I am a single mom and love spending time with my kids. They always come first. I was in an abusive and violent situation at home. My ex-husband told me that without immigration papers I had no rights and would lose my children if I complained. I’ve been here for 20 years, but I was scared and didn’t realize this wasn’t true. He thought I would leave him if I gained citizenship.

I think people would be shocked to know that I’m a senior citizen living in a housing control building and I was almost made homeless because my cat was seen outside without a leash. NJP wrote a letter to the housing authority telling them that what they were doing was illegal. Without that legal knowledge, I wouldn’t have known that housing was breaking the law and wouldn’t have been able to fight the eviction. 

"We do not accept Section 8” is illegal discrimination in Washington! It’s illegal for a landlord to refuse to rent to a tenant based on their source of income, whether from a housing subsidy or Social Security.

NJP attorney Tim Murphy helped a client fight back and win! 

Addressing Needs of homeless Native Adults

Across Washington, more and more veterans and seniors with disabilities find themselves with only 20 days to find a new home after receiving a “no cause” termination notice of their month to month tenancy. NJP attorney staff attorney Jose Trejo speaks about the issues facing people he helps in Spokane’s tight housing market, where rents went up more than 11% last year.

A King County judge ordered the city of SeaTac and the park’s owner to redo some of the paperwork required for the park’s closure, reversing a portion of an earlier ruling and buying the 170 residents additional time.

The city's public housing authority leaves little wiggle room for struggling residents.

The Shady Acres Homeowners’ Association filed a lawsuit this week to prevent Kittitas County from demolishing or closing the Shady Acres mobile home park in Ellensburg.

The King County Housing Authority will hold a lottery to create a new waiting list for Section 8 vouchers.

Landlords in Renton are opting out of the Section 8 voucher program resulting in many families receiving notices to vacate their homes.

OLYMPIA – An effort to get homeless people off the streets and into shelters seems headed for revisions after critics said it would criminalize homelessness in Washington and put extra burdens on police.

Neighbors in a low-income, mostly Latino mobile-home park are fighting Kittitas County’s surprise plan to evict them. Now the state is investigating. NJP attorney David Morales is representing the homeowners association.

Nearly 40,000 Washington students were homeless during the 2015-16 school year, an increase of about 12 percent from the year before. In 21 school districts, the number of homeless students doubled in the two-year span.

Sixty-five families who depend on Section 8 vouchers to help pay their rent received notices that their vouchers would no longer be accepted and were told they would have to leave by the end of October 2016. Notice was given by the purchasers of two Renton buildings who wanted to raise the rents above what the Section 8 program subsidy allows. NJP attorneys Scott Crain and Matt Brady agreed to represent the tenants and raised the prospect of fair housing violations. All 23 families in one building are African American, many are female headed households, and many tenants are also disabled.

Renton renters pleaded with the City Council on Monday for help after landlords at two apartment complexes said they will no longer accept Section 8 housing vouchers. NJP attorney Scott Crain Scott is representing some of the residents and said landlords are not required by law to disclose their reasons for opting out of the Section 8 program. But a majority of the affected renters at the Renton Woods and Gramercy apartment complexes are black women, and the landlords’ decision to end their participation in the Section 8 program may have had a “discriminatory effect”.

NJP attorney Scott Crain helped tenants in two Renton apartment complexes gain more time to find new Section 8 housing.

Clark County will pay $250,000 in damages and attorneys’ fees after a federal judge found earlier this month that the county was liable for seizing homeless people’s belongings.

Two legal battles dealing with Madison Park — the micro housing and commons building for homeless people — are to be heard in Walla Walla County Superior Court on Monday. Northwest Justice Project, representing the Walla Walla Alliance for the Homeless, the group that wants to build Madison Park, has filed an appeal seeking removal of restricitons placed on the Madison Park project.

A Seattle mother of three was thrilled when she got a Section 8 voucher to help pay for housing her family. Then she tried to use it. “It’s just cutthroat out there,” a housing advocate said of the tight market.

NJP salutes Bill Hobson for his vision and national leadership in the fight against homelessness during his more than 30 year tenure as director of the at the Downtown Emergency Services Center: Housing First!

The Seattle Office of Civil Rights said it has uncovered evidence of rental-housing discrimination at 13 properties, including large, sleek new developments in Ballard and South Lake Union.

Parte del sueño Americano es finalmente tener casa propia, pero el obtener financiamiento de parte de un banco para comprar una casa puede ser difícil. El banco siempre se querrá asegurar que prestarle dinero será un buen negocio.

Los residuos de la crisis financiera del 2008 continúan produciendo efectos negativos; miles de familias están atrasadas en los pagos del préstamo hipotecario y tienen miedo de perder sus casas.

The first statewide study of laws relating to homelessness concludes that Washington cities have been punishing people for being homeless when it would be cheaper and more constructive to help them instead.

Washington state law gives homeowners exactly twenty days to vacate a house with the clock starting the day of the foreclosure sale, but "Trash Out" companies are removing homeowners' belongings before then. Attorney Chelsea Hicks with the Northwest Justice Project represents Fiscus and other clients in the same situation.

OLYMPIA — As speakers and protesters here celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, some sobering new numbers are out on student homelessness in Washington state.

Just before New Year’s, Kathy Heffernan’s new landlord announced that her rent on a two-bedroom unit at the Linda Manor Apartments in West Seattle would go up on March 1, from $1,000 to $2,300 — a 130 percent increase.

Across the Northwest, some families will spend Christmas in rented mobile homes where the living conditions are marginal at best and dangerous at worst. So who’s inspecting these manufactured homes? It turns out that they fall into a regulatory gray area.

In response to widespread opposition, the Seattle Housing Authority (SHA) has shelved its controversial plan to raise rents for thousands of its tenants.