A Holistic Approach to Eviction Prevention During the COVID-19 Pandemic : Challenges and Opportunities for the Future

Many people suffered a loss of income during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many low-income renters became unable to pay rent to their landlords. Tenants without the ability to pay rent feared and faced eviction, and many were unaware of the legal eviction process or protections offered by federal, state, and local eviction moratoria. Anticipating a great need for legal and social services, four clinics within the University of Maryland (UMB) Carey School of Law’s Clinical Law Program joined forces in collaboration with the UMB School of Social Work to launch the Eviction Prevention Project (EPP). The EPP is a holistic, inter-professional, trauma-informed intervention through which clinical law students and social work students working under faculty supervision educated, advised, counseled, and represented low-income clients in two of Maryland’s largest jurisdictions. This Article describes the EPP model within the context of clinical legal education and shares insights about lessons learned after the EPP’s inaugural year for other programs seeking to do similar work