This week, the Temple News highlighted a new program that grew out of work by students in our Access to Justice Clinic. “Temple Law students help fellow Owls navigate renter rights and housing concerns” offers an in-depth look at the new service.
The Center’s Access to Justice Clinic focuses on the justice gap — the that many Americans lack access to help with basic legal problems. A little-known aspect of the gap involves college and university students, surprising numbers of whom — especially at large institutions such as Temple — face significant challenges involving housing and food security, access to benefits and other basic needs.
Unfortunately, students often lack the background to recognize legal issues, much less to know how to get help with them. And yet housing instability, inadequate access to food, and the like, if unaddressed, can drastically impair students’ ability to focus on their studies and achieve educational success.
We began to investigate this issue several years ago, aided by research from the Hope Center for Student Basic Needs (a national project based at Temple Medical School). Ultimately, our students developed a proposal for ways in which Temple could offer legal information and referrals in key areas. And as a first step, our students took it upon themselves to create a pilot program in which they offered information to other Temple students about their rights as tenants.
It took some time for Temple students to find out about the program, but now, a couple of years later, it’s better known. The program’s location, in the newly expanded Christopher and Julie Barnett Essential Needs Hub, has helped. And as the Temple News explains, the program is a win for two groups of students: undergraduates and graduate students who need help with housing challenges, and law students who are putting their skills to work for their peers. Down the road, we hope to find a way to expand the subject matter to other “essential needs.”