July 15, 2021

Community Legal Aid Helping Tenants Improve Housing Conditions, Provided Free Legal Services During Pandemic

BY Faye Rachlin, Deputy Director, Community Legal Aid(508) 425-2794 / frachlin@cla-ma.org

Community Legal Aid is pleased to report on the success of the Saving Housing Opportunities in Worcester (“SHOW”) project, launched with funding received from The Health Foundation of Central Mass., Inc. (THFCM). The SHOW project, initiated in early 2020, sought to use the justice system to improve housing conditions and prevent homelessness. While Community Legal Aid  routinely handles thousands of housing-related cases each year, most involving helping tenants avoid homelessness, this project expanded available services by funding urgently needed legal assistance for tenants with poor housing conditions in the midst of the pandemic.

Community Legal Aid hired an experienced housing attorney, David Brown, to lead the project.  Prior to joining Community Legal Aid, Attorney Brown worked for 18 years at Northeast Legal Aid in Lowell where he specialized in housing cases. Since joining Community Legal Aid he has assisted many households stabilize their tenancies and improve their housing conditions, and he has mentored and trained less experienced housing lawyers.

Safe, affordable housing is a key factor in people’s well-being and is essential for healthy childhood development. Poor housing conditions are associated with a wide range of health conditions, including respiratory infections, asthma, and lead poisoning, and unsafe living arrangements increase the risk of depression and anxiety. Addressing housing issues presents an opportunity to address an important social determinant of health.

Since the beginning of last year, Attorney Brown provided housing-related legal assistance to about 150 Worcester County tenant households. Brown handled a variety of housing cases impacting tenant health and well-being, helping many tenants avoid eviction and homelessness, especially important during the pandemic. The THFCM funding for the SHOW project also allowed CLA to pilot a program of affirmatively representing low-income and elderly tenants with defective housing conditions. In representing tenants in these cases, Attorney Brown is able to help Worcester County residents who would otherwise be unable to afford the services of an attorney and forced to try to navigate the legal system alone.

In one case that Attorney Brown is currently handling, the tenant endured a number of defective conditions in her apartment, including an unrepaired gas leak that forced her and her family to move into a hotel temporarily. Attorney Brown sent a consumer protection demand letter to the landlord and filed an affirmative lawsuit asking for repairs, damages, and fees, and he will seek a court order that requires the landlord to make the apartment livable for the family. In another case, Attorney Brown negotiated an agreement under which a tenant’s rent was abated (waived by the landlord in consideration of her defective conditions claims) and the landlord was ordered to fix the defective heat in her apartment. Attorney Brown obtained a court order in another case requiring a tenant’s landlord to make the necessary repairs, which included violations of the building and fire codes.

The project also explored how CLA could continue to do this important work once the HFCM grant had been spent. Massachusetts law allows attorneys representing tenants with bad housing conditions to seek attorney’s fees as part of the resolution of a case in certain situations. CLA’s staff attorney on the project secured attorney’s fees in a number of the cases he handled, which created a roadmap for how CLA can continue to litigate these cases and increase its housing staffing over time.

About Community Legal Aid:
Community Legal Aid provides free civil legal services to the low-income and elderly residents of the five counties of Western and Central Massachusetts (Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester), and maintains offices in Worcester, Fitchburg, Springfield, Northampton, and Pittsfield. CLA works to assure fairness for all in the justice system, protecting homes, livelihoods, health and families. For more information, please visit www.communitylegal.org.