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nastasia Oyugi, recent graduate of Temple University’s Beasley School of Law, provided support to many of our attorneys and put an innovative eye toward some of the most influential housing policies in Pennsylvania during her time interning at RHLS. Read about her work below!
Anastasia began her internship at RHLS in July of 2015. Lisa Hurlbutt, Director of Public Interest Programs at Temple had suggested that she reach out to Dina Schlossberg, RHLS Deputy Director and Senior Attorney for Multi-family Housing, because of her interest in community development.
Prior to coming to RHLS Anastasia had interned at Community Legal Services doing community development work with low-income entrepreneurs. She described being drawn to RHLS for the tangible outcomes of the work that the organization performs.
Anastasia mostly worked with Dina Schlossberg and Jack Stucker, Staff Attorney in addition to projects with Mark Schwartz, Executive Director, Rachel Blake, Associate Director and Bob Damewood, Staff Attorney.
On one of Anasasia’s most fascinating projects:
“I used Excel to develop a series of tools to better understand how the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program and the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) rent rules can exclude Housing Choice Voucher (“HCV”) holders. HCV holders can only use their vouchers to pay for rent falling below a certain threshold. Sometimes LIHTC landlords can charge rent in excess of that threshold, resulting in the exclusion of the HCV holders. The Excel tools sparked a conversation about whether RHLS could play a role in addressing this issue. This project gave me the opportunity to grapple with a little understood policy issue and develop a new, useful set of technical skills.”
Anastasia also worked with a client to lay the figurative groundwork for forming a 501(c)(3) in order to to acquire property for a legal services organization.
“I enjoyed the dynamic of collaboratively working with a client to accompli
sh a positive, tangible outcome. This and other projects gave me the opportunity to step into the wild world of tax research, a world in which I now feel much more at home.”
Finally, Anastasia described that she was grateful for the opportunity to have done the “bread and butter” of affordable housing work-LIHTC transactions. She drafted a number of the documents that go into deals.
“I came to RHLS without any substantial drafting experience, and am leaving with a lot! Drafting has taught me a great deal about the quintessential legal skill of careful reading and writing.”
“Wrestling with that little tangle of Tax Code provisions and HUD regulations concerning HCV holders helped me see how much I enjoy complex legal regimes, and no field beats employee benefits for complexity. Furthermore, enjoying the attorneys I worked with at RHLS taught me a lot about what’s important to me in a workplace.”
“The period in which I have worked at RHLS has truly served as a coming of age for me as a legal professional. I came as a law student, and I’m leaving as an (almost) attorney. I am so grateful to the lawyers who entrusted me with substantial and engaging work. I continuously encountered openness, creativity, and sincerity here that inspired me.”
“RHLS is the most delightful group of housing rascals. They do the deals, but their true talent is making trouble, in the best way, for all people who think they know about housing.”
Finally, on the shortage of affordable housing, Anastasia feels as though the most important issue to tackle in housing is providing housing to the most low-income households.
“A developer could create enough low-income housing to to fill the state without even a unit for someone in homelessness. RHLS’ clients need to work very hard to receive subsidies sufficient to house the most low-income populations. This seems backwards. The incentives could work the other way, making it easiest to house the people who need it the most.”