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October 11, 2015
Along with Texas Appleseed, the Clinic is investigating the school discipline policies and practices of Austin-area school districts, to determine how and why districts unfairly cast out public school students and deny them meaningful instructional time and opportunities to graduate and for higher education. We are investigating policies on school suspension, explusion, and alternative education […] -
August 8, 2015
The Clinic has worked with Texas Community Capital for several years, assisting with the organization’s statewide expansion of the Community Loan Center’s Affordable Small Dollar Loans Program. The Small Dollar Loans Program is an innovative, employer-based, lending program that provides individuals with low-interest loans of up to $1,000, repayable over a one-year term, as an […] -
July 2, 2015
From May 2014 to July 2015, the Clinic were co-counsel, along with attorneys at the Texas Civil Rights Project and the Edwards Law firm, to represent Texas prisoners at the Wallace Pack Unit in class-action litigation challenging their exposure to extreme heat and humidity in inmate housing during the summer months. The plaintiffs are suing […] -
June 2, 2015
From January to July 2015, the Clinic partnered with the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, as well as other counsel, to represent a class of plaintiffs in nationwide class-action litigation regarding the rights of children in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security. Following DHS’s expanded practice of detaining immigrant families of […] -
June 2, 2015
In 2014-2015, the Clinic represented, along with local immigration attorneys, three different women who were detained along with their children in federal immigration detention facilities. In each case, the Clinic brought Constitutional Due Process and statutory claims challenging the continued detention of the mothers and their children for several weeks or months. These families were […] -
May 24, 2015
Since 2007, at least fourteen inmates incarcerated in various TDCJ facilities across the state of Texas have died from extreme heat exposure while imprisoned. TDCJ inmates and many TDCJ personnel are exposed to dangerously high heat levels on a regular basis. This practice violates individuals’ human rights, particularly the rights to health, life, physical integrity, […] -
May 7, 2015
This is an eviction from federally subsidized housing of single client with a young child. The client works at a low-wage job. The basis for the eviction is the arrest on the premises of a former boyfriend for marijuana possession. At the time of his arrest, the client had already discontinued the relationship and, in […] -
May 7, 2015
Housing clinic student avoids eviction of client due to foreclosure
This client sought our help after she received notice to vacate her home following a foreclosure. She was the former homeowner. She claimed that she had continued to make payments on the first lien note and did not understand how her home could have been foreclosed for failure to pay on a second lien note. […] -
May 7, 2015
This was a non-renewal of tenancy of a forty-eight year old client with multiple sclerosis. She had relocated to Austin after being displaced by the Bastrop fires. She moved into an apartment complex built with City bond money. Following an incident at the premises in which her car was vandalized, management claimed she had been […] -
May 7, 2015
Student finds failure with local housing authority, saves client from eviction
This was a public housing eviction of a client with five children for “repeated late payment of rent.” The lease defines “repeated late payment” as paying after the fifth day of the month four times during any twelve-month period. The client works at a low-paying job. The client had clearly violated the lease provision. But […]
