This panel will provide insight into some of the major issues related to evictions and tenants’ rights as well as the legal and policy landscape. In addition, it will provide resources for libraries to use to help inform their patrons. Our goal with this panel is to bring together a range of national and local voices in anti-eviction efforts and representatives who work with these communities.
The panelists are:
Moderator: Lynda Kellam, Chair of the Government Documents Round Table, Senior Data Librarian at Cornell Center for Social Sciences
Deborah Thrope is the Deputy Director of the National Housing Law Project (NHLP). Deborah’s work focuses on federal, state, and local policy advocacy to preserve affordable housing and tenants’ rights. She provides training and technical assistance to advocates working with low-income tenants and serves as an advisor and editor of NHLP’s seminal publication, HUD Housing Programs: Tenants Rights. Deborah has testified before Congress about increasing economic mobility in the Housing Choice Voucher program and improving living conditions for public housing residents. Before she joined NHLP, Deborah was a Senior Attorney at the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley and represented clients with disabilities facing eviction and civil commitment.
Kim Morrell is the Engaged Cornell Project Attorney at Legal Assistance of Western New York (LawNY) in Ithaca, New York. Since receiving her J.D. from NYU School of Law, she has represented clients in housing matters at LawNY; Legal Services of Central New York; CNY Fair Housing; Central Jersey Legal Services; and the Legal Aid Society of Rockland County, New York. She has represented tenants from urban, suburban, and rural communities, and in private and subsidized housing. She has supported community organizing around the issue of lead abatement in housing. Outside of legal services, she has served nonprofits aiding families transitioning out of homelessness; supporting chronically homeless adults; and civil rights organizations. She is currently President of the Finger Lakes Chapter of the Women's Bar Association of the State of New York. She can be contacted at kmorrell@lawny.org
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Sharon Sherman is the Executive Director of the Greater Syracuse Tenants Network. The Tenants Network empowers tenants in HUD subsidized and private housing to organize tenant associations and advocate for their rights. Sharon provides training to human service case managers and property owners on landlord-tenant issues. She answers questions and give referrals to individual tenants throughout Central New York. In addition to tenant rights advocacy, Sharon spent many years working for state and local Consumer Protection agencies as well as for the City of Syracuse Community Development Office.