Housing Justice Leadership Institute

The HJLI is a 10-day leadership, supervision, and management-skills training program for housing rights supervising attorneys in New York City.

Housing Justice Leadership Institute

The Housing Justice Leadership Institute (HJLI) is a leadership, supervision, and management-skills training program for housing rights supervising attorneys in New York City.

The priority deadline is August 4, 2023. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis after the deadline.

HJLI’s program is designed to help supervising attorneys lead, manage, and support delivery of the highest-quality legal assistance to tenants facing eviction. Participants will receive CLE credit for attendance and a certificate from New York Law School upon satisfactory completion of the program.

The program, rooted in a commitment to housing as a basic human right, builds supervisors’ capacities to help those they supervise recognize and address the racialized nature of housing exclusion, instability, and segregation. It is based on an understanding that NYC’s right to counsel law is not an end in itself—but a vehicle to shift the balance of power in support of tenants’ rights: to protect against evictions, mitigate gentrification, preserve communities, and invest in the development of affordable housing. HJLI further reinforces the critical role of lawyers in supporting a community-led housing justice movement and building power and voice in community-based groups.

Professors Kim Hawkins and Andrew Scherer serve as the Institute’s Co-Directors.

Program Information and Application

The Housing Justice Leadership Institute (HJLI) at NYLS is accepting applications for its Fall 2023 cohort that begins on September 8, 2023. HJLI is a nine-day leadership, supervision, and management-skills training program for housing rights supervising advocates in New York City. Participants will receive CLE credit for attendance and a certificate from NYLS upon satisfactory completion of the program. The priority deadline for applying is August 4, 2023. The first and last sessions of the Fall 2023 cohort will be in person at New York Law School. The remaining sessions will be conducted online.

Curriculum

The HJLI curriculum is based on the work of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law. Through HJLI, participating supervisors will be able to:

  • Effectively communicate Right to Counsel strategic intent—values, vision, and purpose—to ground your supervision of eviction defense advocates.
  • Identify four levels of racism and how they work together to produce housing and other racial inequities.
  • Utilize systems thinking and community lawyering tools to engage effectively with impacted communities to dismantle these racialized systems.
  • Successfully advance organizational change necessary to support your supervisees and your role as a supervisor.
  • Utilize a full range of supervisory skills that will enable you to:
    • Match the development needs of supervisees with the appropriate supervisory style
    • Give effective constructive feedback
    • Work effectively with supervisees across issues of identity, power, and difference
    • Utilize proven interventions to mitigate bias, identity anxiety and stereotype threat in the supervisory relationship
    • Craft and utilize rubrics to clearly articulate housing advocacy performance expectations
    • Prepare for and conduct effective performance reviews
    • Create an inclusive and collaborative team

Applicant Qualifications and Application Process

Candidates must be housing supervisors in nonprofit legal services organizations in New York City. Preference will be given to candidates who are working in legal services organizations that are participating in New York City’s right to counsel program for low-income tenants facing eviction. When applying, candidates must have the support of their legal services organizations and a commitment from their organizations to release them from enough work obligations to participate actively in the training program.

Candidates must commit to attend all sessions of the training program. Those who attend all the sessions will receive a certificate of completion.

The selection decisions will emphasize diversity in the trainee cohort, including representation from different boroughs and different legal services organizations, as well as diversity in race, ethnicity, gender, LGBTQ identity, age, ability, and other factors. Priority applications should be submitted by August 4, 2023; selections will be made soon thereafter.

The priority deadline is August 4, 2023. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis after the deadline.

Schedule

The Fall 2023 HJLI will be conducted as a hybrid program with the first and last days onsite at New York Law School and the remaining days online. The program begins on September 8, 2023, and ends on January 20, 2024. In-person sessions on September 8, 2023, and January 12, 2024, will be from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at New York Law School.  Online sessions will begin at 10:00 a.m. and conclude by 3:00 p.m. with a 60-minute midday break plus two additional 15-minute breaks during the day. Participants will need to spend additional time on program assignments between sessions.

The dates for the Fall 2023 program are:

  • Session 1: Friday, September 8, 2023 – in-person – New York Law School

  • Session 2: Friday, September 22, 2023 – online

  • Session 3: Friday, October 6, 2023 – online

  • Session 4: Friday, October 20, 2023 – online

  • Session 5: Friday, November 3, 2023 – online

  • Session 6: Friday, November 17, 2023 – online

  • Session 7: Friday, December 1, 2023 – online

  • Session 8: Friday, December 15, 2023 – online

  • Session 9: Friday, January 12, 2024 – in-person – New York Law School

Wilf Impact Center for Public Interest Law •  T 212.431.2314  •  wilfimpactcenter@nyls.edu