Posted December 15, 201911:35 am
Written by Jordan Grzelewski in The Plain Dealer on 12/15/2019
CLEVELAND, Ohio – Hazel Remesch understands firsthand the importance of guaranteed legal representation. After all, she is a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland.
Her family moved from Nicaragua to Miami when Remesch was 9, and they struggled to navigate the U.S. immigration system. She witnessed her parents make tough choices, such as paying an immigration lawyer instead of a utility bill, “because that’s how critical having an attorney represent somebody is when that issue is life-changing,” she said.
Remesch is ensuring Cleveland families don’t have to make those choices.
Cleveland recently adopted legislation guaranteeing legal representation in eviction cases for low-income tenants with children. And in 2018, Cleveland Municipal Court established a rule making it easier for tenants to seal eviction records.
Both came out of the work of the Housing Justice Alliance, an initiative Remesch established as part of a Sisters of Charity Foundation and Cleveland Leadership Center fellowship.
Her passion stems from what she’s learned during 10 years working in housing law: stable housing is a basic human need that is essential to success and the ability to engage with communities.
Some 9,000 evictions are filed in Cleveland each year. Currently, only 1% of tenants in housing court have legal representation. And about half of tenants facing eviction do not show up to their hearing, in many cases because they don’t think it will make a difference.
Plus, Remesch noted, “Our tenants move a lot more. The neighborhood quality decreases. Kids are more likely to miss … schools days after that eviction filing.”
The alliance’s ultimate goal is to provide legal representation to all tenants facing evictions in Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Lake and Lorain counties.
What’s been accomplished so far is “unbelievable,” Remesch said, “but there’s still so much work to be done.”
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Name: Hazel Remesch
Organization: Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
Cleveland credentials: Remesch is a supervising attorney specializing in housing law. She moved here from Miami in 2008, and Cleveland now feels like home.
Champion credentials: Remesch instituted the Housing Justice Alliance at Legal Aid as part of a fellowship with the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland and the Cleveland Leadership Center that sought ideas to break the cycle of poverty. The alliance has been successful in making it easier for Cleveland tenants to seal eviction records, and in getting the city to adopt legislation that gives tenants in eviction cases the right to legal representation.