Rachel Blake has received the Sharon L. King Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes outstanding professional achievement among Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing’s (LCBH) former legal fellows and interns. The award is given to individuals who, in the opinion of the selection committee, have demonstrated admirable professionalism and dedication to protecting renters’ rights and advancing housing justice. This year’s awards winners all played an important role in LCBH’s work with community partners to pass, defend, and protect the Keep Chicago Renting Ordinance (KCRO).
As a former LCBH intern and staff member, Rachel was instrumental in LCBH’s decision to begin collecting data on multi-unit apartment buildings that were going into foreclosure. LCBH shared the data with community partners who knocked on doors, alerting tenants that they were at risk of being evicted. LCBH has continued to gather data on Chicago evictions, most recently collaborating with Loyola University Chicago’s Center for Urban Research and Learning (CURL) to analyze evictions by community area. LCBH and CURL’s work was frequently cited during the past 18 months by media interested in our projections for post COVID19 eviction moratorium filing rates.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing believes that safe, decent, and affordable housing is a basic human right, and we aspire to be the preeminent legal resource on housing justice for renters in our community. Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing provides free legal and supportive services to improve housing stability for lower-income renters while advocating for the rights of all renters until everyone in Chicago has a safe, decent, and affordable place to call home.
Watch the video to learn more about Rachel’s work.