Safe and Stable Housing Is Justice

Housing justice is the foundation of vibrant communities. Safe and stable homes help people, families, and neighborhoods thrive.

Any conversation around community safety must include how to address housing. Housing is the bedrock of well-being in our lives, supporting our ability to stay healthy, keep a job, succeed in school, and maintain community and family ties.

But far too many people struggle to find and stay in decent, affordable homes. Evictions destabilize families. Unsafe conditions disrupt people’s lives and health. Tenants struggle to assert their rights. These harms disproportionately impact women of color and their children, the product of racial injustice in housing policy. Often compounding these historical injustices is the power imbalance between landlords and tenants in housing court.

If incarceration had come to define the lives of men from impoverished black neighborhoods, eviction was shaping the lives of women. Poor black men were locked up. Poor black women were locked out.
— MATTHEW DESMOND, author of Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City 

Helping to preserve housing stability in historically disinvested, predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods across New York State and New Jersey is a critical method of redressing racial injustice and attaining true community safety. Stable and fair access to housing helps people avoid contact with the legal system, stops the cycle of trauma associated with displacement and instability, helps those returning from incarceration rebuild their lives, and fosters safety for individuals, families, and communities.

We have helped thousands of New York and New Jersey residents remain in their homes by providing direct assistance with rent and other tenancy issues; helping tenants get critical repairs; connecting residents to legal services and benefits; and providing trauma-informed, multi-lingual care. Our work takes place in the courthouse and in the communities that need it most. Through it all, we are problem-solvers working with tenants, community leaders, city agencies, and the courts in pursuit of strong, vibrant, healthy communities.

Read our New Report | Housing Is Justice: Exploring State and Local Innovations

Housing insecurity and justice system involvement can be a vicious cycle with long-lasting effects for individuals, families, and communities as well as government systems. This report explores ways that actors in the justice system and housing agencies can partner to break this cycle. Through a national survey and 32 individual interviews with practitioners in diverse places, as well as a scan of over 50 programs, the paper explores the innovative policies and programs and the keys to successful collaborations in this space.

The report was created in collaboration with the Center for Justice Innovation and the Housing Solutions Lab at New York University’s Furman Center.

Supporting Fair, Stable Housing in Communities and Courts

Through workshops, training, public education campaigns, organizing, outreach events, and direct service, we promote access to justice, tenant rights, and legal empowerment to keep people in their homes. We have been able to prevent evictions by working proactively to resolve tenancy and arrears issues outside of court. We also work to address hazardous apartment repairs and public space conditions that impact health and safety.

My clients are my neighbors, they see me in the supermarket. They know I understand the struggle of what they are going through…and there’s trust.
— YVETTE ROUGET, Legal Hand