DETROIT — Attorneys committed to ensuring low-income Americans receive legal assistance gathered in Detroit to underscore the importance of providing counsel to those who need it and examine how programs like eviction diversion can help communities both inside and outside the courtroom.

The Legal Services Corporation focused its Tuesday forum on efforts to expand legal services in Michigan, with a particular emphasis on local housing initiatives including eviction diversion efforts.

Legal Services Board Chair John G. Levi opened the forum by emphasizing the critical role civil legal aid plays in housing matters, noting that a good lawyer can mean the difference between eviction or somebody keeping their home.

Since the corporation was founded by Congress in 1974, it has helped provide legal services to nearly 75 million low income Americans, Levi said, continuing to offer services to 5 million individuals yearly including more than a million children, more than 200,000 survivors of domestic violence and nearly 45,000 veterans.

When it comes to matters of housing, Levi noted that individuals with an attorney had a 90% chance of receiving a favorable outcome, while those without had a 90% chance of being evicted.

The continuous underfunding of the corporation has only fueled the lack of access to counsel, Levi noted, while pointing to a recent study they’d released showing that civil legal aid yields an average positive return of $7 for every $1 invested.

“That’s because civil legal aid prevents and solves legal problems before they lead to even more costly public expenditures on things like emergency medical care, law enforcement and shelters,” Levi said.

In one of the opening speeches to the forum, former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement, who now serves as the president and CEO of the National Center for State Courts, emphasized that access to justice is a mandate of democracy.

“Everyone, regardless of income, background or circumstance, must be able to come to court and be heard. Yet we know that for too many that remains out of reach and that must change,” Clement said.

These efforts will not only take policy change, but cultural change, Clement said, later sharing her vision of transforming the court experience for individuals facing poverty and other societal barriers.

“We need to support civil diversion programs and partnership with legal service providers giving people time, resources and space to resolve disputes thoughtfully,” Clement said. “We need to maintain remote and hybrid options to remove transportation barriers and enable full participation in our justice system. We need to see continuous community feedback to improve services and ensure accountability.”

Former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement, who now serves as the president and CEO of the National Center for State Courts, addressing the Legal Services Corporation forum in Detroit on efforts to expand legal services in Michigan. July 15, 2025 | Screenshot

She pointed to National Center for State Courts eviction diversion initiatives in Grand Rapids and Lansing as examples of how courts are reimagining ways to resolve housing disputes.

“In Grand Rapids, the eviction diversion team has organized job fairs, expedited rental assistance and offered housing navigation services. In Lansing, the diversion facilitator has built a growing network of partners that provide tenants with financial counseling, job training and even free computers and school supplies,” Clement said.

Following Clement’s remarks the corporation hosted a panel examining eviction diversion efforts in Michigan, featuring Pamela Hoekwater, the executive director of Legal Aid of Western Michigan; Jessica Maas, managing attorney of Michigan Advocacy Program’s Lansing office; Ulices Rosa, the eviction diversion facilitator at Michigan’s 54-A District Court; and Ryan VanderMeer, a co-founder of Urban Pharm property management firm.

In her 18 years of practice before becoming executive director, Hoekwater explained that eviction hearings were often cattle calls, with individuals given 60 seconds to come up with a defense that would earn them a trial, or if unsuccessful, they would be given a judgment with 10 days to get out if they could not pay their judgment.

Generally speaking, eviction cases in Michigan move very quickly, Maas said, with the first court date scheduled within 10 days of a case being filed.

As a result, tenants often show up without a lawyer having only recently discovered they have a court date that week, Maas said.

“They’re often, I think, focused more on the logistics of that, like do I need to miss work? Do I need to get daycare? That sort of thing,” Maas said.

Additionally, tenants are also often uninformed and misinformed about the rights and obligations of both tenants and landlords, Maas said.

“For example, people ask us, am I being evicted today? Do I have to get out today? Conversely, they may think that they have months to get out. Another example is that they may think that if their landlord needs to make repairs to their place, that they don’t have to pay anything at all. The other side of that is that there are many tenants who believe that their landlord doesn’t have to make repairs if they haven’t paid in full,” Maas said.

From left to right: Pamela Hoekwater, Ryan VanderMeer, Jessica Maas, Ulices Rosa, addressing the Legal Services Corporation forum in Detroit on efforts to expand legal services in Michigan.

As a result one of the benefits of their eviction diversion program is the ability to give those individuals the correct information about their case and offer them the best solution or a series of solutions to choose with an informed perspective, Maas said.

While he can’t speak for all landlords, VanderMeer said landlords often do not want an eviction either, noting that the true cost includes four to six months of lost rent alongside the cost of repairs and legal fees.

Though there are evictions that happen due to other reasons, most of the time evictions are about money, VanderMeer said.

“If we can agree that it’s about money, we can collaborate and then figure out what to do from there,” he said.

In Lansing, one of the first lessons Rosa said he learned in eviction diversion, was the need to meet every family no matter where they were in the process, whether they were coming from homelessness or about to be homeless.

“I learned also that very first day that the program would only work if the foundation was relationships: the relationships to the families, the relationships to the landlords, the relationships to all the stakeholders, to [the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services] to everyone involved, legal services, anyone and everyone involved in helping people,” Rosa said.

Alongside working in eviction diversion, Rosa said he’s transformed into a community liaison, helping to bridge services so people facing eviction can address areas within their lives so they do not find themselves in that situation again.

“There’s a lot that can be done prior to the crisis. And so what I’ve done with our program is – and encouraged all the other courts to do so as well – is to proactively get resources out to the community,” Rosa said. “I’m one person, so I have to do it by email, which has now grown to a little over 1400 households that receive food, jobs, apartments, free training, financial training, children’s resources, senior resources, veterans resources and it’s proactively being sent to them.”

As far as best practices for landlords, VanderMeer said they should have a policy that is clear and consistent, and is communicated to tenants so they are not caught off guard.

“Our process, this is best practice for us, is we wait 30 days after sending a notice to file, and we send, I don’t know, 50 eviction notices a month, and we probably file two eviction cases a month or something. And not that two is a great number, but 48 you know, what’s that? 96% resolved,” VanderMeer said.

Additionally, Urban Pharm opts to have its hearings virtually, so that folks do not have to arrange for childcare or risk a default judgement due to a missed hearing.

When moving through the hearing process, the biggest factor is keeping a judgment off someone’s record so they don’t have a problem finding housing elsewhere later down the road, VanderMeer said.

Conditional dismissals are also a tool folks in legal aid can use, VanderMeer said, allowing landlords and tenants to go into a breakout room and negotiate terms that work for everybody.

“Maybe it’s,’ I just need more time. I need the tax return to come in,’ or whatever it may be, and we can work that out. We can actually put it on the record in front of the judge…. so from a landlord, it’s a secure arrangement. From a tenant’s perspective, there’s no judgment against them,” VanderMeer said.