Housing Law

   LEGAL AID SOCIETY OF SAN DIEGO, INC.  

Housing Law includes such issues as:

• Eviction

• Unlawful lockouts

• Wrongful utility shutoff

• HUD housing

• Needed repairs in rental units

• Tenant education and training

• Notices to tenants

If you have any questions or concerns, please call us at 1-877-LEGAL AID (1-877-534-2524)

As the cost of housing increases, as the availability of decent units diminishes, and as real incomes fall, families find themselves in conflict with their landlords. When the owner moves the evict, or to turn affordable housing into market rate units, or when a tenant’s subsidy or application for assistance is challenged, the Housing Team is the only full service resource providing advice, direct intervention and in-Court representation for eligible residents of San Diego County. The Team is committed to assist tenants from San Ysidro to Fallbrook and from Imperial Beach to Alpine. The team accommodates those who are ill, infirm, hospitalized, bedridden or housebound.

 The priorities of the Housing Team are as follows:

• Assist or advise eligible clients who are faced with notices seeking to terminate their tenancies.

• Assist or advise eligible clients who face administrative action concerning their subsidy program.

• Assist or advise eligible clients who live in units with expiring use restrictions arising from HUD housing programs, or whose owners have pre-paid a HUD mortgage.

• Sponsor the Adopt-a-Building Program.

• Assist and advise eligible clients who may face loss of their home due to foreclosure, condemnation or eminent domain where it is impossible or infeasible to refer the case to a private or PAI attorney.

• Provide speakers to tenant and community groups seeking to educate tenants about their rights, and strategies for making affordable housing a priority.

• To assure supervision of trial courts by appealing significant cases or gross miscarriages of justice.

Housing Team Goals

The Housing Team’s goals are:

• to empower tenants by allowing them to participate in the judicial process on an equal footing with their adversaries;

• to educate tenants to their rights and the workings of the judicial system;

• to educate the bench in the nuance and application of housing law and policy;

• to provide a resource to community groups to increase awareness of tenants’ rights and housing problems; 

• to conduct outreach to tenants in HUD expiring use buildings;

• to assist those tenants in organizing themselves.