When in-person legal education events became virtually impossible during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic chose to go virtual.
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After finding the need for civil legal assistance in the United States is widespread across all income levels — and perhaps spread wider than previously thought — The Pew Charitable Trusts sees a need for new solutions to addressing the problems experienced by many individuals and families.
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Although the legal battle with rent-to-own housing company Casas Baratas Aqui ended with what the Fair Housing Center of Central Indiana calls a “groundbreaking resolution that will have national impact,” the bitterness and damage invoked by the defendants’ counterclaims continues to rankle both sides in the litigation.
Read MoreA bill has been introduced in the Indiana House that resurrects language Gov. Eric Holcomb vetoed last legislative session and housing rights group say would put more Hoosiers at risk of eviction.
A new code in Indiana’s case numbering system is enabling the courts, state agencies and other entities to track and tally the petitions filed for evictions. But fresh data tracking trends nationwide shows evictions in Indiana are far surpassing numbers of other states being studied.
Fears of an attempt to override Gov. Eric Holcomb’s March 2020 veto of a housing bill is spurring housing advocates to publicly call on the Indiana Legislature to not resurrect SEA 148, particularly when many Hoosiers are continuing to struggle under economic stress brought by the COVID-19 public health crisis.
With the president’s signature on the $2.3 trillion spending bill, the Legal Services Corporation is set to receive $465 million, the largest appropriation in actual dollars for the organization in its history.
An Indianapolis landlord has agreed to pay nearly $46,000 to settle a lawsuit that alleged he proposed exchanging sex for rent from a female tenant who lost her job during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the first time in its history, the Indianapolis Legal Aid Society’s holiday dollar campaign is going virtual. The fundraiser has become a tradition since it was started in the mid-1990s but will be critical this season to meet the needs created by the pandemic.
Neighborhood Christian Legal Clinic has partnered with the city of Indianapolis to create a special website to help Hoosiers around the state who are behind on rent and facing eviction.
Indiana’s Rental Assistance Portal is accepting applications for a program that provides eligible renters with up to six months in rental assistance to help cover past due and ongoing monthly payments.
As the uncertainty continues over how many struggling Hoosiers could be evicted in the coming months, the Indiana Supreme Court is trying through the new Landlord and Tenant Settlement Conference Program to prevent housing loss and all the bad ramifications that can ensue by inviting landlords and tenants to first have a conversation.
An Indiana couple will no longer face neglect charges in the deaths of their three children during a fire in an apartment which had no gas, electricity or water service.
The state has paid $14 million to landlords so far through its rental assistance program, officials announced on Wednesday.
The Trump administration has issued a directive halting the eviction of certain renters though the end of 2020 to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. Renters covered through the executive order must meet four criteria in eviction cases.
The city of Indianapolis is ramping up its COVID-19 rental assistance program with plans to process about 1,000 applications a day while the funding lasts.
The Indiana Supreme Court is launching a new mediation program to help stem the anticipated flood of evictions by facilitating settlement agreements between tenants facing eviction and landlords trying to collect rent.
More than 30,000 Hoosiers who have fallen behind on rent because of the COVID-19 pandemic have applied for financial assistance from the state — nearly triple the amount Indiana officials originally expected.
Recently, in the case of In re Hitz Restaurant Group (2020 Bankr. LEXIS 1470 (N.D. Ill. June 2, 2020)), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois-Eastern Division held that a force majeure clause in a lease excused a restaurant tenant from its obligation to pay a portion of post-petition rent.
Orville Copsey, Jr., an Indianapolis attorney whose work helping many elderly and disabled clients stay in their homes earned him the nickname “St. Orville,” died Aug. 4. He was 88. “We have lost a true gem in our legal community,” one attorney said in tribute.
As Indiana’s moratorium on evictions is set to end in a week, legal aid providers are estimating the national price tag for helping tenants facing the prospect of losing their places to live will top $2.5 billion.
Indiana residents who have struggled to pay rent or utility bills during the coronavirus pandemic have one more week before the state’s protections against evictions and utility shutoffs end, despite a recent analysis that found that more than 40% of the state’s renters are unable to pay their rent.
As Gov. Eric Holcomb extended the moratorium on evictions and foreclosures until mid-August, Indiana state courts increased their calls for residents and property owners to start trying to work out agreements that will keep families in their homes.