Penn Housing Rights Project (PHRP)
The Penn Housing Rights Project (PHRP) supports low-income Philadelphia tenants. Students represent tenants in Fair Housing Commission cases, conduct legal and policy research for housing justice organizations, staff Know-Your-Rights workshops, and provide information for tenants trying to resolve issues with their landlords through the Philly Tenant Hotline.
What we do:
We connect trained Penn Law students with attorneys at partner firms or organizations such as Philadelphia VIP, Public Interest Law Center, and Community Legal Services. Our projects include, or have included, pairing Penn Law students with local attorneys to prevent evictions, having students affirmatively represent tenants suing their landlords for lack of repairs at the Fair Housing Commission, helping tenants solve issues over the phone with the Philly Tenant Hotline, providing research support to organizations in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. , and participating in Know-Your-Rights workshops for tenants at locations across the city.
How we do it:
At the beginning of each year, we host a training session to prepare students for our various projects.
For the Fair Housing Hearing Project, we pair several volunteers together, supervised by a practicing attorney, to prepare cases for hearings in front of the Fair Housing Commission. Our work includes initial interviewing of the client and prepping them for trial. Student volunteers have the opportunity to directly question their client and cross-examine witnesses during the hearing, as well as help attorneys reach settlement agreements. Students learn important client management skills that come with sustaining a more long-term attorney-client relationship. This year, we are also expanding our outreach to allow students to help with FHC intake, filing in small claims court for security deposits, and helping our attorney supervisors with memo drafting for eviction cases.
Our Research Project connects students with opportunities to work with local and national housing advocacy organizations. Students work in teams supervised by our attorney partners to perform legal and policy research. Potential topics for this year include exclusionary zoning, protections for medical marijuana users in federally assisted housing, social housing models, and tax increment financing for housing.
In our Tenant Callback program, we collaborate with CLS attorneys to provide information for clients through the Philly Tenant Hotline. Once students are trained on the Hotline to speak with tenants about potential legal issues. Students provide information about tenants’ rights and available resources. We also provide an opportunity to assist CLS attorneys who are staffing the Lawyer of the Day program at Philadelphia Municipal Court.
For the TURN (Tenant Union Representative Network) Project, we teach students the intricacies of housing programs in Philadelphia, allowing them to provide insight to Philadelphia tenants encompassing all areas of tenant rights. Students would become knowledgeable on various TURN programs such as Housing Inspections, Background Checks, Eviction Defense Clinics, Landlord-Tenant Webinars and Housing Repair Clinics. Students would work closely with TURN leadership to support union activities, including Know-Your-Rights training, tenant organizing, and advocacy.
Through our Know Your Rights project, students staff renters’ rights clinics in partnership with housing advocacy organizations across the city. Students collaborate with public interest attorneys and community leaders from various organizations in Philadelphia to provide brief 1-on-1 legal consultations with clinic attendees Topics include protection against unlawful landlord actions, addressing habitability issues (including lead paint and bedbug laws), and forming tenants’ unions. Students may also have the opportunity to create and lead clinics.
How and when can I join:
Interested volunteers may complete the volunteer survey at this link. We will follow up with assignments and more detailed information from project leaders. If you have any questions, please reach out to us at pennhousingrights@gmail.com.
What skills will I develop:
In-court advocacy, negotiation, trial prep, trial strategy, legal research, memo-drafting, legal analysis, collaboration, conflict resolution, client counseling, working with vulnerable clients.
The work is likely to be New York Bar eligible.