Paradox and Possibility: Movement Lawyering During the COVID-19 Housing Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic put over 22 million U.S. tenants at risk of eviction. It also triggered bolder movement organizing, and demands for radical and enduring solutions to the ongoing housing crisis. Over decades, the field of movement lawyering—legal work that supports grassroots organizing and movement building—has been growing stronger and amassing a body of theoretical and practical frameworks. The potential mass eviction crisis, and the bold campaigns to prevent it, urgently called on movement lawyers to contribute their skills and knowledge to grassroots organizing efforts. This article examines the practice of movement lawyering through the lens of the author’s legal support for tenant organizing in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic. The author focuses on several facets of her movement lawyering work with tenant organizing coalitions, including a: (a) campaign to secure eviction moratoria and keep the housing courts closed; (b) legislative campaign to cancel rent; and (c) mass rent strike to further the demand for rent cancellation. Through a discussion of the movement lawyering practices and approaches used to support these recent tenant campaigns, the author reflects on the praxis of movement lawyering and surfaces key lessons that movement lawyers might draw from her experiences