Job Assignments
We reported to our headquarters, the Mississippi Center for Justice, at 9:00 this morning. Three students from Ohio State are working with us as well. Two staff attorneys from MCJ met with us and described the three main projects that we’ll be working on. We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon training. We left at 2 p.m. to spend the evening in New Orleans, and will hit the ground running tomorrow.
OUR WORK IN GULFPORT
The three main projects we are working on include: (1) Observing eviction proceedings; (2) Affordable Housing Inventory; and (3) Community Historical Project.
Eviction Proceedings
Teams of students are being sent to justice centers in Gulfport and other rural areas (Ocean Springs, Poplarville, and Moss Point), where we will monitor eviction proceedings. There is currently a great disparity in treatment among the different courts—e.g., Lockouts—one judge might order someone to vacate their property by 5 p.m. that same day, another judge might grant the renter until the end of the month to move out. We are documenting these cases to ascertain the main issues, disparity of treatment, and identify compelling cases that might be used for legislative advocacy or media reports.
Many of the tenants in these proceedings, we’re told, actually have affirmative Katrina-related defenses that they are not using, either because they are not aware of them, or the judge isn’t asking the questions to probe into the issues. We learned from the staff attorney organizing the project that those tenants who are represented by attorneys are either fully successful or partially successful 100% of the time. For a number of reasons, these tenants have not sought or obtained legal assistance.
The goal of our efforts is to document this body of case law that is emerging relative to the hurricane, to assist with landlord-tenant law reform, to hopefully educate the judges and help them reduce the disparity in the cases, and to help identify the reasons that people haven’t obtained legal assistance (which, hopefully, will provide guidance in how to inform people about the availability of free legal services). Ultimately, our efforts should push landlord-tenant law forward through the courts and support legislative advocacy.Teams of students will be attending the eviction proceedings in the mornings, and then will work on one of the other projects in the afternoon.
Affordable Housing Inventory
There was a shortage of affordable rental property in this region prior to Katrina, and the situation is now at a crisis level. Basically, we will be doing a survey of the rental situation to create a master list of rental units. Although HUD has been looking at the loss of single-family homes, there seems to be a lack of attention paid to the rental market. According to the staff attorneys at MCJ, the loss of rental housing will exceed the number of single-family homes. A survey of the area was taken in the year prior to Katrina, and we are using that list as a springboard to identify post-Katrina housing. The goal is to look at each place twice, because inhabitable units that were surveyed immediately after Katrina may have become uninhabitable due to mold issues or gradual decay.
We’ll be taking a look at things like price gauging, which is becoming a problem. Emergency responders and other groups who have traveled to the area have strained the temporary housing situation, distorting the market and causing an inflation in rates. The goal is to identify issues landlords and the tenants are facing. This information will be compiled and synthesized to advocate for the rebuilding of affordable rental units.
Historical Community Project
This last project is the one that I am most excited about. It involves interacting with community members to obtain information about their communities. There is a rich and immeasurable amount of history in these communities, and many of them have been greatly devastated and in need of intense revitalization efforts. Our job is to interact with the community members to learn the history of the area. We’ll be documenting important locations, people, social and cultural events, et cetera. One main thread in our communications will involve documenting the civil rights movement and the history of segregation in the area.
The main purpose of this project is to help the communities write grant proposals to obtain community revitalization funds to help preserve their heritage. This is actually an incredible opportunity to revitalize their communities during rebuilding efforts. Our work should help them capture those funds, rebuild, and maintain their community.
OUR WORK IN GULFPORT
The three main projects we are working on include: (1) Observing eviction proceedings; (2) Affordable Housing Inventory; and (3) Community Historical Project.
Eviction Proceedings
Teams of students are being sent to justice centers in Gulfport and other rural areas (Ocean Springs, Poplarville, and Moss Point), where we will monitor eviction proceedings. There is currently a great disparity in treatment among the different courts—e.g., Lockouts—one judge might order someone to vacate their property by 5 p.m. that same day, another judge might grant the renter until the end of the month to move out. We are documenting these cases to ascertain the main issues, disparity of treatment, and identify compelling cases that might be used for legislative advocacy or media reports.
Many of the tenants in these proceedings, we’re told, actually have affirmative Katrina-related defenses that they are not using, either because they are not aware of them, or the judge isn’t asking the questions to probe into the issues. We learned from the staff attorney organizing the project that those tenants who are represented by attorneys are either fully successful or partially successful 100% of the time. For a number of reasons, these tenants have not sought or obtained legal assistance.
The goal of our efforts is to document this body of case law that is emerging relative to the hurricane, to assist with landlord-tenant law reform, to hopefully educate the judges and help them reduce the disparity in the cases, and to help identify the reasons that people haven’t obtained legal assistance (which, hopefully, will provide guidance in how to inform people about the availability of free legal services). Ultimately, our efforts should push landlord-tenant law forward through the courts and support legislative advocacy.Teams of students will be attending the eviction proceedings in the mornings, and then will work on one of the other projects in the afternoon.
Affordable Housing Inventory
There was a shortage of affordable rental property in this region prior to Katrina, and the situation is now at a crisis level. Basically, we will be doing a survey of the rental situation to create a master list of rental units. Although HUD has been looking at the loss of single-family homes, there seems to be a lack of attention paid to the rental market. According to the staff attorneys at MCJ, the loss of rental housing will exceed the number of single-family homes. A survey of the area was taken in the year prior to Katrina, and we are using that list as a springboard to identify post-Katrina housing. The goal is to look at each place twice, because inhabitable units that were surveyed immediately after Katrina may have become uninhabitable due to mold issues or gradual decay.
We’ll be taking a look at things like price gauging, which is becoming a problem. Emergency responders and other groups who have traveled to the area have strained the temporary housing situation, distorting the market and causing an inflation in rates. The goal is to identify issues landlords and the tenants are facing. This information will be compiled and synthesized to advocate for the rebuilding of affordable rental units.
Historical Community Project
This last project is the one that I am most excited about. It involves interacting with community members to obtain information about their communities. There is a rich and immeasurable amount of history in these communities, and many of them have been greatly devastated and in need of intense revitalization efforts. Our job is to interact with the community members to learn the history of the area. We’ll be documenting important locations, people, social and cultural events, et cetera. One main thread in our communications will involve documenting the civil rights movement and the history of segregation in the area.
The main purpose of this project is to help the communities write grant proposals to obtain community revitalization funds to help preserve their heritage. This is actually an incredible opportunity to revitalize their communities during rebuilding efforts. Our work should help them capture those funds, rebuild, and maintain their community.
posted by Petosker at
11:44 AM
