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Causes: Homeless & Housing
Mission: The eviction defense collaborative strives to prevent homelessness, preserve affordable housing, and protect the diversity of san francisco. We work toward these goals by providing emergency rental assitance and by helping low-income tenants gain equal access to the law in order to assert their rights in court.
Programs: Legal services including tenant counseling and representation: edc provided counseling and legal help to over 2500 households that were facing eviction. Programs included preparing a response to the lawsuit, preparation of requests for delays of the sheriff's eviction and assisting tenants to represent themselves throughout the legal process. We provided full-scope representation for over 80 households. Jointly with collaborating agencies, we provided limited scope representation to help over 800 households negotiate at the court-mandated settlement conference.
rental assistance: assisted over 500 households to keep their homes by providing on-time rental assistance to tenants residing in the city and county of san francisco. These tenants were at risk of losing their homes because they have fallen behind in their rent due to a temporary financial setback. We also helped over 20 households with move-in costs to help them avoid homelessness and move into a new home when they were facing eviction from their previous home.
the shelter advocates program works with residents of homeless shelters funded by the city and county of san francisco. We are charged with monitoring shelter conditions and the application of shelter rules, acting as informal conflict resolvers between the shelters and their clients and assisting clients in appealing denials of service. San francisco is unique throughout the country in that there os a formal grievance process for those who have been denied services from city funded shelters.