2021 Year-End Report

As 2021 came to a close, the Heartland Center reflected on another difficult pandemic year marked by struggle, strength, victories, and growth. We expanded our staff and our impact while standing with low-wage workers and tenants.

Community support sustained:

• Impact litigation for workers and tenants
• Legal support for worker-led movements
• A free legal-help hotline for tenants
• Eviction defense in court
• The campaign for and implementation of Right to Counsel
• An expanded team able to respond to growing community need

HCJF was proud to unite with the newly launched Missouri Workers Center, a statewide organization bringing low-wage workers together across race and geography to fight racism and win economic justice for all. HCJF helped the organization build and committed to serving as its legal arm in the shared effort to grow worker power across Missouri.

The Missouri Workers Center officially launched on November 16 with a visit from Heather McGhee, author of The Sum of Us, and remarks from Stand Up KC leaders Terrance Wise and Bridget Hughes. The organization grew out of Stand Up KC and expanded the movement to include warehouse workers.

In fall 2021, HCJF joined Stand Up KC, the Missouri Workers Center, KC Tenants, and Councilwoman Andrea Bough in an ambitious campaign to guarantee an attorney to every tenant who appeared in eviction court in Kansas City, Missouri. The campaign launched publicly on the steps of City Hall on December 2, passed committee on December 8, and won unanimous approval on December 9.

Kansas City became the thirteenth city in the country to pass Right to Counsel, with one of the strongest ordinances in the nation. The next challenge was implementation: securing full funding and staffing and ensuring that attorneys had the training and support needed to serve every tenant well.

When essential workers stepped up during the pandemic, HCJF did too. Low-wage workers faced unsafe workplaces, a massive eviction crisis, and unemployment. The organization grew its eviction-defense team, provided free legal advice about unemployment and pandemic programs, and joined national partners in a lawsuit against a major meat-processing plant that failed to protect workers.

Mercedes Caballero managed the legal-help hotline with skill and calm, walking hundreds of tenants through crises and ensuring that Spanish-speaking tenants had access to justice.

Amy Sweeny-Davis led HCJF's impact litigation with deep dedication, building on her experience as an organizer, consumer-rights advocate, and litigator.

Candace Ladd joined as Outreach and Development Coordinator after interning with HCJF as part of her social-work practicum. She helped ensure that represented tenants had a voice in the Right to Counsel campaign.

John Michael Pipes and John Bonacorsi worked around the clock to stop evictions. Pipes brought experience from his UMKC internship and fellowship; Bonacorsi brought litigation, housing-rights, prisoners' rights, and public-policy experience from St. Louis and Stanford Law.

Founder and then-Executive Director Gina Chiala emphasized that sustained community support kept tenants housed, gave movements legal backing, enforced workers' and tenants' rights, and created a strong foundation for the years ahead.