Boston Housing Support Stations
This project represented a collective effort to fight displacement and eviction during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. It resulted in a rich collaboration among the NuLawLab, the City of Boston Artist-in-Residence program and Office of Housing Stability, Maverick Landing Community Services, City Life Vida Urbana, Tufts University/School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Suffolk University Legal Innovation & Technology Lab, Eastie Mutual Aid, Ropes & Gray, and Runcible Studios to introduce “housing stability stations” throughout Boston neighborhoods. The stations were designed to provide local residents with access to two key resources:
(1) computers, internet access, and printers; and (2) law student volunteers who could help them use that technology to access the various government and nonprofit programs making funds and other resources available to secure housing stability in the wake of the pandemic. Our first technology station was set up at Maverick Landing Community Services in East Boston. This allowed us to provide the technology and support needed for those without access to computers to complete the most important tenant form available online through MADE: Massachusetts Defense for Eviction. MADE is a free tool that helps tenants fill out their answer and discovery to strengthen their eviction defense in court.
Our first cohort of law student volunteers worked their way through more than 100 cases from individuals seeking help. Another cohort of students was set to join the effort in the summer of 2021, when we introduced a one-credit experiential learning component to Northeastern University School of Law’s “Housing Law” course.
Our History
This coalition built on the lessons learned through our collaboration on a project known as Stable Ground. Beginning in 2017, Stable Ground addressed the complex relationship among chronic housing insecurity, its psychologically traumatic impact, and municipal housing policy through a participatory community-based art and cultural program structured to inform the work of the City of Boston's Office of Housing Stability (OHS). The project began as a residency program that embedded artists, legal designers, and trauma experts into community settings that hosted local visual and performing arts exhibits and art-making events.
The cross-sector team formed by the Stable Ground initiative was funded by two rounds of grants from The Kresge Foundation’s Arts & Culture program. The second phase of Stable Ground was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our engagements with resident artists continued, allowing them to respond locally to the housing crisis brought about by the pandemic. With in-person arts and culture programming suspended, we redirected the remaining funds toward a new eviction response collaboration in East Boston. This aspect of our work became known as Stable Ground: Boston Housing Support Stations.
This phase of our work, which began in 2020, was a collaborative project that responded to the coming wave of mass evictions caused by COVID-19-related economic instability and Boston’s ongoing housing crisis. It provided residents experiencing housing insecurity with the technological access and legal knowledge needed to defend themselves against eviction. Each Eviction Defense Terminal was designed to provide users with a laptop, printer, list of resources, and access to the legal tools necessary to defend against eviction.
Importantly, this work helped to solidify many of our most enduring community partnerships in the realm of housing justice, strengthening the collaborative infrastructure necessary to support residents facing displacement and shaping future strategies for legal empowerment in Boston.