Students will observe eviction proceedings in Houston Justice of the Peace courts via Zoom and complete an observation form for each case observed. Students will sign up to observe specific court dockets during which 5 to 40 eviction cases may be heard. Texas Housers will consolidate the information obtained via the court watch project to document housing court procedures following the expiration of the eviction moratorium, analyze the impact of the Texas Rent Relief Program, and advocate for improvements to court administration and the rent relief program.
Organization
Texas Housers
Texas Housers, also known as the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service, develops model solutions to Texas’s critical housing and community development problems. Texas Housers works closely with partner organizations in low-income communities to support ground-level advancement of housing policy and neighborhood improvement; monitors government housing and community development programs; and provides accurate, easily understandable information about housing needs and programs to the public.
Project Details
- Website
- https://www.texashousers.org
- Project Start Date
September 2021
- Approximate hours of work requested
- Students are asked to sign up for one court watch shift per week and to complete their court observation forms within 24 hours of a docket; dockets range from 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on the number of cases set on the docket; students will have information about the number of cases set on the docket at the time they sign up to observe the docket
- Training
- Friday, September 24, 1:30pm-2:15pm, in addition to up to 30 minutes of asynchronous training
- Skills used
- Investigation
- Project location
- Virtual
- Address
- 20 N. Sampson Street, Houston, TX 77003
- Number of student volunteers requested
- 10
- Class year preference
- 1L, 2L, 3L, LLM
- To Apply
- Register at https://housersf21.eventbrite.com