National League of Cities selects 30 cities to participate in the 2021 Eviction Prevention Learning Lab

Washington, D.C. – Today, the National League of Cities (NLC) and Stanford Legal Design Lab (LDL) announced thirty cities selected to participate in the Eviction Prevention Learning Lab, a nationwide peer-to-peer network for cities and their partners to gain exposure to best practices, policies, and tools to prevent evictions.

The thirty cities selected for the 2021 Eviction Prevention Learning Lab are:  
Flagstaff, Arizona; Tucson, Arizona; Hayward, California; Thornton, Colorado; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Chicago/Cook County, Illinois; Kankakee, Illinois; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Indianapolis, Indiana; South Bend, Indiana; Louisville Metro Government, Kentucky; Baltimore, Maryland; Greenbelt, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; Brockton, Massachusetts; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Muskegon, Michigan; Mankato, Minnesota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Charlotte, North Carolina; Silverton, Ohio; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Portland, Oregon ; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Fort Worth, Texas; Hampton, Virginia; Tacoma, Washington; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin

“Cities, towns and villages have been impacted by evictions long before the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 brought a greater focus on evictions due to the economic recession induced by this public health crisis,” said Clarence E. Anthony, CEO and Executive Director of the National League of Cities (NLC). “NLC is proud to partner with Stanford Legal Design Lab to support thirty cities through the Eviction Prevention Learning Lab. Cities will receive timely technical assistance they need to pivot and recover, and lessons learned over the next eighteen months will provide a path forward for other NLC member cities, towns and villages.” 

Growing out of work that NLC and LDL undertook in 2020 with the inaugural Eviction Prevention Cohort, the EPLL will provide help to cities to develop and refine equitable interventions that prevent evictions.

By providing capacity building, human-centered problem-solving work sessions, and opportunities for shared learning, the EPLL will seek to equip cities and their partners with the tools they need in order to better address evictions locally. Lessons learned from this network will include how to operationalize racial equity in an eviction strategy; how to facilitate or strengthen relationships with tenants, landlords, courts and community stakeholders; and how to utilize data for developing actionable policy recommendations.  

“We are proud to offer this one-of-a-kind opportunity to these 30 cities to address their local eviction crisis,” said Lauren Lowery, Program Director of Housing & Community Development. “This opportunity leverages what cities are currently doing in their community and it allows each city the opportunity to design, enhance, or implement solutions that deploy human-centered designs with a racial equity lens.”

In addition to the direct support provided to these 30 cities, NLC and LDL will share their experiences and best practices with other NLC member cities, serving as examples for other communities seeking to get to the root cause of their local eviction crisis.