Blog: LCBH News

The Anti-Eviction Campaign, a grass roots organization working towards ending economically-motivated evictions in Chicago, hosts bi-weekly informational meetings.

LCBH participates in these meetings and provides legal information and brief services to renters facing no-fault evictions and lack of repairs due to foreclosure.

For more information about the Anti-Eviction Campaign please visit their website at http://chicagoantieviction.org/

LCBH attorneys Samira Nazem and Aileen Flanagan (pictured), recently spoke with an ESL class at the Howard Area Community Center (HACC) in Rogers Park about housing issues including landlord and tenant responsibilities, maintenance problems, evictions and lockouts, and foreclosure.

The class is made up of recent immigrant adults to the United States who are trying to improve their literacy and comprehension skills.

Referral information and fact sheets were also shared with the group. Megan Thompson, an AmeriCorps VISTA with LCBH, is a volunteer tutor for the community center and helped organize the event.

Since welcoming our first three interns in 2006 into our Supportive Service program, LCBH has been host to dozens of students, including the ten interns working with us this year. One factor that makes LCBH’s Supportive Services program so successful is the partnerships we have developed with social work internship programs in Chicago and the greater Midwest.

Our first partnership began seven years ago with the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration (SSA) program. Since then our internship partnerships have expanded to include the Masters in Social Work (MSW) program at the University of Illinois at Chicago as well as undergraduate programs in social work or sociology at schools such as North Park University here in Chicago and Valparaiso University in Indiana. We also partner with two “immersion” programs: the Chicago Center for Urban Life and Culture and the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Urban Studies Program. Students participating in these programs come from colleges and universities throughout the Midwest to live and study together as a cohort in Chicago. Part of their experience requires an internship at an agency that serves low-income people.

Calling all attorneys! Did you know that volunteering pro bono with LCBH will help you live longer, become richer, and solve world hunger? Well maybe not, but it can help save a family in crisis from homelessness, develop your legal skills, and create new professional relationships.

The need for pro bono services at LCBH and across the country is now greater than ever. The Legal Service Corporation’s Pro Bono Task Force estimates that while 62 million, or one in five, Americans qualify for civil legal assistance, as many of 80% of those who seek it will be denied aid because of insufficient resources.

The American Bar Association encourages each attorney to donate at least 50 hours of service per year. By donating just a few hours of time, a pro bono attorney can help shrink the justice gap and provide much needed support to a family in need.

With the help of volunteers, LCBH is able to impact the lives of over over 7,000 Illinois renters each year. In the last month, our volunteers saved a single mother’s Section 8 voucher, protected an immigrant family from a threatening landlord, and stood up to a bank so eager to evict a tenant that it refused to afford her due process.

LCBH staff attorneys are always here to help you, so whether this is your first pro bono engagement or your hundredth, we will provide the training, resources, and support you need to ensure a positive experience for both you and your client.