Revitalizing Public Interest Lawyering in the 1990s: The Story of One Effort to Address the Problem of Homelessness

Abstract

"Community institution building" is a model of social activism which seeks to build coalitions - of individuals, skills, and funds - and to translate these coalitions into permanent community institutions designed to address a targeted community problem. Although the clearest application of this approach is in those areas of public interest law that deal with poverty, it might also be successfully applied to other areas of public interest law. We were four students at the Yale Law School who were involved in an innovative clinical program that aimed to revitalize public interest lawyering through this approach to address the problem of homelessness in New Haven, Connecticut.

Keywords: private sector, public sector, public interest law, homelessness