Housing Justice Is Racial Justice

“In the wake of the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of tenants and homeowners are facing homelessness. Legal services organizations, housing advocates, celebrities, and politicians from across Southern California are calling upon all attorneys to volunteer their time to defend people’s rights to stay housed.

Our country’s long history of red-lining, Jim Crow laws, segregation, racial profiling, racialized financial and lending practices, restrictive covenants, limitations on Black veterans’ access to the GI Bill, have prevented generations of black and brown communities from owning their own homes and creating the housing stability we all deserve. That system of wealth-building has also systemically denied them the same legal representation the privileged can afford to protect their housing. And the health crisis, which has impacted communities of color at exponentially higher rates, has only exacerbated the problem. This is precisely why housing justice is racial justice, and why we need pro bono attorneys to step up now, more than ever before, to defend our black and brown siblings’ right to remain in their homes.

We are urging every member of the bar to reach out to one or more of their organizations to sign up and take a case. Stop an eviction action. Affirmatively represent a tenant who is being harassed by their landlord. Do not let our history of racial and housing inequity impact one more person. Volunteer today.”