Eviction Mitigation Pilot Project | FY 21 Grant List
With funding from the Illinois Department of Human Services, the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation awarded $1,651,520.21 in grants to 16 nonprofit organizations to provide legal information, advice, representation and mediation services to Illinoisans impacted by the threat of eviction due to the COVID 19 pandemic. Funds were also awarded to develop technological access channels for user-friendly service delivery.
Civil Legal Assistance Grants ($1,192,092.78)
Beyond Legal Aid ($28,174.73)
To provide legal aid for tenants threatened with eviction via partnerships with community-based partners in Cook County.
Catholic Charities Legal Aid ($18,656.94)
To provide legal aid on eviction matters in Cook and Lake County.
James B Moran Center for Youth Advocacy ($30,626.53)
To provide legal counsel on eviction issues to families enrolled in three Evanston schools.
Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance ($440,856)
To provide legal information, advice and representation on housing matters throughout 65 central and southern Illinois counties.
North Suburban Legal Aid Clinic ($52,359.86)
To provide legal aid to residents of Lake and Cook County impacted by eviction.
Prairie State Legal Services ($432,225.91)
To provide legal information, advice and representation on housing matters throughout 36 northern and central Illinois counties.
Public Interest Law Initiative ($26,201)
To provide legal information and advice via Free Legal Answers and court-based self-help desks in central Illinois.
University YMCA New Americans Welcoming Center ($36,468.95)
To provide legal information, advice and representation to program participants facing eviction in Champaign.
Uptown Peoples Law Center ($26,642.96)
To provide legal assistance on eviction matters to residents of Chicago’s Uptown community.
Westside Justice Center ($99,879.90)
To provide legal information, advice and representation to eviction-impacted community members in Will County in partnership with Warehouse Workers for Justice.
Mediation Grants ($181,797.43)
Center for Conflict Resolution ($61,916.75)
To train mediators across Illinois to mediate cases in downstate jurisdictions.
Dispute Resolution Institute ($89,622.68)
To work with the First, Third and Twentieth Judicial Circuits to develop eviction mediation programs, to survey other southern judicial circuits on potential interest and to serve as the payment center for mediators helping to resolve disputes between tenants and landlords in grant-funded mediation programs.
Resolution Systems Institute ($30,258)
To support the infrastructure and mediator compensation for the Kane County eviction mediation program and the surveying of northern Illinois judicial circuits on their interest in developing their own eviction mediation projects.
Technological Service Delivery Solutions ($277,630)
Coordinated Advice & Referral Program for Legal Services (CARPLS) ($125,000)
To develop a Virtual Assistant/Chatbot to connect people in eviction crisis to legal information, rental assistance and legal aid and mediation programs across Illinois; to coordinate the technology to connect three regional legal aid hotlines; and to develop a website to house all the access channels for Eviction Help Illinois services.
Illinois Legal Aid Online ($48,516)
To develop an SMS text access channel that will direct users who need legal representation to the organization’s Online Triage Intake System (OTIS) to apply for help electronically.
Lawyers Committee for Better Housing ($104,114)
To expand Rentervention, a virtual assistant/chatbot, and its virtual legal clinic to include all of Cook County.