Housing is a human right and the foundation for strong communities. Access to a safe and affordable home creates economic and community stability. This fact sheet highlights the challenges and how our staff are working to prevent evictions, help landlords address health hazards, and increase tenant financial and legal empowerment. By addressing issues early, we keep people safely housed and avoid legal system involvement that can affect employment, family security, and future access to stable housing.
While eviction is a universally stressful event, people with mental health conditions can face unique obstacles with housing retention for reasons related specifically to their disability. This guide provides a review of housing settings and specific risks of eviction for individuals with mental illness before focusing on housing court and the challenges these individuals and court personnel face therein and identifies junctures at which supportive, problem-solving interventions can ensure the necessary community supports and legal representation.
At Legal Hand, our trained community volunteers provide free legal information, assistance and referrals to help members of low-income communities resolve issues that affect their lives, in areas like housing, family, immigration, divorce, domestic violence, and benefits and try to prevent problems from turning into legal actions.
Legal Hand seeks to help people resolve civil justice issues before they need lawyers and court intervention. In our latest New Thinking episode, learn about how the program works, how civil justice issues impact different communities, and why it can be hard to get basic legal information to the people who need it.
