A Clerkenwell-based charity is set to offer free legal advice for social housing tenants to help them navigate the welfare system and help them get jobs.
CommUnify will train and coordinate student volunteers to help local social housing tenants to lobby landlords, apply for benefits schemes, and improve their digital literacy skills.
Student training will begin in October, with biweekly ‘triage’ clinics taking place from November onwards, in collaboration with local community charity, The Peel Institute.
The social impact start-up was founded in February 2018 by Lucy Chapman, a local barrister and former law student at City, University of London.
Chapman’s inspiration for the project came from her own experiences as a council housing tenant in Clerkenwell, where she has lived for more than a decade.
In an interview with Islington Now, she said, “I’ve lived in Brunswick Close for 10 years. Once, I had no washing facilities for six weeks. I was ringing the council the whole time and they thought it was fine I had no way of washing myself.”
“That’s why I set up the project,” she explained. “The legal route is very difficult at the moment because there’s very little legal aid for issues like this.”
There are 285 council properties in Clerkenwell. The initiative is aimed at vulnerable tenants, such as elderly residents, non-English speakers and those with limited digital and literacy skills.
“People who are middle aged and never use a computer are told they must complete ‘x’ amount of job applications in a day or they will end up on the street,” Chapman said.
Should the project prove successful in the Clerkenwell area, Chapman has ambitions for a “nation-wide” expansion.
In late September she ran a recruitment event at City University and hopes to attract law students interested in gaining experience and connecting with the Clerkenwell community.
“Lots of people on the Graduate Law Diploma (GDL) programme want to give back to the local community but aren’t sure how and it can be a bit daunting,” Chapman explains.
Tom Neuman, CEO of Clerkenwell community charity The Peel Institute, has backed the project because of its potential to connect social housing tenants and students.
“If people can figure a project out that connects two groups of people that aren’t currently connected but want to connect; that’s got good legs,” he explains.
The Peel will support CommUnify’s outreach to the community, provide marketing assistance and a space for the clinics when they begin in November.
