UNL law school gets special recognition for Tenant Assistance Project

The University of Nebraska College of Law was one of a select few featured schools in a White House webinar.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – The University of Nebraska College of Law is in good company as one of a select few schools to make a presentation during a webinar hosted by the White House and the Department of Justice.

99 schools were called out for having answered the call to action by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland last year when the nation faced a housing and eviction crisis. We’re still in the midst of the crisis, but these colleges stepping up has been instrumental in keeping people in their homes.

In Nebraska, things have been very successful. UNL Associate Professor Ryan Sullivan says, “We calculated since the AG’s call to action, we’re over 400 [people helped]. I would say if we pulled the numbers today, we’re probably close to surpassing a thousand families that we’ve assisted.”

It all started when Professor Sullivan decided to check out eviction hearings. Hanging near the elevator and identifying tenants, he asked if they’d like his free help. Many gratefully took him up on that offer.

“Most of them had no idea that they’d be allowed representation, that they’d be going at it alone”, Sullivan recalls. “They assumed they’d be evicted that morning.”

That moment of volunteering turned into the Tenant Assistance Project. As COVID and required isolation periods became a bigger and bigger issue, so did the problem of low-wage workers handling the forced time off.

“You don’t have paid time off. You don’t have sick leave. So you just miss out on two weeks of pay, and suddenly you can’t afford to keep up with your rent”, explains third-year law student Rachel Tomlinson Dick. “It just takes one little blip, by no fault of their own, to be suddenly faced with losing their home.”

As a single parent herself, Dick gets special satisfaction from helping other single parents. However, no matter who she’s helping, the work is its own reward.

“To be able to be there to provide support and to let them know that there is help”, she says, “it means the world to me.”