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Housing has become increasingly unaffordable, especially in cities like Washington, D.C. Wage growth has not kept up, meaning that more households must spend a larger portion of their income to keep a roof over their heads. Government programs addressing affordable housing are innumerous, yet many individuals still face housing costs that are too high. At the same time, cities are plagued by thousands of vacant properties. Moving vacant properties back onto the residential market could help increase the housing stock and alleviate pressure on housing costs. However, to truly address the affordable housing crisis, vacant properties put back to productive use should be affordable in perpetuity. One type of entity, a community land trust (CLT), can facilitate that very thing. This paper explores the housing affordability crisis and the vacant property landscape in D.C. It then describes the CLT model, focusing particularly on a relatively new community land trust in D.C., the Douglass Community Land Trust. Finally, this paper urges the D.C. Council to pass legislation supporting CLTs in D.C. and includes recommended policy provisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper serves as an indictment of contemporary credit monitoring, reporting, and scoring, which is the lifeblood of the debt-based extractive economy and ultimately, the prison-industrial complex. Grounded in history, this paper demonstrates that credit surveillance and debt police the economic participation and physical bodies of Black people, Indigenous people, and immigrants. Credit reporting's protection of capitalism, the economic backbone of settler-colonialism, is at the heart of government mass surveillance programs, which through lucrative private-public partnerships facilitate wealth accumulation predicated on the banishment of Black people, Indigenous people, and immigrants. For this reason, abolishing the prison-industrial complex requires the abolition of credit surveillance and survival debt. Racial justice requires social provisioning to push back against systems of policing rather than increase access to credit systems that entrench surveillance. From this perspective, this paper urges a shift beyond access-to-credit reform to the solidarity economy and community-controlled finance grounded in an abolitionist ethic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising cost of rent in many urban areas has forced low-income tenants to live in substandard housing. This substandard housing is connected with numerous health issues like asthma and cardiovascular disease. While more robust housing code enforcement might help alleviate this problem, many cities' housing code enforcement agencies are too understaffed and lack the organizational structure to effectively enforce their codes. In addition to discussing the impact that increased funding and better leadership can have, this paper proposes a new method of enforcement where regulators draw from different disciplines to proactively assess and remedy housing conditions across urban areas. In particular, this paper focuses on the use of medical-legal partnerships to identify substandard housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reformers often argue that the benefits of ameliorating inequality are worth the cost in higher tax rates and reduced economic efficiency that redistributive social policy supposedly requires. This paper suggests that these arguments are mostly misplaced. Focusing solely on the marginal benefit of government-versus private-sector spending, there is ample reason to conclude that many governmental expenditures directed to reducing inequality are independently justifiable on the basis that they increase efficiency and, over time, more than pay for themselves. Because the efficiency argument directly addresses concerns that might otherwise counsel restraint in redistributive programs, treating the reduction of inequality as a worthwhile tradeoff against efficiency or higher tax rates is mostly counterproductive from a social policy perspective. In fact, the failure to adopt or enhance many spending programs itself represents a form of upward redistribution as measured from a baseline of social wealth maximization. This redistribution is difficult or impossible to justify from either a welfarist perspective or a libertarian one. In making the argument, this paper develops the concept of budget policy endogeneity," or the idea that in judging the affordability of various programs one must take into account the allocative and distributional effects of current spending on the future allocation of resources, since revenue for current projects may be raised in the future. If current spending enhances allocative efficiency, programs that can only be funded with borrowing today create the conditions for their relatively less burdensome repayment tomorrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Women nonlawyers were some of the first actors to provide organized legal aid to America's poor. Yet, today, unauthorized practice of law statutes bar nonlawyers from providing legal help, citing concerns about malpractice and public harm. This Article uses a historical case study to challenge conceptions that nonlawyers cannot provide effective legal services to the people. The study focuses on the development of legal aid in Boston via two organizations, the nonlawyer-led Women's Educational and Industrial Union and the lawyer-centric Boston Legal Aid Society. Although organized legal aid in Boston began with the nonlawyers at the Union, they were eventually overtaken by the lawyer-centric Legal Aid Society. This paper examines this transition in legal aid practitioners, emphasizing how nonlawyers provided effective legal help. In doing so, it challenges the modern-day conception that access to justice requires access to an attorney and serves as a powerful counter to claims that nonlawyer practitioners endanger the public., I. INTRODUCTION 123 A. Methodology 125 1. Theoretical Framing 126 B. Paper Structure 128 II. CREATING A NONLAWYERS' PROTECTIVE DEPARTMENT 128 A. Origins of the Union and its Protective Department [...]

It's recognized that people affected by poverty often have numerous overlapping legal needs and despite the proliferation of legal services, they are unable to receive full assistance. When a person is faced with a legal emergency, rarely is there an equivalent to a hospital's emergency room wherein they receive an immediate diagnosis for their needs and subsequent assistance. In this paper, I focus on the process a person goes through to find assistance and argue that it is a burdensome, and demoralizing task of navigating varying protocols, procedures, and individuals. While these systems are well intentioned from the lawyer's perspective, they have unintended consequences for the client. These consequences are especially significant when viewed through our poverty law goal of empowering clients. I argue that the process to find an attorney is unintentionally riddled with invisible barriers that more closely resemble red-tape bureaucracy than the client empowerment that poverty law desires. I highlight four flaws in how legal service intakes are implemented. First, legal services organizations are a complicated web of varying agencies and providers making it challenging for a client to find the right office for their needs. Second, conflict rules, while intended to preserve zealous advocacy, often inhibit a client from finding counsel. Third, in legal services there is little transparency around why or if a case is likely to be accepted, leaving a client confused and frustrated. Fourth, a low-income client has no choice in who actually represents them unlike a client with means who can seek out a specific attorney. I examine the consequences of these flaws in the context of client empowerment. I argue that the combination of these barriers in one process actually disempower clients and prevent them from accessing the services they need. Finally, I highlight one solution: a collaborative intake and triage model that was piloted in Washington, D.C. to service crime victims. I explore how this model addresses some of these barriers and how it may be a blueprint for muchneeded legal services delivery reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given growing awareness of and actions to address food insecurity challenges in higher education, this paper is a response to the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy 2022 Symposium call to examine universities as producers, managers, and opponents of poverty. Bringing together the unique perspectives of a faculty scholar and two recent undergraduates who worked on the frontlines to end hunger on campus, we argue that student-led food pantries are a critical way in which universities manage poverty on campus, but they are unable to oppose or eliminate food insecurity alone. As such, we examine the strengths and challenges of a student-led campus food pantry model, providing insights into best practices and models for university engagement. We conclude with a call for universities and policymakers to match students' actions for a better tomorrow where experiences of hunger and food insecurity no longer impede students' educational goals, so that we can go from merely managing poverty to opposing it, once and for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Experts on criminal recidivism are in consensus that housing instability is a risk factor for reoffending. Academic studies and common sense find that justice-involved individuals are more likely to suffer from financial stressors that would allow them to qualify for and need public housing assistance. To curb the cyclical nature of recidivism and housing instability, local and federal governments should promote policies that support housing for criminal offenders. DCHA, and more broadly, HUD, have public housing admission policies that are inconsistent with best practices described by scholars and thus should be updated to foster reintegration of offenders, divert people from the criminal legal system, and create a safer community for all. Current DCHA policies include strict rules proscribing admission to sex offenders and those with a history of illegal drug use, with the goal of promoting a safe environment for residents. This Note argues that by creating admissions policies that are more inclusive of sex and drug offenses, DCHA could participate in disrupting the cyclical nature of housing instability and the criminal legal system and better promote public safety for all District of Columbia residents., I. INTRODUCTION 466 II. HOUSING INSTABILITY AND RECIDIVISM IN GENERAL ACROSS ALL OFFENSES 468 III. DCHA's SEXUAL OFFENSE POLICIES ARE INCONGRUENT WITH THE NATURE OF SEX OFFENSES AND 469 SEX [...]

American work-law jurisprudence reflects a tension between the legal conceptions of positive and negative liberty. Which of these conceptions predominates has varied across historical periods, with judicial support for negative liberties reaching its apex during the Lochner era and waning during the New Deal. The Supreme Court has recently decided two lines of cases concerning the Federal Arbitration Act and the National Labor Relations Act that indicate that judicial opinion is swinging back in favor of strong negative liberties at the expense of congressionally enshrined positive liberties. This shift appears to be grounded in an understanding of the Constitution that favors absolute negative liberty, even where it conflicts with democratically selected positive liberties. This understanding of the Constitution is out of step with how the Framers understood the constitutional balance between negative and positive liberties. Subsequent Amendments have only further strengthened constitutional protections for positive liberties. Not only is the shift back towards a negative-liberty view of the Constitution anachronistic, it threatens the wellbeing of workers in the United States. Statutorily protected positive liberties reinforce worker's ability to vote, build wealth, and hold their employers accountable. Without these protections, the legal and economic landscape is likely to return to that which existed during the Gilded Age, not that which the Framers envisioned., I. INTRODUCTION 394 II. THE HISTORY OF LIBERTY IN 397 FREE AMERICAN WORK LAW A. Pre-Industrial Era 398 1. The English Implied Term of One-Year 398 2. Forming a Union [...]

This Note gives an overview of Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, commonly known as HUD Section 3. Section 3 requires that local governments that receive federal housing funds ensure the jobs and contracts the funds create go to residents of low-income areas. I first discuss HUD Section 3 's contents and legislative history, finding an ambitious mandate to train and contract with residents of low-income areas. Next, I describe HUD's long struggle to monitor and enforce that mandate and low-income residents' efforts to self-organize and claim their mandated benefits. Finding little federal enforcement, this Note studies Section 3 compliance and related local hiring laws in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia's policies, maintained by the City of Philadelphia and the independent Philadelphia Housing Authority, are ambitious but underdeveloped. To find opportunities to improve them, the Note analyzes various cities' public works local hiring policies and assesses best practices for achieving Section 3 's goals. Finally, the Note argues Philadelphia's agencies have the potential to effectively coordinate a nation-leading Section 3 policy by setting realistic goals and collaborating with each other and with unions., I. INTRODUCTION 448 II. SECTION 3'S HIRING AND CONTRACTING COMMITMENTS 450 A. Section 3 's Contents and Definitions 450 B. The Roots of the Problem: Contracting Requirements, Compliance, and Enforcement [...]

Affordable housing in the United States faces several challenges including a lack of supply and a lack of quality housing for many tenants. This means that, for lowest-income housing seekers, many are left without affordable options or in inadequate housing. This housing can be unsafe and detrimental to the health and development of residents. While this crisis can be seen nationwide, this Note will focus on the affordable housing offered by the D.C. Housing Authority (DCHA). The Department of Housing and Urban Development has conducted an audit of DCHA that identified major problems that must be remedied. This Note will detail the major issues with DCHA and offer a number of potential actions that could improve the operation of DCHA and the properties they manage., I. THE HISTORY AND MOTIVATIONS OF LOCAL HOUSING AUTHORITIES AND DCHA'S OBJECTIVE 340 A. The Motivation and Purpose of Local Housing Authorities 340 B. The Responsibilities of the District of [...]

The Supreme Court's expansion of the public use doctrine authorizes takings for economic development and permits the transfer of private property from individuals to private developers. Because the judiciary defers to the legislature on determinations of public use, courts fail to intervene even when individuals are displaced to enable highly speculative or infeasible urban development projects. To prevent the needless displacement of individuals, courts should employ a four-factor feasibility assessment before permitting the use of eminent domain for economic development projects, and the legislature should grant a right of first refusal to prior owners and require community approval prior to permitting local governments to exercise eminent domain. This Note explores the significant harm that results from failed urban development projects and suggests three key responses for the judiciary and the legislature. First, the Note provides a brief overview of the expansion of the public use requirement of the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Second, the Note presents case studies of 12 cases across ten states that demonstrate the pervasiveness and severity of the problem and provides an in-depth examination of two communities, New London and Poletown. Finally, the Note examines potential accountability mechanisms the legal system should leverage to shift the burden of failed urban development projects from individuals and communities to developers., I. INTRODUCTION 276 II. BACKGROUND 278 III. THE STATE OF THE PUBLIC USE REQUIREMENT IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT TAKINGS 278 IV THE SCOPE OF EMINENT DOMAIN IN FAILED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS [...]

Payday loans entangle consumers with few alternatives in catastrophically harmful cycles of borrowing. But because of their design, payday loans are vexingly difficult to regulate effectively This article explains how the structure of regulatory oversight of payday lending abets lenders'evasion. In it, I focus on how dynamism, the financial sector's ability to quickly evolve, frustrates attempts to regulate payday lending in two ways: first, lenders employ a strategy of regulatory arbitrage to escape exacting state laws. Second, lenders take advantage of product innovation--what I call 'recharacterization to circumvent state regulations by modifying loan attributes. To overcome this dynamism, I argue regulators should consider an experimentalist approach to regulation. A regulatory structure of this kind would have three components: first, regulators must adopt a broad 'ability-to-pay' standard, which centers the borrower's financial wellbeing Second, regulators must find partners embedded in communities to license as lenders. Finally, regulators must conduct a holistic review of borrower financial health after receiving a loan., I. INTRODUCTION 238 II. THE BACKGROUND: PAYDAY LENDING 240 III. POLICING PAYDAY LENDING: A CASE STUDY IN 'WHACK-A-MOLE' REGULATION 243 A. Lessons from High Finance: Dynamism 243 B. Dynamism in [...]

Millions of people today experience housing insecurity and homelessness, a large percentage of whom live without access to a sanctioned shelter site. The predominant response to this housing and homelessness crisis by local governments throughout the country is the enforcement of punitive measures that are ineffective and inhumane. A punitive approach to addressing unsheltered homelessness creates insurmountable barriers to housing and employment, keeping people in a cycle of homelessness that becomes increasingly difficult to overcome. Using law enforcement as the primary tool to address homelessness is not just counterproductive--it is expensive. Multiple studies have demonstrated the significant cost savings by redirecting enforcement dollars toward housing and support services. The web of laws that criminalize homelessness is one of the systemic barriers that prevents unhoused people from transitioning to a more stable situation. This criminalization is part of a long history of exclusionary laws that furthers the oppression of marginalized groups and contributes to higher rates of homelessness. This Article provides a roadmap for practitioners, academics and community activists to compel reform at the local level through a community centered advocacy strategy that redirects local governments away from punitive approaches toward more humane, community-based solutions. The proposed reforms are supported by empirical analysis, lawsuits that have successfully challenged local laws that disproportionately impact the unhoused, as well as ordinances and policies enacted in certain jurisdictions in an effort to decriminalize homelessness. The Article focuses on Eugene, Oregon, a city with one of the highest per capita rates of homelessness in the United States, as its case study. The example of Eugene has broad applicability to jurisdictions throughout the country, demonstrating both the impact on unhoused individuals and the high costs incurred by the city to maintain its current punitive system., I. INTRODUCTION 200 II. NATIONAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXT 206 III. LOCAL CONTEXT AND OVERALL APPROACH 210 IV DATA-DRIVEN APPROACH TO LEGAL REFORM 213 A. Scope of the Problem on Unhoused [...]

A multitude of legal and administrative systems in America combine to regulate low-income people and to create and perpetuate poverty. Despite this, a literature review shows that poverty law scholarship has not analyzed how these systems interlock with each other and considered their cumulative effects on this population. The earliest poverty law scholarship, as exemplified by Stephen Wexler, was concerned with the practice of law on behalf of low-income individuals. The pioneers of the next wave of scholarship, such as Anthony Alfieri and Lucie White, incorporated postmodern theory into their work and applied it to the attorney-client relationship; however, their writing was still largely practice-based. Critiques of this scholarship were likewise concerned with its practice implications, and the next significant body of poverty law scholarship focused on where it should be situated within the academy. The movement which has come closest to this type of analysis is the ClassCrits, whose stated mission is to deconstruct laws in order to reveal the effects of economic and relational class on our legal systems. However, this school has opted not to focus on poverty in particular, and it has not made the leap to praxis. There is thus no body of work which reviews the cumulative effects of multiple laws on low-income individuals in order to inform and assist practice and policy as well as scholarship. In this Article, I trace the history of existing poverty law scholarship and discuss the focus of each successive wave of work by considering how it would view the situation of a hypothetical low-income woman. I then argue that the existing scholarship has not considered the cumulative effects of the multiple systems which interact to regulate people living in poverty and that such an analysis is vital to a true understanding of the numerous mechanisms which act to enforce poverty. This approach, which I call Systems of Poverty, differs significantly from prior poverty law scholarship in that it requires a collaborative approach among scholars; while it is fundamentally an analytic and scholarly approach, it is also grounded firmly in the experience of low-income individuals and the attorneys who serve them and has the potential to marry theory and practice in a way that prior work has not., I.Introduction 2 II.A Case Study 8 III.A Brief History of Poverty Law and Scholarship 14 A.The Beginning of Poverty Law: Community-Based and Practice-Driven 15 B.Poverty Law Redux: Postmodernism Rises, the [...]

COVID-19 caused a perfect storm that showcased the indispensability of childcare to the overall well-being of children, families, and communities while simultaneously illuminating the many gaps and shortcomings rife within the American childcare system. The virus only exacerbated the accessibility and affordability challenges faced by families seeking high-quality childcare. This Note evaluates the necessity of accessible, high-quality childcare and out-of school time options for working moms while considering the pandemic's impact on the care industry. The Note argues that the American Rescue Plan's influx of federal funding to the childcare and out-of-school time industry, while a necessary life-preserver, was not enough to sustain the sort of growth in quality and affordability long overdue. The Note asserts solutions such as making permanent monthly payments to families through the expanded 2021 Child Tax Credit and expanding incentivization structures for large companies to include in their plans how they will provide affordable childcare for their workers. With federal relief money expiring in 2024, now is the time for state and federal legislators to either make portions of the American Rescue Plan permanent or incorporate key ideas from the Plan into existing structures., INTRODUCTION 170 II. WHAT is CHILDCARE and Why is it Important? 172 A.Overview of the Childcare and Out-of-School Time Industries 172 B.Issues in the Childcare and Out-of-School Time Industry 174 [...]

Access to affordable housing in the United States is a significant and growing challenge, exacerbated by recent economic trends and the COVID-19 pandemic. Issues like supply chain disruptions and rising interest rates have worsened the shortage of affordable housing for both renters and homeowners. This crisis disproportionately affects low-income individuals and communities of color, who were already grappling with housing instability and high housing costs before the pandemic. Structural racism continues to play a role in these disparities. Notably, no state or major metropolitan area has sufficient affordable housing for extremely low-income renters, particularly those from marginalized racial backgrounds. The federal government allocated $350 billion through the American Rescue Plan Act to address economic impacts, and some localities used these funds creatively to increase affordable housing supply. However, some misused the funds, including building correctional facilities, which were later deemed ineligible. The Treasury Department has the authority to investigate and recoup misused funds to redistribute them elsewhere in the nation. This Note analyzes data on fund usage and offers recommendations for federal policymakers to ensure future funding effectively addresses affordable housing needs., I. INTRODUCTION 123 II. BACKGROUND on ARPA and SLFRF Program 124 A. The SLFRF Program Provides Some Funding Directed at Housing Relief 124 B. The SLFRF Program Provides Direct Funding [...]

More than ten million children in the United States live in poverty, largely because of the country's relative lack of investment in children and families. Child poverty is associated with higher rates of child maltreatment and contributes to a host of outcomes that harm children and society. Recent legislation that increased the size and scope of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) demonstrated the power of cash assistance policies to reduce child poverty. However, implementation issues prevented many of the poorest families from receiving benefits, and the CTC expansion expired at the end of 2021. This Note proposes a Universal Child Benefit (UCB) that would provide $700 monthly for children under age six and $400 monthly for children ages six to seventeen. All families would automatically receive the benefit through the Social Security Administration (SSA). The UCB would drastically reduce child poverty and improve child well-being in the U.S., I. INTRODUCTION 590 II. THE HISTORY AND PRESENT UNCERTAINTY OF THE CTC 591 A. A Brief History of the CTC 592 B. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 593 [...]

Eviction sits at the nexus of property rights and the basic human need for shelter--the former benefits from a strong framework of legal protection while the latter does not. In most eviction courts across the country, therefore, the right to housing is unrecognized, while landlords' economic interests in property are consistently vindicated. The public health crisis unleashed by COVID-19 temporarily upended that (im)balance. Emergency federal and state eviction prevention policies issued in response to COVID-19 prioritized public health--and the need for shelter to prevent the spread of disease--over typically dominant property rights. In doing so, they presented courts with an unusual dilemma: how to implement policy directives that run counter to existing legal, historical, and procedural frameworks. While most studies of eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic have explored eviction trends over the period or the impact of these policies, this Article delves more deeply into the question of local implementation--which varied widely across jurisdictions--and asks when and why such policies may not have their full intended impact. Relying on a series of interviews conducted with judges, clerks, and lawyers working in eviction courts, the Article suggests that the phenomenon of discordance can help explain how and when policy implementation is most likely to be effective. Where accordance--functional and norm-based alignment--existed between judges' understanding of the eviction process and COVID-19 policy directives, they were more likely to be proactive and focused on implementation. However, where judges experienced discordance--misalignment between the aims of these directives and those of the underlying legal structure and process--they were more likely to cast themselves as passive and highly restricted in their ability to act outside of the normal order of operations. Although set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings and conclusions set forth in this Article are not unique to that context. The insights presented here regarding the implementation of state and federal policy at the local court level provide critical guidance to policymakers in all areas about the need to consider local dynamics in crafting policy--particularly in times of crisis--and how to structure policies so that local motivations can be used to spur innovation rather than obstruction., I. INTRODUCTION 546 II. EVICTION AND COVID-19: DISPOSSESSION + DISASTER = DISCORDANCE 549 A. Eviction Courts and Law 549 1. Legal Principles 550 2. Legal Process 553 3. Landlord-Tenant Law [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic forced courts across the country to close their doors to in-person proceedings. Courts had to quickly adopt remote technologies that they ignored for years to keep courts operational. As courts have re-opened, courts have maintained hybrid court processes recognizing the benefits that hybrid courts offer for judicial efficiency. However, due to the speed with which courts adopted new hybrid court models they were often developed haphazardly. As they continue to evolve, states have left significant discretion in the design to individual courts and often individual judges, creating inconsistencies in the process. Lawyers and judges have been able to quickly adopt their practices to utilize these new hybrid court systems. Yet, eighty to ninety percent of cases have at least one unrepresented party, often of low-income. Low-income unrepresented litigants make up the lion 's share of individuals utilizing the civil legal system, and they seem to have been left out of the equation as the hybrid court models have been developed. Despite the fact that low-income litigants make up the majority of litigants in the civil justice system, the hybrid courts recently designed have made it more difficult for these unrepresented litigants to access the court system. Hybrid court models have been around since the early 1990s, and models developed just prior to the pandemic focused on increasing access to justice for low-income individuals. Courts need to take a step back and carefully consider how to evolve their hybrid court models using information gathered from the pre-pandemic models, the current models, and the benefits and difficulties that have been realized from these models. Hybrid court models that are consistent, with a well explained process, combined with an option to opt-out of the technological components when they create barriers, as well as accessible locations with the available technology and assistance necessary can assure that low-income litigants are not barred from the 'new ' courthouse doors., I. INTRODUCTION 500 II. EVOLUTION OF VIRTUAL AND HYBRID COURTS 507 A. Hybrid Court Models Pre-COVID-19 508 B. Completely Remote--COVID-19 Courts 512 C. Expansion of Hybrid Courts 515 III. THE [...]

In response to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. federal and state governments enacted various supports for childcare, including expanded funding and flexibility for the childcare market, expanded paid leave, more generous and inclusive unemployment insurance, loans available to childcare providers, and tax rebates. In this Article, we trace the distributional consequences of these interventions, focusing on one community in the Boston metropolitan area. We examine whether these interventions support access to childcare through the state, market, and family, in particular considering the make-up of the community's population, which is largely immigrant and of low socio-economic status. Based on observations about how the COVID-era interventions have shifted patterns of childcare access, we offer reflections on welfare capitalism as an analytical framework when considering the distribution of support for care in a Latinx immigrant community. We conclude with suggested interventions to support the women of color whose undercompensated labor underlies systems of care., I. INTRODUCTION 406 II. ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK: THE WELFARE STATE, CHILDCARE, AND SOCIAL CITIZENSHIP 408 A. Childcare Access as an Element of Social Citizenship 408 B. Welfare Capitalism and Social Citizenship [...]

This Article uses archival research to recover the important work of John P. Davis, the Negro Industrial League (NIL), and the Joint Committee on National Recovery (JCNR) as they fought for a racially just New Deal and substantive equality in the Jim Crow era. Specifically, it analyzes the battle between southern industrialists mobilized against Black labor and liberation; John P. Davis and his anti-racist, labor-focused organizations; and the National Recovery Administration (NRA) in the contest over racial exclusions and wage differentials in the codes of fair competition. The Article shows how Davis exposed and challenged the racism and discrimination that shaped New Deal labor and employment law and examines an unexplored archival source to collaborate Davis' original claims. Finally, the Article reveals that Davis not only criticized the New Deal, but championed its promise in the name of democracy and underscored the constitutional necessity of federal intervention to combat oligarchy and racial inequality. It recovers Davis' alternative vision of New Deal reform and considers its significance today., I. INTRODUCTION 439 II. RACE AND RECOVERY 441 A. The Code-Making Process 442 B. Racial Wages 444 III. TAKING ON KING COTTON 446 A. Taking a Seat at the Table [...]

In 1996, prisoners' rights formally fell out of public favor. The Prison Litigation Reform Act ('PLRA ') put a period on the widespread prisoners' rights movement of the 1960s and 70s: it drastically diminished the ability of prisoners to vindicate their rights in courts, the incentives for lawyers to represent prisoners, and the ability of courts to grant structural relief for prisoners' rights violations. The paradigmatic analyses of this statute interrogate the quantity and quality of the pre-PLRA inmate docket and the judiciary s pre-PLRA effectiveness at implementing structural prison reform. However, these accounts of the statute--while descriptively accurate and analytically incisive--are historically incomplete. This Article tells a new story about the PLRA. It links two bodies of history--welfare reform in the late twentieth century and concurrent judicial policymaking in prison systems--and in doing so, repositions the PLRA as a congressional capstone on both projects. By juxtaposing a period of striking judicial reform in prisons with growing sociopolitical skepticism over social services to the poor, this Article illuminates an overlooked continuity between welfare and prison reforms. Recasting the PLRA as a restriction on welfare rights enriches our understanding of the statute and its place in history. It also implicates other conversations: about the relationship between procedure and substantive rights; the historical paradigm shift toward welfare services as moral gatekeeping; the judiciary as a protector of rights; and more substantively, the quality ofprison conditions post-PLRA., INTRODUCTION 242 I. PRISON REFORM 248 II. WELFARE REFORM 258 III. READING THE PLRA 269 AS A WELFARE REFORM A. The PLRA in the 1990s 270 B. The PLRA Today [...]

Community colleges have the potential to be a powerful force to alleviate poverty in the United States. However, the persistent underfunding of community colleges inhibits their ability to meet the aspiration of economic mobility for all students as they serve students who have more significant needs with fewer resources than public or private four-year institutions of higher education. The challenges faced by community colleges mirror the circumstances faced by many K-12 schools in low-income communities and communities of color in the United States where limited school funding has contributed to inequitable access to opportunity and inhibited student outcomes. However, unlike the community college context, decades of litigation and strategic advocacy have contributed to improvements in K-12 school funding. This Note argues that key lessons from the K-12 school funding litigation can be applied to the community college context to both increase funding available to community colleges and improve the funding pipeline so that it better accounts for the unique needs in the community college context. This would be achieved through a dual-pronged strategy. The first prong centers on litigation advancing the argument that states have a constitutional obligation to adequately fund community colleges. The second prong requires political advocacy at the state and federal levels. By taking a multi-pronged approach advancing both litigation and advocacy efforts, those seeking to achieve more adequate community college funding amplify their power and reach. Community colleges have the ability to promote economic mobility and alleviate poverty. Through collective legal and advocacy efforts, this potential can be realized., I. INTRODUCTION 343 II. OVERVIEW OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES & THEIR ROLE IN 344 ECONOMIC MOBILITY A. Who Attends Community Colleges--Demographics of 345 Community College Students B. Community College as a [...]

Minimum wage laws are among the most important laws that impact the livelihood of low-wage workers. Indeed, as Gandhi stated, 'the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.' New York's minimum wage has been capped at $15 for most workers since 2018 because the traditional approach to raising it requires grassroots advocacy to compel legislators to manually raise minimum wage floors. This approach takes a great deal of time, energy, resources, and requires ongoing advocacy. This note proposes that New York should develop a true Cost of Living Index to automatically adjust the minimum wage based on what it realistically costs not just to survive, but to thrive. This note aims to synthesize legal, political, and economic perspectives for the implementation of a true Cost of Living Index. It will hopefully serve as one more voice in the crowd, offering a simple but practical solution to the never-ceasing fight for a minimum wage that respects the basic dignity and humanity of working people., INTRODUCTION 316 I. A BRIEF REVIEW OF INDEXING AND THE MINIMUM WAGE 321 A. Why the Minimum Wage Should be Increased--Inflationary Concerns 321 B. Traditional Strategies for Increasing Minimum Wages [...]

The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, imprisoning over two million people. Not only does mass incarceration have great monetary costs for Americans as the United States spends over $250 billion each year on incarceration, but the United States also faces significant social costs as a result of mass incarceration. Mass incarceration significantly drives poverty and hinders social progress by making it more difficult for formerly incarcerated individuals to find employment, vote, or access public benefits while also reducing the support, earning potential, academic success, and stability of spouses and children of incarcerated or formerly incarcerated individuals. Not only does mass incarceration drive poverty throughout the United States, but poverty itself exasperates mass incarceration as the American criminal justice system criminalizes poverty and punishes people for being poor - by imprisoning people who are unable to pay small fees and fines, who cannot afford bail, who are experiencing homelessness, who cannot afford mental health treatment, or who engage in sex work. Thus, this Note will demonstrate the absolute necessity of de-criminalizing poverty in order to combat mass incarceration in the United States. While there has been extensive research and literature on mass incarceration in the United States, there has been less of an emphasis on the interplay between mass incarceration and poverty. This Note explores this interplay by discussing (1) the driving forces of mass incarceration in the United States, (2) how the criminalization of poverty drives mass incarceration and how the impact of incarceration exacerbates poverty and hunger, and (3) recent trends in recent criminal justice reform. To encourage discourse and action to reduce mass incarceration and poverty in the United States, the Note will then offer several proposals for reform efforts to decriminalize poverty and refute the anticipated critiques of the reforms., INTRODUCTION 288 I. BACKGROUND 290 A. Mass Incarceration 290 B. Drivers of Mass Incarceration 291 1. Over-Policing and Overcriminalization 291 2. Mandatory Minimums and Harsh Sentencing Practices 292 3. Community [...]

Substance use is one of the favorite justifications for the family regulation system to remove children and prevent reunification with their parents, especially if those parents are women, people in poverty, or people of color. This Article reviews decades of scientific research, hundreds of scientific articles, revealing that almost all the assumptions justifying removal and prevention of reunification for alleged substance use are pseudoscientific myths--revealing a system dedicated not to family preservation, but to family punishment. The family regulation system disproportionately targets women, people of color, and people in poverty. In many instances, a single drug test with no corroborating medical opinion or scientific analysis is sufficient to affix the label 'substance use disorder.' Children are removed for alleged maltreatment on the unfounded assumption any substance use automatically causes maltreatment. Children are returned conditioned upon the completion of general services and treatment which are known to not address the true material financial needs of families or substance users. Abstinence is the rule. Relapse, the normal process of recovery, will be punished. Pregnant people and infants face legal punishment and compelled services opposed by almost every major medical association because they do not contribute to proper care or improved outcomes for the parent or the child. Because the expanding family regulation system inappropriately relies upon pseudoscientific myths to oppress Black, indigenous, immigrant, poor, and other marginalized communities, we must reject these myths, abolish the family regulation system, and embrace the science and reality of substance use and family welfare. To build a more humane and democratic society, nothing short of abolishing and reimagining a new family welfare system that embraces science and reason, and no longer relies upon draconian practices that remove children from homes and target society's most vulnerable people, will do., I. INTRODUCTION 172 II. MECHANISMS FOR STEALING CHILDREN AND PUNISHING FAMILIES 179 III. DEFENDING PARENTS AGAINST SUBSTANCE USE MYTHS 184 A. Myth: Parents' Gender, Race, and Class Does Not 184 [...]

The consumer financial services industry has taken advantage of digital technology to transform the way it provides services to consumers using payment systems. After describing this new digital environment, the article describes its impact on low-income consumers. It examines statutes and regulations that offer limited protection for low-income consumers as well as gaps in those laws. Next, the article discusses three approaches to protecting low-income consumers along with the benefits and limitations of each. One way low-income consumers can be protected is through enforcement of consumer protection laws by administrative agencies. A second is by enacting new statutes and regulations to fill gaps in the law. A third is for the government to establish its own financial services systems. The article then examines three proposals for new financial services systems. These proposals will fail to adequately protect low-income consumers, however, unless lawmakers require institutions providing these services to include low-income consumers in their decision-making process and to justify their actions based on low-income consumer impact assessments., I. INTRODUCTION 134 II. DIGITAL DOMINATES THE NEW ERA OF CONSUMER FINANCIAL 136 SERVICES III. THE IMPACT OF POVERTY ON THE ABILITY OF LOW-INCOME 140 CONSUMERS TO BENEFIT FROM DIGITAL [...]

During the 2020-2021 academic year, the U.S. Department of Education reported teacher shortages in nearly every state, and within key subject areas, nationwide. Indeed, a recent national survey found that two-thirds of school districts report significant teacher shortages across math, science, and special education. Worse still, this labor crisis has disproportionately harmed students from low-income, racially segregated communities, where '75% of districts [have] reported a shortage. ' This is a problem. As indicated by a substantial (and growing) body of social science research, a qualified teacher workforce is one of the most important factors influencing student learning and achievement. In fact, the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, in its seminal report on the relationship between teaching and learning, found that 'fwjhat teachers know and can do is the most important influence on what students learn. ' Perhaps more importantly, at least for the purposes of this Note, 'school reform cannot succeed unless it focuses on creating the conditions in which teachers can teach, and teach well.' Despite this growing labor crisis, reform measures at both the state and federal level have largely failed to meaningfully address the poor and unequal school conditions animating the prevailing teacher shortage crisis. This Note, in response to these failings, is the first to argue that labor reformers should address the teacher shortage crisis by directly challenging the poor school conditions that drive it. As the Supreme Court continues its assault on labor protections more broadly, this indirect, education-centered approach to labor reform has much to recommend it., I. INTRODUCTION 230 II. SAN ANTONIO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT V. RODRIGUEZ 236 III. A CRITIQUE OF STATE AND FEDERAL TRENDS 238 A. State-level Trends 238 B. The Curious Case of [...]

A growing majority of Americans support the implementation of a national single-payer healthcare program, also known as Medicare for All, which would shift payments for healthcare services to a single public payer and provide care based on need rather than ability to pay. However, legislators, scholars, and advocates have suggested state governments rather than the federal government should take the lead by implementing state-based single-payer programs. Dozens of single-payer proposals have been introduced in state legislatures across the country, and proposed legislation in Congress would remove the federal roadblocks to state-based single-payer's implementation. Proponents of state-based single-payer rely on the conventional wisdom that states--as the storied 'laboratories of democracy '--can prove the concept of single-payer to other states, who will adopt it in time. But, in taking the 'laboratories of democracy' theory at face value, advocates of state-based single-payer ignore a number of realities fatal to the assumption that universal healthcare will come from the states. This Article argues state-based single-payer is not a stepping stone to health justice or the implementation of national single-payer and that it is, rather, a stumbling block that will worsen health inequities in the United States and ultimately make the implementation of a national single-payer system even less likely than it is now. In order to demonstrate this, I analyze the history of state government experimentation in healthcare to conclude the laboratories of democracy theory has been tested in the healthcare domain and failed, harming the nation 's most vulnerable and historically oppressed people. Using the example of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid expansion, I discuss the historic and present antidemocratic state government resistance to programs that promote health justice, particularly when those programs would increase healthcare access for poor people and people of color. Furthermore, I employ a political theory analysis to conclude state-based single-payer is not an acceptable policy for the federal government to promote under a health justice framework. This is because the implementation of state-specific single-payer programs will worsen health disparities by weakening the bargaining power of existing federal programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and by fracturing a growing constituency in favor of single-payer, chilling popular momentum toward a national single-payer program., I. INTRODUCTION 178 II. NATIONAL SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE AND HEALTH JUSTICE IN THE UNITED STATES 180 A. Medicare for All, Who Is Promoting It, and Why 180 1. The Fragmented and [...]

The legislative wrangling over tort reform often frames the debate in purely economic terms, pitting medical providers against patients perceived to be litigious. The downstream effects of physicians' perceptions of patients' likeliness to sue has insidious consequences for those patients' care, especially when those perceptions do not align with reality. This Note considers the intersections between medical malpractice claims and vulnerable populations of patient groups, and analyzes the effects of misplaced physician attitudes towards those groups on their care., I. INTRODUCTION 274 II. THE FEAR OF LIABILITY AND PATIENT CARE 275 A. The Standard of Care for Vulnerable Groups 275 B. Physicians' Fears of Liability Create Barriers to Care [...]