Detroit Justice Center

Want to drive social change? Looking to level up your professional skills? Are you excited by the idea of joining a community of leaders building solutions to the greatest challenges of our time? Reminder to apply to the 2025 #MAPFellowship by 10/21 for a career-changing opportunity and network! The six-month opportunity, presented by the Morgridge Family Foundation, will bring together changemakers to solve pressing challenges for 12 different nonprofit organizations. You could work with our development director, Regina Sharma! Apply here: https://lnkd.in/dz7t3j_v

Tune in to Created Equal on WDET 101.9 FM tomorrow at 9-10AM ET (or 7-8PM ET) to hear our Economic Equity Practice staff attorney, Mark J. Bennett, talk about Community Land Trusts! Created Equal, hosted by Stephen Henderson, is about the promise of opportunity and the challenge of inequality from the city that built America — Detroit. https://lnkd.in/ev_N3Hs2

We're #hiring a Paralegal to join our Legal Services and Advocacy Practice (LSAP).? ?? Position Overview: As a Paralegal at DJC, you will support our attorneys working toward systemic change by providing critical legal services to clients. You will assist with case management, client communication, research to advance impactful legal outcomes, and community reinvestment efforts. Apply today or share this post with your network.

The Metro Detroit Restorative Justice Network is hosting a free training for Detroit residents to learn the principles and practice of restorative justice circle keeping for addressing harm and conflict and building community. Free on-site childcare and ASL interpretation?are offered. See more details below! When:?Sundays 1-5PM on 10/20, 10/27, 11/3, 11/10, 11/17 Where:?The?LOVE Building -?4731 Grand River Ave, Detroit, MI 48208 Who:?To apply, you must: 1) Be over 18, 2) Live in Detroit, 3) Able to attend ALL sessions There are only six spots left! The deadline to apply is October 4th - apply?here: https://lnkd.in/g9QW29xw Questions/concerns? Email Angel McKissic at?[email protected]

Learn more about our jam packed week last week during the Love Building's Grand Opening!

Our ED, Nancy A. Parker, has been selected for the Detroit Regional Chamber's prestigious Leadership Detroit program, a nine-month transformational leadership program designed to challenge emerging and existing community leaders from Southeast Michigan to bring about positive change. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gxku2J5J

Our ED, Nancy A. Parker, has been selected for the Detroit Regional Chamber's prestigious Leadership Detroit program, a nine-month transformational leadership program designed to challenge emerging and existing community leaders from Southeast Michigan to bring about positive change. Read more here: https://lnkd.in/gxku2J5J

We’re so honored to launch the Desiree Ferguson Fund! DJC’s founding Legal Director, Desiree Ferguson, retired (again!) last year after dedicating her career to advocating for her clients, often being their last line of hope. All gifts made to the Fund will support our national internship program, which was founded by Desiree to train up the next generation of freedom fighters. Thanks to an anonymous human rights attorney, committed to resourcing our movement, we have received a $15k contribution to launch the Fund. We’re challenging our supporters to match that contribution dollar for dollar! Make your gift today: bit.ly/DesireeDJC

At the Detroit Justice Center, we often use the phrase Just Cities to talk about an envisioned future where every life is valued equally. Our discussions always include affordable and safe housing for all. Without stable housing, we are at our most vulnerable, which is why we insist on housing as a human right. One aspect of our affordable housing work includes creating long-term affordable housing through building community land trusts, but our attorneys also work with clients who face legal issues with their housing. One such client is Ms. Ghaskin, a client who had previously dealt with housing insecurity. Recently, our staff attorney, Donovan McCarty was able to secure her place as a first-time homeowner in Detroit. Ms. Ghaskin was unhoused for a time and then found unstable shelter in a house that was in dramatically poor condition. Holes in the structure of the house left Ms. Ghaskin and her family exposed to the elements during the harsh Detroit winter. Unfortunately, Ghaskin lost a young grandchild due to these inhospitable conditions. In 2019, SER Metro and the City of Detroit found her more stable housing, where she’s been ever since. She came to us as a client this year because her housing was once again in a tentative state. Her out-of-state landlord had gotten scammed by a “property management company” that would take on rentals like Ghaskin’s, abandon them, and stop sending money to the property owners. Ghaskin has been living in the home with her adult son, and they were hoping to find a reasonable solution to this issue that wouldn’t cost them their housing. McCarty was able to step in and negotiate with Ghaskin’s landlords and convince them to sell her the property for an affordable price. McCarty filed a complaint in 3rd Circuit Court for lockout and other violations in housing court, and the landlord, rather than face paying a hefty sum for the judgment, decided to sell the house for an affordable sum to Ghaskin. Working with the United Community Housing Coalition, McCarty was then able to get Ghaskin a land contract at 0% interest, meaning that she’s no longer beholden to a landlord and she can call herself a homeowner. DJC is overjoyed that we could resolve this issue and assist in bringing her family some much-deserved stability. While not every housing issue results in such a positive outcome, this is what we strive for when we conjure up ideas for what makes a truly just city. Often, tenants struggle in dealing with landlords because they don’t have attorneys to advocate for them in court. Ideally, any community member facing housing issues would be able to access legal representation to advocate for their rights. Until we have truly just cities, we will continue to fight to make housing affordable for everyone and accessible to those who are or have been unhoused in the past.

ICYMI:?Outlier Media spoke to our two community land trust (CLT) experts about the work we've been doing to create affordable housing all across Detroit. “I define ‘gentrification’ as community development for people other than those currently living in the community,” said Eric Williams, managing director of the Economic Equity Practice at the Detroit Justice Center. “CLTs don’t permit that.” ?? Read the article: https://lnkd.in/gCkmdDsJ