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Housing Law

Helping People Keep Their Homes in a Pandemic

Kaitlin Heinen (’17) works at a homelessness prevention program that assists low-income tenants facing eviction in the Seattle area.

There was no shortage of tenants facing eviction in the Seattle area before the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, began to spread in the city.

In fact, requests for help at the King County Bar Association’s Housing Justice Project, where Boston University School of Law alum Kaitlin Heinen (’17) is a staff attorney, were on the rise earlier this year, in part because of a new eviction reform law that requires landlords to inform renters facing eviction about housing assistance programs. In January, 225 tenants signed into the project’s busiest location in Kent, Washington; in February, that number jumped to 284.

But, after government officials forced many businesses to shut down in an effort to curb the virus’ spread, even more people found themselves needing help. Within the first month of the stay-at-home order, the Housing Justice Project received 338 inquiries, a nearly 20 percent increase over the in-person Kent visits.

“The overwhelming majority of our cases now are all non-payment of rent: ‘I didn’t pay April rent because I was laid off or furloughed or can’t go to work or can’t get unemployment—what can I do?’” Heinen says.

Heinen is part of a small team of attorneys and other staff at the Housing Justice Project trying to stem a future flood of evictions. And, despite a moratorium on residential evictions and new and existing programs created to help people pay rent during difficult times, they are operating in a world of uncertainty: No one really knows what will happen after the moratorium is lifted and tenants suddenly owe several months of past-due rent payments. Also, like many other people around the country and world, the project’s staff members are working remotely. Starting March 17, the Housing Justice Project, which normally operates out of two courthouses in King County, switched from an in-person model to a phone-based consultation system.

Heinen helped create the system from scratch in about 36 hours after the project decided to stop seeing tenants in person following President Trump’s March 13 declaration of a national emergency.

“It was some of the best teamwork I’ve ever seen,” she says.

For now, the project’s staffers handle inquiries via the phone; their whiteboards—which they previously used to manage caseloads—have been replaced by a spreadsheet. Because of the moratorium on evictions and the cancellation of non-emergency court proceedings, the nature of the work has changed as well.

“It’s a lot more information gathering and sharing now than it is legal action,” Heinen says.

But, for Heinen, the fulfilling nature of the work is the same.

“The very best part of my day is when I hear that sigh of relief from just having that conversation with someone to say, ‘Hey, it’s going to be okay. I don’t know what’s going to happen next either, but here’s what I do know,’” she says.

Heinen, who grew up in Iowa, came to BU Law specifically for the top-ranked intellectual property law program, drawn by faculty such as Professor Stacey Dogan, whom she met at a preview day for admitted students. Heinen loved her coursework and IP-related activities—she was president of the Intellectual Property Law Society and participated in the Technology Law Clinic. But she also loved her Property course with Professor Anna di Robilant, who devoted a week to experiential lessons in landlord and tenant law, including observing proceeding’s in Boston’s housing court.

When Heinen moved to Seattle after graduating, she volunteered at the Housing Justice Project for several months; in July, she took a full-time position there after working for a little over a year at a patent law boutique.

As a patent attorney, “I was very much kind of a cog in a machine,” she says, adding that, when she thought about what she had enjoyed the most so far as an attorney, “it was absolutely the Housing Justice Project.”

The organization’s work is important, with or without a global pandemic, she says, because evictions are a leading cause of homelessness in the United States, and having representation can mean the difference in someone losing their apartment or being allowed to stay (there is no right to counsel for tenants facing eviction).

“Too many people live paycheck to paycheck—one life event away from missing rent,” she says. “If we can prevent eviction, we can prevent homelessness.”