Helping hand

• Author: Jamie Hwang
• Pages: 11-11

HELPING HAND

PRO BONO PROGRAM EXPANDS TO HELP

STUDENTS IN STRUGGLING SCHOOLS

When children get sick from poor

living conditions inside their r un-

down apartments, t hey miss school.

And when 95 percent of students of

one school live in the same apart-

ment complex—where evictions are

routine and black mold is rampant—

classrooms are of ten left empty.

This was the problem students

from Thomasvil le Heights Elemen-

tary School in At lanta faced, mak-

ing the school one of the worst

performing in the st ate. Families

were forced to move in and out of

Forest Cove Apartments, a Se ction

8 subsidized housing complex, due

to unhea lthy conditions, and the

school su ered huge student turn-

over. Children routinely missed

school due to illnesses cause d by

deplorable livi ng conditions that

landlords ignored or refuse d to

repair. With a growing cr isis, the

school called the Atla nta Volunteer

Lawyers Foundation for help.

“It’s hard to believe that people

in the city of Atlanta a re living

like this,” says Emerson Girardeau

III of Willkie Farr & Ga llagher in

Houston, who volunteered with

the program. “I [would] get a call

because they’re using a st ove to

keep a three-bedr oom, two-story

apartment warm. A nd it’s 20

degrees outside. Half the

complex doesn’t have heat. It’s hard

to focus on homework when you

don’t have heat.”

The foundation cr eated the

Standing with O ur Neighbors pro-

gram in 2016 to help tenants fi ght

for their rights. As par t of the pro-

gram, a ful l-time lawyer and a

community advocat e are placed

directly in the school t o help stu-

dents’ families solve their housing

issues. Pro bono lawyers f rom nine

of Atlanta’s fi rms represent t enants

at Forest Cove Apartments—in the

fi rst yea r, lawyers took on 55 indi-

vidual landlord-tenant c ases and

stopped 20 evictions. A fter the pro-

gram stepped in t o help students at

Thomasville Heights Elementa ry

School, the annual enrollment tu rn-

over rate dropped from a fi ve-year

average of 39 percent to 25 per-

cent, according to a rep ort from the

school.

Clients say they feel a sense of

empowerment because of the help

from volunteer attorneys, a s well

as a noticeable change. Problems

in their homes are getting fi xed

faster, and they can focu s on their

children’s education instead of con-

stantly worry ing about housing

issues.

“It’s not just that [the lawyers]

help us—I consider them a friend,”

says Meosha Carr, a Forest Cove

tenant with four chi ldren who

attend Thomasvi lle Heights.

The success of the program

prompted its expansion to add i-

tional schools in Atlanta . Standing

with Our Neighbors is now

onboarding its eighth school—with

lawyers continuing to bri ng justice

to tenants in need of their help.

“It doesn’t take a lot of e ort

for attorne ys to create enormous

change in people’s lives,” Girardeau

says. “It could be something as sim-

ple as sending a demand letter. We

got a responsibility to use a fe w of

the thousand s of billable hours to

help others.”

—Jamie Hwang

PHOTOS COURTESY OF EVERSHEDS SUTHERLAND AND THE ATLANTA VOLUNTEER LAWYERS FOUNDATION

Opening Statements

OCTOBER 2018 ABA JOURNAL || 11

Thomasville Heights

Elementary School

students and teachers

say thank you to law

fi rms that participate

in Standing with Our

Neighbors.

“IT’S HARD TO FOCUS

ON HOMEWORK WHEN

YOU DON’T HAVE HEAT.”

—EMERSON GIRARDEAU III