{"id":57,"date":"2022-09-26T19:12:11","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T19:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/?p=57"},"modified":"2022-11-08T16:27:52","modified_gmt":"2022-11-08T16:27:52","slug":"eviction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/eviction\/","title":{"rendered":"Tenant Assistance Project Fights Evictions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Even before the pandemic, Nebraska legal scholar Ryan Sullivan knew the system was broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When eviction hearings continued despite calls to isolate at home, he drove to the courthouse to see what he could do. Sullivan saved seven struggling families from immediate eviction that day. Then he kept showing up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvictions are always bad for society,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s even worse when they exacerbate a pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sullivan\u2019s one-man operation quickly evolved into the Tenant Assistance Project, a successful low-cost legal program recognized by the White House as a national model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Launched in April 2020, TAP provides free legal representation to low-income families facing eviction in Nebraska\u2019s two most populous counties. Sullivan received the Association of American Law Schools Access to Justice Award for founding TAP and for his other public interest work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s been researching Nebraska housing law and evictions for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ryan Sullivan works with students and clients in the Lancaster County courthouse as part of the tenant assistance project.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Nebraska, we have a system that incentivizes eviction over working things out,\u201d Sullivan said. \u201cEviction court has become factory-like, churning out hundreds of evictions each week across Nebraska.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even when the law is on the tenant\u2019s side, outcomes historically favor landlords because they have lawyers, he explained. He was developing a program to send students to court several times a year to shake things up when the pandemic accelerated and expanded his vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a 98% success rate, TAP has helped more than 2,000 families avoid immediate eviction. As landlords adjust to the new reality, fewer families end up in eviction court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The White House featured TAP in a push to curb evictions during the pandemic. The volunteer-run program costs a fraction of other states\u2019 programs. More than half of the volunteers are Husker law students. The Nebraska Bar Association\u2019s Volunteer Lawyers Project now facilitates the program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sullivan supervises law students in court, who gain valuable experience and an intimate view of poverty. He\u2019ll soon share those duties with two full-time fellows in the College of Law\u2019s new Housing Justice Clinic, established as a result of TAP\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited for these energized and capable fellows to take this grassroots project and make it something special,\u201d said Sullivan, clinical associate professor of law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even before the pandemic, Nebraska legal scholar Ryan Sullivan knew the system was broken. When eviction hearings continued despite calls to isolate at home, he drove to the courthouse to see what he could do. Sullivan saved seven struggling families from immediate eviction that day. Then he kept showing up. \u201cEvictions are always bad for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[77,75,73,72,24,76],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-uncategorized","tag-housing-justice-clinic","tag-housing-law-and-evictions","tag-nebraska-college-of-law","tag-ryan-sullivan","tag-student-experiential-learning","tag-volunteer-lawyers-project"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":529,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/529"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}