GEORGE DONNELLY’S PREPARED TESTIMONY BEFORE CITY COUNCIL NOVEMBER 28, 2018 – Good morning councilmembers, it is a privilege to testify here today. My name is George Donnelly and I am an attorney at the Public Interest Law Center. In my practice, I represent tenants fighting to assert their legal rights to safe, habitable housing. I’m […]
On May 8, a group of civil rights and fair housing groups sued the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and its secretary Ben Carson, alleging that the department had illegally suspended a 2015 rule requiring cities to affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH) in their housing plans. The AFFH rule requires local governments […]
George Donnelly testified on the lack of a retaliatory eviction law in Pennsylvania.
The Law Center and a group of non-profit organizations concerned with low-income housing and tenants filed an amicus (friend of the court) brief in support of an appeal to petition for a rehearing and seeks a reversal of a District Court judgment involving housing for tenants with enhanced vouchers. At stake are the rights of low-income people nationwide who hold enhanced vouchers to remain in their homes absent good cause to terminate them.
In July 2017 we signed onto comments to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in response to its Request for Input on Improving Language Access in Mortgage Lending and Servicing. Submitted by Americans for Financial Reform (AFR)’s Language Access Task Force, the comments focus on the need to improve language access in the mortgage marketplace […]
In partnership with our landlord-tenant clients, we are proud to have been part of the advocacy movement that successfully secured a $500,000 investment from the City of Philadelphia for lawyers for low-income renters.
The Law Center signed onto a letter from the Philadelphia Association of CDCs (PACDC) to Dr. Ben Carson, written in light of his nomination to be the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
On October 4, 2016, staff attorney Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg composed a letter expressing concerns surrounding the City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Housing Authority’s (PHA) joint assessment of the Fair Housing plan. The plan produced was done so under obligation to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing (AFFH).
On October 1, 2012, the Disabilities Rights Network of Pennsylvania, Community Legal Services, and private co-counsel filed a legal challenge in Commonwealth Court against Act 80. Enacted by the General Assembly in June 2012, Act 80 eliminated General Assistance cash benefits – funds that tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians rely on to meet their everyday expenses.
Advocates for Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable citizens are fighting back against a proposed budget that slashes social services that many people with intellectual disabilities, mental health problems, drug addictions, and other problems rely on just to get by.
