greater Richmond Region of Virginia to serve low-income individuals and families facing evictions. Since then, it has expanded to other states experiencing housing crises, such as Maryland, and South Carolina. Throughout the program’s operation, Fellows have conducted more than 325 trainings for tenants in the community and prevented or delayed eviction for more than 9,400 households. Fellows were also instrumental in coordinating public pressure campaigns that yielded multiple new codified tenant protections, making it more difficult to evict residents from their homes.

“Our Statewide Civil Legal Needs Assessment released last year in South Carolina tells us that Housing and Family law are the areas of greatest need for legal services, with eviction defense being the most pressing area of need within the housing context,” said Olivia Jones, Executive Director of the South Carolina Bar Foundation. “Equal Justice Works focuses on this area, putting boots on the ground to provide South Carolinians with accessible and necessary legal services, which significantly improves outcomes for individuals and families facing the devastating prospect of losing their home.”

To learn more about the Housing Justice Program, click here. To see the Housing Justice Program Fellows currently working to address and prevent housing injustices, click here.

The Housing Justice Program is made possible thanks to the generosity of The JPB Foundation, Maryland Legal Services Corporation, South Carolina Bar Foundation, and Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina.