Chapman’s Homeless Policy Practicum makes efforts to combat homelessness
(Clockwise from top left) Law students Tiara Smith (3L, Class of 2024), Christina Turner (2L, Class of 2025), Christian Sutphin (2L, Class of 2025), Professor Wendy Seiden and law student Anna Ross (2L, Class of 2025) spoke with The Panther about the Homeless Policy Practicum at Chapman University. Photo by EMI THOMAS, Staff Photographer
With America’s homelessness crisis continuing to surge and California leading the nation with the highest rate of homelessness, which only keeps rising, homelessness has become a major crisis in California’s high standard of living costs. However, numerous groups and organizations have risen to help address homelessness, with Wendy Seiden and Chapman law students joining the cause.
Seiden is a law professor who currently teaches the Homeless Policy Practicum (HPP) at the Fowler School of Law. The course was created as an outgrowth of her work with the Orange County Family Violence Council’s Homelessness-Domestic Violence-Sexual Assault Task Force.
Seiden originally co-founded the Task Force as an ad hoc committee to assist survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault as they were cleared from the Santa Ana, Orange and Anaheim Riverbed. The task force has now been active for five years and meets monthly to allow a broad array of service providers and individuals with lived experience to collaborate with the goal of improving the county’s response to services for survivors who are unhoused.
Seiden teaches the HPP to inspire law students to use their legal knowledge, and skills to change law and policy. In the course, law students develop their legal analysis, research and writing skills while interacting with and learning about the challenges of those living in Orange County unhoused.
They learn about local, state, and federal shelter, housing and homelessness policy as well as trauma-informed lawyering, and they use these skills and knowledge to impact real policy decisions. HPP students also learn about collaborative advocacy by working with policy coalitions and grassroots community groups to consider and effectuate policy at the local and state level.
“It was my task at that point to figure out what would be the best teaching projects for students to learn about housing and homelessness and what people who are experiencing homelessness go through,” Seiden said. “Because the HPP is a clinical course, students learn by doing actual policy work meant to make a positive difference in the lives of people experiencing homelessness.”
“It was my task at that point to figure out what would be the best teaching projects for students to learn about housing and homelessness and what people who are experiencing homelessness go through. Because the HPP is a clinical course, students learn by doing actual policy work meant to make a positive difference in the lives of people experiencing homelessness.”
Christian Sutphin, a second-year law student, is collaborating with Back On the Road, a grassroots coalition that focuses on unrecognized challenges within the unhoused population, involving traffic tickets, parking and registration violations or fees.
When asked about what more can be done to combat homelessness, Sutphin said:
“One of the things that I want to change is just how the conversation is framed, changing it from an application of blame to a discussion of compassion and a solution-oriented conversation.”
Tiara Smith, a third-year law student, has been working with Housing is a Human Right, a coalition consisting of volunteers who advocate for “housing as a human right.”
“The coalition has had speakers talk to the group about changing the narrative around homelessness and how advocates can share their own stories to help others understand that becoming homeless could happen to anyone, and thus, we should be supportive towards unhoused individuals and offer compassion and resources rather than disgust or hatred,” Smith told The Panther.
Christiana Turner, a second-year law student, has been attending meetings for Housing Now, which focuses on policies and bills that housing coalitions should support. She has been researching for a policy paper about California and Colorado eviction laws and comparing the two.
“The policy recommendations that I’m advocating for are lengthening the period (and) the notice period for non-payment of rent, and then allowing people to appear remotely for evictions and mandatory mediation and eviction cases, so that people have an alternative opportunity to resolve their disputes before a court proceeding,” Turner said.
During her time there, she was able to see two different bills, Senate Bill (SB) 555 and SB567, get passed. The first bill is a social housing bill with the goal of charting out California’s future in social housing, while the second bill seeks to fix loopholes in the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which would provide eviction protection.
“My main takeaways (from seeing the bills pass in fruition) probably are that it takes a lot of people and a lot of voices to actually make change,” Turner said.
Anna Ross, a second-year law student, has attended meetings from Fair Chance for Housing, which addresses the homelessness crisis by eliminating policies that restrict housing options for those with criminal records.
In response to action steps that can be taken to combat homelessness, Ross strongly supports a housing-first approach.
“I personally don’t know how I would go to college, hold a job, or do any of these things if I didn’t have a house to come home to. Some kind of home, an apartment, a room where I could have my belongings, shower, where I could just have some time and safety and space to myself,” said Ross.
Seiden emphasized how the course teaches students to utilize their legal skills to effectively and intentionally bring positive change to the legal system.
“Part of the purpose is always educating my students as lawyers to see how they can bring about policy change in whatever field of law they’re in or in whatever community they live in,” Seiden said. “Even if they are not doing policy work as their primary career, as lawyers, they know the law (and) they know how to read the law. They are uniquely skilled in the legal arena to understand and bring about change.”
“Part of the purpose is always educating my students as lawyers to see how they can bring about policy change in whatever field of law they’re in or in whatever community they live in. Even if they are not doing policy work as their primary career, as lawyers, they know the law (and) they know how to read the law. They are uniquely skilled in the legal arena to understand and bring about change.”
