Preventing Displacement–One Family at a Time

Housing prices throughout the Bay Area are skyrocketing, including in the communities where CLC practices. CLC students and attorneys work hard with other local activists and lawyers to preserve and protect the housing of the low-income people of the Peninsula who are being priced out of the area. One of CLC’s key roles is providing full-service representation to individual tenants and families who are facing eviction. East Palo Alto is the only city in San Mateo County with a rent stabilization and good cause eviction ordinance, which provides some defenses and protections for tenants in addition to those found in state law. Students also represent tenants in affirmative proceedings before the local Rent Board, seeking to enforce their rights to lawfully regulated rents and to safe housing conditions.

These cases give CLC students a rapid and deep dive into all aspects of civil litigation, from drafting pleadings to taking and defending depositions to negotiating with opposing counsel. The eviction cases are handled in Superior Court, where students appear at settlement conferences, motion hearings, and at ex parte and trial calendars.

Clinic students also provide legal, policy, and technical advice to local activists working to preserve affordable housing in East Palo Alto and throughout Silicon Valley. In this way, CLC acknowledges that the acute legal needs of its individual clients represent part of larger systemic problems of rising rents and ever-expanding income inequality. CLC’s diverse housing practice exposes students to the challenging questions about the lawyer’s role in addressing the issue at both the individual and policy levels.