Founded in 1999, the Housing Justice Center (HJC, formerly known as the Housing Preservation Project, or HPP) is a nonprofit public interest advocacy and legal organization whose primary mission is to preserve and expand affordable housing for low income individuals and families.

HJC seeks to prevent the loss of affordable rental housing by conversion to market rate, demolition, foreclosure, and other causes. They also seek to foster expanded affordable housing opportunities. Their work involves a variety of innovative strategies, including:

• Providing technical assistance to local attorneys and tenant advocacy organizations, owners, housing funders, and policy makers
• Negotiating with property owners
• Pursuing litigation to uphold both local and national laws, enforce fair housing and affordable housing planning requirements, and to challenge NIMBYism by local groups opposing affordable housing
• Seeking local and national policy changes through legislative advocacy
• Educating the public about affordable housing issues
• Continual inventory and monitoring of the current supply of affordable housing
• Working with tenant advocacy organizations to organize and empower tenants

HJC attorneys work with tenant and advocacy organizations, public and private housing funders, owners, developers, and policy makers in their efforts to protect and expand affordable housing. Although based in Minnesota, HJC works nationwide.

Foreclosure Relief Law Project

From 2007 through 2012, HJC was home to the Foreclosure Relief Law Project, assembling a team of experienced and skilled legal professionals to develop and implement a multifaceted legal response to the current foreclosure epidemic.  Gaining nationwide recognition, FRLP's cutting-edge work identified and developed viable legal and advocacy strategies which could avert foreclosures and keep homeowners in their homes, and which could help to stabilize neighborhoods by reducing the blighting effects of widespread foreclosures.