A Lawyer's Perspective: My Experience with the Need For Affordable Housing.

Today I did what I routinely do on Thursdays around noon time – I visited the school where I mentor a student.

I walked to the classroom and talked

with his teacher who told me that this student was no longer enrolled in the school.

Just like that, a relationship that I had developed over the school year was suddenly without warning severed.

Imagine what an incident like this does for a kid with an unstable home environment.

In a matter of days an elementary school kid’s life (which, in this case, is typically already chaotic enough) can be flipped upside down.

New school. New housing.

Lack of community.

This program that I have been involved in over the past several years connects adults as mentors to school-aged kids is great.

It provides an opportunity for a supportive adult to encourage and love kids, tell them they are valued, made in the image of God.

This program provides a sense of community, a network of relationships for these kids.

I see how eviction can instantaneously severe these important relationships, causing displacement and uproot community.

My Perspective – Wearing several hats

I’ve written before about the fact that I wear a few different hats –

I am a lawyer who represents real estate owners, investors, property managers/landlords.

I am occasionally in court evicting tenants who simply have not paid their rent. This lack of payment causes real problems for landlords, many of whom are simply trying to pay down their mortgage obligations.

I am the past-Board Chair at Mel Trotter Ministries.

MTM is the safety net for the homeless in the community. It is the place where families without a home seek temporary refuge and hope to get back into affordable and stable housing. MTM is doing its part to find a solution to the affordable housing crisis in Kent County.

I am also a mentor in a local school to students, many who regularly face homelessness.

In the past several years all of the kids that I have mentored have relocated. The reasons and issues behind their relocation are varied and complex.

I know that lack of affordable housing was a factor at least in some of those situations.

I see firsthand the tension:

 We should encourage entrepreneurs to revitalize our community – we should do everything we can to place families in affordable housing.

There is a tension: and it needs to be embraced.

I get these words of wisdom – to “embrace the tension” we see in our daily lives from a man I admire named Fred Keller – founder of Cascade Engineering. Check out his blog where he speaks directly about the tension between “purpose and profit”

For me, the answer isn’t ignoring the tension on complicated matters – which is why I am writing this post. I embrace it.

I will continue to show up and mentor students.

I will continue to serve at Mel Trotter Ministries.

I will continue to provide legal services to the best of my ability for my business clients.

e-mail: Jeshua@dwlawpc.com

Twitter: @JeshuaTLauka

www.dwlawpc.com