POLICY CAMPAIGNS

BY COMMUNITY
ORGANIZATIONS
 Community Lawyers
 The purpose of empowerment lawyering
with community organizations is to enable a
group of people to gain control of the forces
which affect their lives.
 Primarily the representation of grass roots
organizations who are able to identify and
pursue their own goals
 This style calls for lawyering which joins,
rather than leads, the persons represented.
 Community Lawyers
 Believe that the most effective solutions
usually come from those closest to the
problem
 Believe that community controlled political
power is necessary for true development in
low income communities
 Believe that political power can best be
gained through the organized strength of
grass roots organizations
Building Power,
Building
Movement
 Miami Workers’ Center
Miami Workers Center is a strategy and
Base-Building
action center for low-income black and
Latino communities in Miami. The center
initiates grassroots Campaign
organizations and
to WIN
develops their leadership capacity through
Alliances
aggressive community organizing campaigns
and education programs. The center also
actively builds coalitions and enters alliances
Building
to amplify progressive power and win racial,
Movement
community, social and economic justice.
Shift the
Debate
Building Power,
Building Movement
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Building Power,
Building Movement
 Policy Campaign Elements
 What is the Goal
 Change in Policy
 Increased Attention or Funding
 Difference between short term and long
term?
 Organizational Goals
Policy Campaign Elements
 Target
 Primary / Secondary
 Power Analysis
 Demand
 Strategy Elements
 Communication
 Direct Action
 Electoral
 Coalition
 Community Lawyers

How can lawyers help:

 Researching and marshalling the facts
to affect public opinion.
 Researching/ explaining the
legal/political process
 Identifying / creating forums for
messaging/ communications (public
process)
 Stopping or delaying adverse
governmental action
 Policy Advocacy Campaigns

“No battle plan survives first contact with the

enemy “
Helmuth von Moltke (1800 – 1891)
 Policy Advocacy Campaigns

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at

you, then they fight you, then you win.”

Mahatma Gandhi
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
The Social Context

 Increasing gentrification of African-

American neighborhood of Liberty City
in Miami
 Significant shortage of housing for very
low income families.
 Miami-Dade Housing Agency began to
redevelop existing public housing projects
in Liberty City through Hope VI
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
The Historical Context
 County housing authority and HUD approved
a HOPE VI project to turn 850 unit Scott-
Carver Housing Project in Liberty City into
mixed income housing with only 80 public
housing units
 Campaign, including both direct action, and
lawsuit failed to halt demolition.
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign The
Historical Context (cont.)
 Campaign delayed demolition substantially
and allowed time for a significant organizing
effort
 The following year, Housing Agency
proposed a second HOPE VI in a
neighboring development
 LIFFT defeated this proposal, this time at
HUD
 Fill the Vacancies 2002-
2004
• Building on Prior Advocacy - LIFFT continued with
a “fill the vacancies” campaign
• Anticipating Threats – Decreasing Vacancies
Lessened Threat of Demolitions
• Listening to Members – Vacancies were
increasing
• Gathering Information – Get Vacancy info
• Shifting the Debate – focus on Housing Agency
incompetence.

Building Power,
Building Movement
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
The Research

 LIFFT researched the issue, found 19%

vacancy rates with 60,000 people on the
waiting list
 Lawyers obtained data from the Housing
Agency through a Public Records Act request.
Assisted in analysis.
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
The Targets
 Board of County Commissioners
 Ultimate policy making authority
 Funding power
 Miami Dade Housing Agency
 Responsible for the vacancy policies
Lawyers can explain the different
operational constraints of the
governmental organizations.
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
The Demand

 Fill the Vacancies within 60 days.

 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
More Research
 LIFFT found out that the Housing Agency
was claiming it could not fill the vacancies
due to the terms of a desegregation court
order – “Adker decree”
 Lawyers assisted in clarifying this
information. Assisted in analysis.
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
Refining the Demand

 Lawyers explain consent decree to LIFFT

 LIFFT leaders develop a proposal for a new
admissions policy to speed up filling vacancies.
 Lawyers confirm that proposal conforms to
consent decree.
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
The New Demand

 Fill the Vacancies within 60 days.

 Use LIFFT proposal to solve the Adker

Decree issue.
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
The Elements
Communications
 Press Conference
 Waiting list people
 Demand on the Commission
 Direct Action
 The Miami Herald
2002-06-02
Section: Local

HOUSING AGENCY UNDER SCRUTINY OVER VACANCIES

ANDREA ROBINSON, arobinson@herald.com

Miami-Dade County public housing officials, under fire for having hundreds of vacant units and thousands of poor people in
need of a place to live, say a landmark desegregation settlement reached four years ago has caused the massive backlog.

The County Commission has demanded a full accounting from the Miami-Dade Housing Agency after activists revealed that
more than 1,300 public housing units stand empty while nearly 64,000 residents sit on a waiting list. On Tuesday, agency
Director Rene Rodriguez is expected to appear before the commission and present a plan to expedite getting more people
into vacant units that are habitable.
...
Advocates for public housing tenants say the agency's explanation linking the vacancies to the settlement is outrageous.

The decree ``was to address the problem of segregation,'' said Tony Romano, a coordinator at the Miami Workers Center.
``In no way does the settlement mandate or encourage vacancies, which for us creates homelessness and leaves families
who are in desperate situations without homes.''
...
The legal squabbles don't matter much to people such as Ramona Javier, a waiting list client who was counseled by HOPE.

Javier, a mother of five, desperately wants suitable housing. She's so cramped for space that she stores the family's clothing
outdoors.

``Everybody I know has been able to move, but not me,'' Javier said. ``I have five children and nowhere to live. I'm living with
my mother, but we sleep on the floor and everything gets wet when it rains. All my clothes and the kids' clothes are stored
outside. They're getting ruined.''

STILL WAITING: Ramona Javier with four of her five children and their possessions in the carport of her mother's house.
They sleep on the floor at the house.
 When the press sought comment about the Parcel C struggle, we,
as the community lawyers, often responded, “Why don't you speak to
someone who lives here?” The press assumes that the lawyer is the
leader and designated spokesperson. And in many community
struggles, lawyers tend to take over such positions. . . Instead of
appointing ourselves the community spokespersons, we helped the
Political Mobilization Committee identify residents, organizers, and
directors of community-based organizations to be spokespersons. To
make clear that this was a community struggle, no lawyers were
designated as spokespersons. There can be no better spokesperson
than a member of the aggrieved community itself.
THE LESSONS OF THE PARCEL C STRUGGLE: REFLECTIONS ON
COMMUNITY LAWYERING, Zenobia Lai Andrew Leong Chi Chi Wu
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
The Elements

Direct Action
 Demand Meeting with the Housing
Agency Director
 “Sleep In” at the Office
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
The Elements
Lobbying

 Commissioners Demanded Action from

Housing Agency.
 Commissioners funded an outside analysis
of LIFFT proposal
 Outside analysis recommended a modified
version of LIFFT analysis.
 “Fill the Vacancies” Campaign
The Elements
Result

 Commissioners Provided $1.5 Million to

Housing Agency to Fill the Vacancies.
 LIFFT was seen as a credible force
 Vacancies were largely filled.
 Legal Advocate’s Role in
Vacancy Campaign
 Helped analyze the information secured
 Provided a legal analysis for the group
certifying the legality of their proposal
 Participated in meetings as legal
advisor as the proposal was being
crafted.
 Legal Advocate’s Role in
Vacancy Campaign
 Helped write the formal proposal for
submission to the County Commission
 Attended meetings at the Housing Agency -
to provide any technical legal responses
necessary – otherwise did not speak
Community Benefits Coalition
 Target - City of Miami
 Strategy - Initiative
 Coalition
 Legal Advocates Role -
 Legal Advice/ Drafting / Research
 Facilitation
 State of Housing Emergency
State of Housing
2006 Emergency
• Pulitzer-Prize winning
expose of Miami-Dade 2006
Housing Agency
mismanagement

• County-wide
movement for housing

• $ 15 million in
immediate rental
assistance for low-
income families

Building Power,
Building Movement
 Justice for Scott Homes
Justice for1999
Scott -Homes 1999
• Landmark agreement
with Mayor for 1-for-1
-
replacement of 900
homes, plus local
jobs, historic site, and
community control of
contracting process

Building Power,
Building Movement
Lawyers have killed off more groups by helping them than
ever would have died if the lawyers had never showed up. . .
In my 25 years of experience, I find that lawyers create
dependency. The lawyers want to advocate for others and do
not understand the goal of giving a people a sense of their
own power. Traditional lawyer advocacy creates dependency
and not interdependency. With most lawyers there is no
leadership development of the group.
Ron Chisom, an African-American community organizer, quoted in “REFLECTIONS OF
COMMUNITY ORGANIZERS: LAWYERING FOR EMPOWERMENT OF COMMUNITY
ORGANIZATIONS, William Quigley, Loyola Law School

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Our success as community lawyers lies in
building tools for subordinated people to
negotiate with the dominant society, making
room for them to sit at the negotiation table,
facilitating their say in decisions that affect their
lives, and encouraging them to capitalize on their
talents and assets.

THE LESSONS OF THE PARCEL C STRUGGLE: REFLECTIONS ON

COMMUNITY LAWYERING, Zenobia Lai Andrew Leong Chi Chi Wu
 Thank you and
good luck.

An individual has not started living until he can rise above the
narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader
concerns of all humanity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.