Legal Studies 390V - Housing, Justice, and the Law

This course will provide an introduction to U.S. housing law and policy with a focus on low- and moderate-income tenants and homeowners, exploring the central issues of housing affordability and residential racial segregation. We will examine public housing and federal and state housing subsidies; the severe lack of affordable housing and the overwhelming number of rent-burdened tenants; bad conditions in rental housing and how code enforcement, the warranty of habitability and the covenant of quiet enjoyment can work to protect tenants; foreclosures and neighborhood stabilization; gentrification and displacement of low-income families and destruction of neighborhoods; the challenges of affordable housing development; fair housing/housing discrimination; historic redlining and housing segregation; and evictions, including the rights and responsibilities of tenants and landlords and the lack of access to justice for low-income tenants. Students will be able to evaluate, understand and critique the various strategies that housing advocates and activists use to promote housing justice and increase housing affordability. They will consider housing in the context of the current housing crisis and the concurrent uptick of homelessness, a racist housing history, and the challenges of commodifying housing, a basic human right.

LEGAL 101